What is the fundamental difference between traditional and web copywriting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a word, it\u2019s visibility<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When your content appears in print, it\u2019s already in a place to catch a certain audience\u2019s attention. Your copy is visible to whoever decides to flip through your magazine, unfold your letter or shuffle Putting your ad into print is like fishing in a well-stocked pond. It doesn\u2019t guarantee you\u2019ll get a bite, but you\u2019ve at least cast your lure where it will be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing web copy, on the other hand, can feel like dropping words into the middle of the ocean. How can you possibly hope to reach anyone, let alone your ideal prospects, in such vast waters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is a lot simpler than you\u2019d think. Ask yourself: how do you<\/em> find stuff online?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most common answer is Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Search engines are the single biggest source of B2B and B2C website traffic<\/a>, responsible for 61% of all website hits worldwide. Nothing else even comes close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incredibly, only 10% of that is paid search advertising \u2013 meaning 51% of all website visits come from the search results that occur \u2018naturally\u2019 (known as organic search traffic)<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you drill down and look at where all that traffic is coming from, you\u2019ll find that most of it happens on the very first page of search results. In truth, experts estimate that 71% of all Google users hardly ever venture past page one.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n What does all this mean to you as a writer? Simple: if you write content that Google loves, Google will <\/strong>put it front of an audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of drifting aimlessly in the middle of the sea, you\u2019ll be back to casting into a pond that\u2019s full of potential catches. The challenge is convincing Google that your copy is worth showing people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means crafting copy in a way that impresses the search engine algorithm \u2013 the digital mastermind that decides where your webpage should rank for different search queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sounds daunting, doesn\u2019t it? Traditional ad copy plays on the whims and emotions of warm-blooded humans. Search engines are cold, heartless machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Google doesn\u2019t crawl and rank webpages all for itself. Google works for us. It was built to deliver accurate, relevant information and answers to every imaginable query.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, search engines don\u2019t look at a webpage the same way as you or I. Your copy and<\/em> the webpage <\/strong>containing it needs to look a certain way for Google to know what it\u2019s about.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Google loves copy that is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how that translates to practical SEO copywriting. Imagine you\u2019ve bought three books by three totally different authors \u2013 only to discover that beyond the unique covers, each book treads over the exact same content. Such a waste of time (and paper!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019d feel the same way if you clicked through three search results and found largely identical content. To avoid this annoyance, Google strives to fill its search results with pages that provide unique, distinct information.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If a site has two extremely similar pages \u2013 for example, \u2018regular\u2019 and \u2018printer-friendly\u2019 versions with the same copy \u2013 one of them is going to get filtered out. You can tell Google which version you\u2019d prefer to show off in the search results using canonicalization.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But what if your website uses copy that appears elsewhere on the web? Say you\u2019re running an online store that sells other brands\u2019 products. You might\u2019ve considered \u2018borrowing\u2019 some copy from the brand\u2019s website on your own product pages to save time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resist the temptation. Duplicate copy can hurt your site\u2019s search ranking. Google loves original content, even on the most well-tread topics.<\/strong> Search engines are great at picking up patterns. It\u2019s one of the primary ways they process and understand what a webpage (and a website at large) is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a particular word or phrase appears repeatedly throughout a webpage, the crawler clues in. If these terms are also<\/em> surrounded by quality and relevant copy, it increases the odds of that webpage ranking for search queries that use the same important word. Hence the term keyword<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keywords are at the core of SEO copywriting. Enriching your content with well-researched keywords<\/a> is one of the best ways to help it reach the right audience.<\/strong> Have you ever had to speed-read part of a textbook moments before class?<\/p>\n\n\n\n No shame \u2013 we\u2019ve all done it at one point in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take a second to think about how<\/em> you read a page when you\u2019re down to the wire like that. You tend to flip through quickly, skim over paragraphs and focus on things that stand out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not too different from how Google parses a webpage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Search engines are increasingly fond of copy that can be turned into quick \u2018snippets\u2019<\/a> \u2013 and we know for a fact that your layout is key to creating snippet-friendly content.<\/a><\/strong> Think your web copy can stand alone? Think again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visual content is so powerful when it comes to SEO that it\u2019s practically mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To date, Google Image Search has indexed over 10 billion images and stands as the second-biggest search engine<\/a> (earning about 23% MORE searches than YouTube) Incredibly, images also account for about 3% of all Google search clicks via image blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stats on video are equally enticing. One research firm estimates that having a video on a page increases its chance of a top Google ranking by 53%! Another has found that video boosts your organic traffic by as much as 157%.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Video and image files also serve as another clue to the topic of your page in the eyes of the algorithm. You might not give a second thought to your file names and metadata, but this information can really help reinforce the keyword or phrase you\u2019re targeting in your copy. Above all else, Google wants to make its users happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? Because more users mean more advertising revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The people behind Google Search (and competing search engines like Bing) work tirelessly to develop a search engine algorithm that delivers the most accurate, relevant answers to your queries.<\/a> As a result, the system tends to favour content that is more thorough, accurate and digestible than other pages on the same topic.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This doesn\u2019t always mean your copy needs to be longer than your competitors\u2019 pages. Rather, it should deliver more<\/em> information and\/or better<\/em> information (ideally, it does both).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smart keywords, quality visuals and good formatting are all valuable assets when it comes to writing for SEO \u2013 but they\u2019ll fall flat if the copy doesn\u2019t deliver. In fact, Google can even penalize your website if the copy doesn\u2019t live up to the hype.<\/a>
open your newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy SEO Copywriting Matters
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat Google Wants to See in Your Copy
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Make Your Copy One-Of-a-Kind
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Lock-On to Your Target Audience with Keywords
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. Use Headings, Bullets and Lists
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n4. Compliment Your Copy with Awesome Images and Videos
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n5. Be the Authority on Your Subject Matter
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nStart Writing Copy That Google Loves
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