Content may be king, but the content and website copywriting has to be good to develop an audience. It includes not only the best topical optimization but also the strategic usage of user sentiment for each page.
But how exactly do you develop great content and website copy? We will walk you through the major elements you want to include in your page structure to make your content appealing for readers and optimized for the search engines.
Learn how Milestone uses this framework to develop and deliver digital content for its customers.
Start with keyword and topic research
Before you start copywriting, have a solid understanding of what your target audience wants to learn about and why. Research not only keywords, but also the topics surrounding those keywords and what pain points customers may want to address when they perform this specific type of research. You want your content to address these needs and provide your audience with a reason to read your material and then engage with your brand. Popular SEO topic research tools include SEMRush and Google Ads Planner.
Your keyword and topic research will provide you with the core of your content so that you know what you will write about and how you want to optimize it as your write.
Find a website copywriter or experienced blog writer
You may have internal resources, but they are usually busy with other projects. You might hire an firm like Milestone to write for you, or you can look at contactor platforms, like Upwork, Fiverr, and WorkGenius for website copywriting talent. Once you find someone you like to work with, set up a long-term plan with them so you have consistent writing and style.
Show empathy to the readers and demonstrate that you understand their problems
As you begin to write the content, you want to demonstrate your empathy and understanding to your reader. Let them know that you grasp their pain points and can offer them the information they seek. You can demonstrate this empathy through the language you choose and how you structure your material.
Begin with thoughtful headlines
Each headline should articulate what you will explain in a clear, scannable way. Make it easy for readers to know what you will discuss and why they need to care about this topic
Provide plenty of subheadlines
Use your subheadlines to create clear sections that delve into different parts of the topic at hand. It will help break up your content so that customers can quickly digest the information.
These subheadings should be paired with shorter paragraphs. The shorter paragraphs help people read your material online and understand your ideas. Long walls of texts tend to get ignored.
Cover your topic thoroughly
People have become accustomed to content that can clearly articulate the topic at hand; they do not want to waste time reading short pieces that do not answer many of their questions and provide little depth.
Since Google also wants to highlight articles that do a good job of reaching the target audience, articles that provide valuable depth also perform better on the SERPs. Generally speaking, aim for about 1200 words or more to give you the space to thoroughly articulate your ideas.
At the same time, you do not want to use language that creates hard-to-read articles that people will not fully understand. Aim to write about the reading level of a 9th grader, watching your sentence structure and vocabulary choices. You can use a text grader to help you see where your writing naturally falls and how to make adjustments to hit that level. Remember your audience: busy professionals not academics.
Similarly, keep in mind non-native readers. Most US sites are seeing significant traffic from India as many US workers are now based in India.
This is particularly true for those in the hospitality industry and other industries that regularly deal with people in other countries. Make sure your content can be easily digested by this audience as well.
Think about how the content will look on mobile
Do not forget the importance of mobile when evaluating your content. Over 54 percent of internet traffic comes from mobile devices, which means that your customers will interact with your material on their devices. You want to make sure that it looks appealing on these smaller screens and that they can still easily digest it. You should directly check the content you publish on your mobile phone so that you see exactly how these mobile customers will see it.
Use a consistent grammar and style
The grammar and writing style you use in your content will greatly impact your brand perception. If you use a more formal type of writing style, then you create a brand perception of being more authoritative. On the other hand, if you want to create a more friendly, approachable brand, then you will want to reflect this in your writing.
Regardless of the style you use, you should keep track of a few best practices.
- Make sure you eliminate errors and check your grammar properly
- Use modern grammar to make sure that your writing speaks clearly to your audience
- Use the active voice and verbs to draw in people’s attention and make your writing more interesting
- Use rich and evocative adjectives. Again, this makes your writing more interesting and gives people a reason to keep coming back to your material.
- Be consistent. However you determine your brand writing style and grammar conventions, make sure you maintain consistency across your content. Failing to do so can make your material appear less professional or unified.
Grammar is part of accuracy and SEO trustworthiness, pages with poor grammar will be penalized with lower SEO visibility.
