If you’re busy running a business, SEO copywriting may not be at the forefront of your mind. But if you take the time to learn how it’s done, you can help your business to get found online. Want to know more? Here are 7 SEO tips that will help you improve how your business website shows up in search engine rankings.
If you’ve got a website, you’ve probably heard about the benefits of search engine optimisation (SEO) and how it can help your website rank higher in search engines like Google, DuckDuckGo or Bing.
How does it work? Google holds the majority share of search traffic, so many SEO techniques are designed to help you rank in a higher position on Google. It’s worth noting that Google considers hundreds of criteria (known as ‘ranking factors’) when deciding how to rank your website for specific keywords.
In this article, we cover 7 ranking factors that you can focus on to help your business get found online.
One of the most important SEO techniques is to use the same keywords your customers are typing in search engines
SEO keywords are the collection of words and phrases that you embed in your site to boost your search engine ranking. Keywords often relate to the products, services, or topics in your industry and what your customers are searching when they’re looking for services and solutions. When your website is populated with SEO keywords, it’s more likely to be found in search engine results.
To perform SEO keyword research, start with general and obvious terms that apply to your business. It’s worth testing these keywords with an online keyword tool to find other related terms. You should also include ‘long-tail’ keywords that relate to your business– these are longer, more specific clusters of keywords.
Once you’ve made your list, check the keyword search volume and start using these words throughout your site. A rough guide to work with is 2% keyword density. This means that 2% of all words on your site can be keywords. If more than 2% of your website copy is made up of SEO keywords, your strategy could be flagged as spam.
SEO copywriting is the process of using SEO keywords throughout your website content in a meaningful way. With SEO copywriting, you can encourage customers to take certain actions on your website, such as joining a mailing list or making a purchase.
With SEO copywriting, it helps to start with a strong headline that includes SEO keywords, to attract the attention of customers. Compelling headlines help to increase your search engine ranking and encourage customer engagement.
It pays to know who your target audience is and what they like to read. So, in addition to SEO keyword research, take a look at what your competitors are doing and what they’re writing for their audiences. This will give you ideas about what content may work for your own audience.
Yes, you don’t have to take care of copywriting yourself. In fact, if you’re time poor and looking for help with SEO copywriting for your business website, it may make sense to work with an agency. Professional digital marketing services or experienced marketing copywriters can help you write SEO-optimised content designed specifically for your business website.
A responsive website, also referred to as a mobile-friendly website, is a site that responds to different screen sizes across a variety of devices. This means that your website will be visually appealing and functional for customers browsing on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones.
Many website designs already include mobile-friendly features and can scale to a screen of any size. This is essential, as Google’s algorithm will reward responsive websites that deliver great user experiences across multiple devices.
If your website isn’t responsive, you can work with a web developer to optimise your website. It’s also good to check that your website works on all major browsers, including Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
The more you publish relevant content that appeals to your audience, the more you’ll encourage new and repeat visitors to your website. Google in particular is a search engine that likes fresh, relevant content. So much so that its algorithm is built to rank sites higher when they seem to offer more than just marketing promotions and product descriptions.
SEO copywriting is about more than publishing quality content on a regular basis. It’s about making sure you’re publishing a variety of different kinds of content types.
Looking for ideas? You may like to add the following content types to your blog:
Offering a variety of content will keep your blog interesting and relevant and provide your customers with content that they may not find elsewhere. If you plan your business website blog content with variety in mind, you’ll also encourage online customers to keep coming back for more.
When you publish blog content on a regular basis, it sends Google a signal to say that your business website is live and active. Publishing blog posts regularly also allows you to use SEO keywords more often, which will help improve your search engine ranking.
There’s a strong connection between social media and SEO. So, what does this mean if you’re a business that’s trying to reach more customers online? Well, if you don’t make the most of social media platforms, it may negatively impact your search engine ranking.
For example, if you haven’t posted a tweet on Twitter for a long time and you only have 10 followers, your customers will notice this when they search for your business online. This inactivity shows a lack of what is called ‘social proof’, which is why it’s important to maintain your social media presence. While dormant accounts may cause damage to a business’s reputation, active social media accounts help to improve your search engine ranking with social media SEO.
As such, be sure to leverage the power of social media SEO and marketing to help you generate content. Social media promotions will also help you encourage people to share and talk about your business online.
A title tag is the copy that shows up as the link in search results and in your browser’s tabs. Here, it’s good practice to include your brand name and words that are specific to the page. Keep it short so it fits, too.
Writing strong SEO heading tags is one of the most underrated SEO tips. Heading tags tell search engine crawlers important information about page contents.
Use H1 for headlines and H2 for subheadings. H1 is the most important for crawlers, so only use it once per page – think of it as the main headline. Be sure to include your keywords in headings so crawlers can relate your content to your industry with ease.
The terms ‘meta tag’ and ‘meta description’ might sound complicated, but they’re fairly straightforward.
You may have heard of the terms ‘meta tag’ and ‘meta description’ before. And while many business owners are familiar with these terms, we’ll quickly describe them for you now.
Simply put, meta tags and meta descriptions are the two lines of copy that appear beneath your website’s URL in search engine results. If you don’t write clear meta titles and meta descriptions, search engines may populate these spaces with random copy that’s automatically pulled from your website instead, which is not ideal.
Keep your meta description character limit to fewer than 155 characters and make it a call to action, like ‘Find out more about our…’ or ‘Start your no-obligation trial today!’. You can get inspired from other meta descriptions by searching your favourite brands and businesses.
You can update the meta titles and meta descriptions of each page on your website via your content management system (CMS).
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