SEO Copywriting Basics - Response to a Reader

A fellow copywriter recently wrote me asking for general advice on using SEO in your website articles. Here's what I suggested to her:

Thank you for your message and best of luck in your budding copywriting career! It's a great and varied profession where you'll become well versed on any number of topics, and meet a ton of interesting people.

The thing with SEO is this: the longer and more specific the search terms (search string), the more likely you're going to attract pre-qualified visitors. The search engines serve as a word matchup service of sorts.

There are other variables at play which determine where your site stands in the search result ranking for that particular term, yes. But as long as you're publishing articles that cover those terms on a regular basis, faithfully, then your site should do well over time, without having to resort to using a bunch of math equations.

For example, if you're writing about strep throat but you only include the words "strep throat" then you'll be buried among a long list of competitors who are also writing about strep. But if you cover "holistic cures for strep throat" then your page will get visited by people who typed this exact phrase, thus the pre-qualified traffic, meaning "the right traffic."

This is why it pays to drill down deep in whatever subject matter you cover on a site you're writing for/developing. Each article (page) that you publish which includes specific search terms as described, works to match you up with your perfect reader.

So, if you want to drive more traffic on the topic of strep throat, then you should set up a set of articles on your (or your client's) site that look something like this:

• Is Strep Throat a Bacteria or Virus?
• Will Strep Throat Go Away on Its Own
• Natural Cures for Strep Throat
• Should You See a Doctor for Strep Throat?
• What are the Complications of Strep Throat
• Strep Throat No Antibiotics

As you can see, the headlines are completely straightforward and "non-creative." To beef them up, you can either slip in extra fluff words, or put them after the colon.

So, your "Strep Throat No Antibiotics" headline could become "Strep Throat, No Antibiotics: What are the Consequences?" which seems slightly more compelling.

Or, that same headline could read: "Strep Throat, No Antibiotics: Mistake of Your Life, or No Big Deal?" - That is, if you're going for the more dramatic effect of using hypey wording which could work for or against you depending on the overall tone you plan to use for the site that you're working on.

Well, I hope this sets you on the right path to copywriting using SEO in order to get found online. I have a lot of fun with it and I think you will, too!

One of the reasons I rely on content packs is because you can purchase a series of articles that pretty much already contain the commonly searched terms for any particular topic. Makes it really easy to tweak the headlines and articles, punching up where needed, adding your own voice and brand.

I hope this has helped you!