Think about the page design and layout
As you produce the content, you also cannot neglect the page design and layout. You want to fill the page with helpful material for the visitor, so including features like 5-10 FAQs can help.
Marking these FAQs with FAQ schema can also let Google know about the material you have produced and increase the chances of your answer appearing as an answer to a question in a ‘People Also Ask’ box on Google, which improves your SEO visibility and clickability.
To make the page more interesting and encourage people to keep reading, you can also use elements such as pull quotes and inserts. Highlighting particular parts of text can help draw the eye and better engage the target audience.
If you use pagination, make sure the next control icons are clear and easy to use on both desktop and mobile.
Your page design should also incorporate original photos and imagery that captures your key ideas and draws in the user’s eye. You only have about 20 seconds to capture the attention of people who land on your page, so use the elements that will help you succeed.
Bake the SEO into your copywriting
Finally, you want to make sure your page is well optimized, but this should get baked directly into the content-creation process rather than serving as an afterthought.
- As you build the site, make sure the pages load fast. This means optimizing your images and your site elements to improve the page load speed. Google has said that load speed directly impacts rankings.
- Create fresh and unique content. You want your materials to add your expert voice to the conversations, your content should present your unique point of view and information to offer customers.
- Include internal and external links. As you produce your content, you want to both demonstrate to the search engines how your different material is related and you want to encourage customers to move around the site. Therefore, build your content with both types of links that can help support your material and build a community.
Conclude each piece with a clear CTA
Finally, as you finish each piece, make sure that the audience knows what to do next. If you want them to click through to another page, then have that link readily available and encourage them to make the click. If they should register for something, tie the CTA language closely with your content and make it easy to complete the registration.
Building content success requires doing more than copywriting regularly. Your content must have a consistent development process that encourages the audience and aligns your material with their needs. If you follow these ideas outlined as you copywrite and create your content, you will start to see a difference in how people respond to your material.
Download the Milestone grammar guideline.
FAQs about copywriting for SEO
What does good website copy do?
Good website copy will fully engage the reader and encourage them to interact with the brand. The copy successfully understands the needs of the different audience members and addresses their concerns.
The copy should also be optimized for SEO so that it increases the visibility of the website on the SERP. The content can work to earn those rankings by exploring the highlighted topic in depth while also using targeted keywords that the reader wants to explore.
What is page design and layout?
Page design and layout refer to how you organize the different elements on your page. For example, it will impact how you write and structure your content as well as your placement of menus, images, logos, and anything else that is on your page. You want to optimize your page so that customers find it visually appealing and want to engage with the material you create.
What are the elements of page design?
The core elements that you want to pay attention to in page design are:
- How you use color on your page
- How you use text on your page, including the font and styles you select
- The graphics you select to go on your page
- How you use white space on your page
Your page design then explores how you create a visual flow within the page. In other words, how do you encourage the readers’ eyes to move from one element to the next. Alongside your visual flow, you will also need to pay attention to how you group these elements and how you align them to create visual lines within the page.
How do I make a good website layout?
A good website layout encourages your readers to engage with the entire page, including consuming the text and then clicking on any calls to action. Therefore, you want to pay attention to a few important elements:
- Make sure your page uses white space well so that you do not overwhelm your readers
- Use textual layouts that make it easy for people to scan, no walls of text.
- Make it clear what you want the reader to do when they finish reading your content
- Keep the page layout simple so that the eyes focus on the major elements
Keeping these concepts in mind can go a long way in creating a successful website layout.
How do I make my website unique?
To make your website stand out you want to make sure you accurately reflect your unique value proposition. Let customers know what makes your business different from all of the others in your industry.
You also want to make sure your website is regularly updated so that it engages customers and encourages them to regularly return to see what else you have posted. It also helps you remain current on customer interests and demands so you serve as their trusted resource and can align your business model with industry trends.
Copywriting for the website with SEO in mind from start to finish will produce copy that is right for both the consumers and the search engines.
Milestone increases acquisition by enhancing digital experience and increasing content visibility. Contact us at [email protected] or call us at 408-200-2211.
See our related blog, 6 Secrets to Top-Converting Websites.
