Companies should have a list of in-house strategies to develop their web
presence. How to guides, a strong social media presence and high
keyword content to maximize and improve search engine ranking. Billions
of searches are conducted on the internet each month, proving that
searching for products and services is one of the most popular
activities online, second only to email; searches can turn into
subscribers and buyers.
Keyword phrases are the backbone to developing a higher search engine
ranking, and that all important website traffic. Loading your
copywriting with keywords will not guarantee high rankings. Search
engines and readers of your copy will know if you are using repetitive
phrases and putting them in obscure places.
Copy should have a dual purpose. Firstly, it should provide information
that is valuable to the reader. Secondly, it should contain keyword
strings or phrases that are popular search terms amongst people looking
for your products or services.
How can I maximise keywords without alienating my copy
Effective search engine copywriting tells search engines words that are
the most relevant. Pages or articles should only be optimised with 2 or 3
keyword phrases. Keywords need to be on different paragraphs and
certainly on different sentences.
Computer programmes called search engine spiders, which index website's
content, only see letters, not punctuation, line breaks or bullet
points. Phrases can be split with punctuation hiding it from the reader,
but the spiders will pick it up, giving you the chance of a higher
ranking. You can put your keyword phrase at the end of one sentence and
the second word at the beginning of a sentence, separating them with a
full stop. Example: … that will always be Digital. Development of
certain... the search engines will pick it up, and to the reader it is
separate and natural.
Lists can be powerful as they make for easy reading, and scanning
naturally pulls the reader's attention. Search engines like keywords in
list, but they should still be placed correctly and without becoming
repetitive. Copy should be broke into sections so you can place keywords
in them for example, in a headline, the first sentence, side bar,
navigation bar, and last sentence. This is so it looks natural to the
reader and is optimised best for the spiders.
Keyword pages
Too many keywords on one page can detract from the focus of the content,
as can multiple keywords that are not related. Create separate pages
that are keyword specific, not only is this better for the reader, it
creates a keyword friendly page for search engines.
Another way to get keywords on the same page and keep it looking natural
is with testimonials from positive former clients. These usually have
the name of a product or company name in them, and with permission from
the past client, you could inject a few keywords in there.
Potential customers are online searching for products and services that
you provide, and using keywords and phrases. This is why it is important
that your website has these phrases and keywords, and that they are
picked up by the search engines. Following some of the steps above will
help to maximise keywords per article, without affecting the quality of
your copy.
Random musings from an English writer slogging through the trenches of traditional and self-publishing. Following my attempts to eke a living through creative writing, graphic design, whilst writing the kind of novels I like to read.
