If you want to generate leads online, you’ll need to have great SEO copywriting skills. SEO copywriting is where you write content that targets a specific keyword or keywords to help Google understand the content and rank it highly.
To rank highly in Google, you’ll need to follow the technical aspects of SEO but you’ll also need to ensure that you create good, readable content for your potential customers. Gone are the days where you could write articles stuffed with keywords that didn’t read well.
So what can you do to improve your SEO copywriting skills? Here are 7 things you should always do when you’re writing content for your site.
1. Choose your title carefully
Title tags are one of the most important on-page ranking factors. That means that you need to ensure that the keyword you’re targeting is in the title. Make sure it contains between 50-60 characters so it’s not cut off in searches.
2. Use headings and subheadings
H tags are HTML attributes that you use to define headings in order of importance. For example, H1 headings are most important, followed by H2 and so on. To rank highly, you should have only one H1 heading on each page.
The best thing to do is to include your primary keyword in your H1 heading, followed by related keywords in your H2-H6 subheadings.
3. Use your keyword in your URL
It’s a small factor, but using your keyword in your URL slug is a good idea. Google will read and understand the URL, so it’s worth doing. Keep the slug short and make sure it’s readable.
4. Don’t overuse your keywords
As mentioned above, keyword stuffing no longer works. Google ranks content that is relevant and readable, and content that overused keywords will not rank well. Best practices include using related keywords throughout your article and in headings. Also, try to add in terms that other top pages in Google use.
5. Use outbound links
Using outbound links to relevant and authoritative sites is a must to rank in Google. Make sure the links make contextual sense though, and that they add value for your readers. Again, it’s important that you don’t stuff links into articles as this could backfire.
6. Craft a great headline
Headlines aren’t a direct ranking factor, but they encourage someone to click on your article. So you want to make sure you’ve got the best headline you can come up with.
A study by Moz found that numbers headlines work best – just like the headline of this article!
7. Add a meta description
There’s a bit of debate about meta descriptions. They are the descriptions that appear under the title of the article in search engines. Some sites that do exceptionally well don’t use them, and some experts say you can still rank without them.
But since they take a few seconds to write, you may as well add meta descriptions to your articles. Make sure they fit in the space, which is around 155 characters. It’s also a great idea to add emotive words and a call to action, and make it relevant to the search intent of your target keyword.
If you take these SEO copywriting tips into account when you’re constructing your content, you’ll soon see yourself ranking higher in Google. Ensure you choose your keywords wisely and you’ll start seeing free leads coming in – you could even end up being able to make affiliate marketing your full time job.
