or one that sells…

If you want all three we can help you, but it’s your choice.

There are several factors that decide how well your site ranks with the search engines. One of them is search engine optimised (seo) copy. So, if you’re looking for well-written copy that assists with search engine ranking AND that sells, then we can help.

1. Don’t sacrifice effective selling copy in order to rank well – you need both!

Some seo copywriters sacrifice the selling effectiveness and communication component of their copy just to get a good search engine ranking. Don’t do it! It’s a waste of time and money. There’s no point having thousands of visitors to your site if you can’t convert any of them into customers. Make sure you hire an seo copywriter who can write to sell as well.

2. Get ahead of your competition

With professional seo copywriting your website can be an effective tool for gaining more business; for communicating with your existing and potential customers; and for selling more of your products and services.

3. Ask us about other seo strategies…

At The Copywriter Online we can advise you on other techniques and strategies that you can employ to legitimately raise your search engine profile. Contact us today and ask us for a quote to write seo copy and web content for your website. Read our testimonials to see what our customers think of us.

1. What is the copywriting for? – Brochure, website, advertisement,  blog etc.
2. Is it for a product or a service?
3. Every possible relevant detail about the product or service, including but not limited to, what it is, what it does, how you sell it – direct, party plan, MLM etc., what it costs, what colours and sizes it comes in, what its benefits are, why it is better than your competitors’ products and services.
4. What is your unique selling proposition? What sets you and your product or service apart from everyone else?
5. What is your target market? – the more detail here the better
6. If the copy is for a website then who is going to research your keywords?
7. What are the keywords?
8. What keyword density and what length of copy are you looking for?
9. How many pages do you need written?
10. Do you have a deadline? What is it?
11. What style of writing are you looking for? – formal, casual, folksy, cool etc.
12. Provide information about you and your company such as how long you have been in business, where you are located, where you can ship to etc.
13. What is your budget? – this is often a contentious issue but it pays to be upfront about it. Most reputable copywriters will tell you whether they can do the work within your budget or not and won’t “pad it out” so that it takes more that it should. What’s more it saves both your time and theirs  to know at the outset if they feel they cannot work within your budget.

I hope this list helps. It isn’t exhaustive but it should help both you and your copywriter to understand the project better.

Search Engines Love Keyword Headings

Whenever you use the heading tags such as

and

etc., make sure that your headline contains some of your most important keywords. Having said that, don’t ignore your readers. Make sure that your headlines are eye-catching, relevant and contain your keywords.

Don’t forget your real audience

I’ve said this before but I think it bears repeating – remember that while search engines are important they are NOT your customers! There’s no point ranking No1 on Google and having no conversions. Better to rank lower and have good sales copy

If you need any help you know where to come

How to cut costs without impacting new business opportunities

At The Copywriter Online we’re always looking for ways to help businesses gain new business and maintain current business relationships in an efficient and cost-effective way. That’s why we’re introducing our new editing service.

Save money without losing impact or SEO effectiveness!

OK, so you don’t have much time and you don’t have scads of money to throw about for snappy, SEO, sales-oriented copywriting. Our new service is just for you! You write the basic copy, give us a list of your keywords (if it’s for web copy) and let us massage your copy into effective,interesting and engaging copy. Whether you need a web page, a newsletter, a blog or a brochure, we can edit your copy to more effectively deliver your message.

Use your keywords to refine your prospects and increase your rank

For example if you are printer who specialises in variable data printing then use the phrase “variable data printing” in your keyword metatags as well as in your copy. There are thousands of hits each day for printing but less than a hundred for “variable data printing”*. If you have the right saturation of this phrase then chances are when people search for you, you’ll be closer to the top than those who use it once and/or use the generic “printing” keyword. What’s more you know that more of your website visitors are qualified prospects.

*according to seobook.com’s keyword tool.

We need seo!

So they either delegate someone to research it or they contract an seo company to do it for them. But this is putting the cart before the horse (to use a pre-tech age metaphor) because the next step will be  – “what keywords do we need?”.  Then large amounts of energy, time and money will be poured into extracting the most popular keywords. Trust me, you really don’t want that! Why?

Do you really want thousands of unqualified leads?

Of course you don’t. But if you just go with the most popular keywords then that’s what you’ll get. Seo is your chance to select your web visitors based on their needs matching your offering. This is a golden opportunity to find qualified leads. Don’t squander it!

Make seo an integral part of your marketing and sales planning

Presumably you conduct market research for other, non-web promotions so why not use what you’ve learnt about your potential customers to craft your seo efforts to bring you qualified leads? Compile your keyword list based on your customer profile; on what they are looking for; on the needs they have that you can fulfill.

Let you customers self-select

That’s why seo isn’t add-on. Or shouldn’t be. It should be part of your overall marketing intelligence. Seo is your opportunity to let your customers self-select for relevance and a good match with your services. Don’t waste it!

An image isn’t worth a thousand words to a search engine!

Search engines deal with words. So if your site is all images and few words you are putting yourself behind the eight ball. Search engines NEED words. They feed on words in an effort to digest your website and rank it according to its relevance for certain keywords. If your site relies too heavily on images then your search engine ranking can suffer as a result.

The marriage of images and words – how to make it harmonious

Images and words complement each other. The images engage your visitors’ attention and the words sell your product or service. In addition, the words help your potential customers to find you via the search engines. It is important that you tell your story in an engaging and interesting fashion while maintaining the correct keyword density (between 3 and 5 percent). In addition, make use of the alt tags for the images using keywords that are relevant to the image. Image naming is also important. Many visually impaired people use screen readers. “Sportscar.jpg” is much more evocative than “135009.jpg”!

Don’t fall into the keyword mania trap!

I have seen sites where the text makes no sense because it has been written with only one type of visitor in mind – the search engine robots, crawlers and spiders. This may make this site number one on Google for the keyword search and they may get thousands of visitors but do they get conversions? I know of at least one company that pays large sums of money to an seo company to produce gobbledy gook, search engine specific text, that ranks number 1. Yet when I asked them how many enquiries and conversions they got from their website it was fewer than the Yellow Pages!

Write for both types of visitors – search engines and humans!

You have to remember that you have two types of visitors. Humans who want you to speak to them and show you understand their needs and how to help them. And search engines who want to find relevant keywords and follow links. If you make life easy for both these visitors you’ll have a successful site! (Here’s the plug!) A professional seo, web content copywriter can help you satisfy both sorts of visitors.