How to Create Search Engine Friendly Web Site Copy
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How to Create Search Engine Friendly Web Site Copy

By: Cecil-eclicks

Search engines read text and not much else. Because they cant generally index

graphics, search engines rely on the text in web sites to provide information

about the site content, which they can compare with search queries.

Webmasters therefore need to use body text on any pages on the site that they

want indexed by the search engines and ranked highly for matching search

queries. Not graphical text that was created in design software, but actual,

visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good

rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try

and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over

individual words in the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this

is body text and the search engines can read it.

The most important page on which to use body text is the home page. Above is

an example of a home page that uses graphical text instead of body text.

Figure 1 shows what content the site visitors see, while Figure 2 shows the

content a search engine sees and indexes.

How much information about a site's content does a page like the one above

provide a search engine? That's right, very little. With next to no text to

be found, the search engine would have to rely on the pages Title and META

Tags to tell it what the page is about. With such little information to go on,

it is unlikely that a search engine would consider this page a relevant

match for search queries relating to its content. To remedy this, it is

widely recommended that each web page you want listed in search engines

should contain at least 250 words of visible body text.
Keyword-Rich Text

While it's a good idea to use plenty of body text on web pages, if that text

doesn't contain relevant keywords and phrases that people type in to the

search engines, there's not much point, because a site isn't going to be

found for logical search queries anyway. Many web sites make the mistake of

including text on their site that is either unrelated to their products and

services, or full of marketing-speak like Internet solutions or superior

services. The Internet is plagued with web sites selling particular items

without once making reference to those items in their site text. Weird huh?

For a search engine to find a site relevant for a particular search query, it

MUST find that search query somewhere in that site. The easiest way to ensure

this is to include logical keywords and phrases within the visible text on

web pages, as well as in the Title and META tags. The best way for webmasters

to find keywords that searchers are actually using is by conducting keyword

research of their target market on a site such as Keyword Discovery or

WordTracker.

Once it is determined what search terms perspective visitors are commonly

typing in to search engines, they can then be compared to the goods and

services offered on the site and the body text can be adjusted accordingly.

Sites lacking any keyword research tend to use very generic, unfocused body

copy, or sales-oriented hype. Neither style contributes to high search engine

rankings.

Target keywords and search phrases placed strategically throughout your body

copy give your pages a much higher ranking potential on search engines for

related searches. But it's not as easy as throwing the keywords into your

site text willy-nilly. You must ensure that the keywords are integrated

seamlessly so their repetition is unobvious and so that the text flows

smoothly for the reader.

Don't compromise the readability of your copy to achieve this - hire an

expert copywriter to strike the right balance if need be.

SEO Copywriting

Before writing your web site copy, you should research potential keywords and

phrases that your target audience may use in search engines and then narrow

the list down to your priority terms for each page, sorted in order of

importance. You should then use those target search terms as a basis for the

creation of optimized Title and META tags for each page on your site. Once

you've done that, it's time to integrate those same target search terms into

your visible web page copy. We call this SEO copywriting. But exactly how do

we do it?

Speak to Your Audience

Don't lose site of the reader when writing your body copy. Integrating your

keywords is important, but not if you are sacrificing the readability of your

site and losing the attention of your audience. Put yourself in their shoes

like you did when researching your keywords. What are they looking for? What

do they need? How will your product/service help them? Does it represent

value for money?

Be emotive when describing your products and services. Describe how your

product/service will make them feel or look, how it will improve their lives,

give them more time etc. Use trigger words that people respond to such as

free, success, you, cash etc. Not sure what these are? Check out Words That

Sell reports. These reports are perfect if you are targeting a specific

industry or profession because they define what keywords people in over 38

industries respond to and what they expect when making a buying decision.

Not sure who your audience is or what they're looking for? Why not ask them?

Use a free survey service such as Survey Monkey to learn more about them so

you can write to them. You could even draft various styles of body copy and

obtain feedback from your site visitors to determine what copywriting style

works better for them.

Use Easy to Understand Language

The Internet is no place for verbosity. People are in a hurry - they want to

find what they seek quickly and easily with the least hassle possible. You

can help them in this quest by ensuring your site pages use simple language

and easy to grasp concepts throughout. For example instead of "brand-building

web information architects", use "website designers specializing in brand

promotion". Keep the large chunks of text on each page to a minimum, using

bullet points, white space, graphics, lists and sub-headings to break it up

and make it easier to read. This rule of thumb is especially important when

creating landing pages for pay per click and other advertising campaigns.

Use examples to get your main points across or to demonstrate your product

benefits. Use the old WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) adage when composing your

body copy to keep the user's interests at top of mind. Remember your

international visitors by incorporating regional word usage (such as organize

versus organize or jewelry versus jewellery) and avoid technical jargon that

could alienate. Want your visitor to take a particular action? Spell it out

for them in plain English, for example Click here to Buy Now, Subscribe to

our free newsletter, Bookmark this page now etc. These references are called

Calls to Action.

Build Your Copy Around Your Keywords

You should always build your page copy around your keywords and not the other

way around. If your existing page copy doesn't contain any of your target

search keywords, you're going to have to rewrite it! Start from scratch if

you have to. The secret is to focus. Search engines aren't going to rank your

web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You

need to get specific. It sounds really obvious, but if you sell socks, make

sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! If you sell

green wool socks, target the phrase "green wool socks" and not "foot apparel

in lovely shades of emerald"! Who's going to search for socks using that

phrase?

At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks,

small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better

still, sort your copy into categories based on your various products and

services. If you sell wool socks AND cotton socks, then have a page dedicated

to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and

meet the search engine's relevancy guidelines for related search queries.

Keyword Integration

So imagine you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well

for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases and now you're

faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your copy. So how do

you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the

copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.

Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes

in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home

page copy read like this:

"We specialize in providing vacations for people who want a personal service.

We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity.

We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which

justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers.

We can put together packages that include all adventure activities,

accommodation, transport and food".

Extensive Keyword Discovery keyword research for the client had determined

that the site should target the following key phrases:

adventure travel
best adventure vacations
tailored travel
overseas adventure travel
luxury travel packages

So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these

keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the

copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:

"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want

a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical

obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-

going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of

the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together

luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation,

transport and food".

Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "

adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site

contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy

because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the

visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the

client's target search terms.

Now it's your turn to go tackle your web site copy!

Article Source: http://articlenexus.com

Article by Eclicksmarkets, a top Search Engine Optimisation Company based in Singapore. Our SEO Consultants provide ethical SEO services to boost your Search engine ranking. Visit us at www.eclicksmarkets.com

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