Maybe you recognize it: you write great copy, but the website visitors stay away. Unfortunately, writing good text does not immediately guarantee high search engine rankings. To attract organic traffic to the website, you need to look beyond good quality text. In this article, we take a closer look at writing good SEO text and a complete SEO strategy. We provide tips to increase your online visibility through SEO-proof texts.
Writing an SEO-proof text
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or search engine optimization, is about improving the organic ranking of your website in search engines. By writing an SEO text, we mean writing in such a way that it contributes to a higher ranking in Google. In addition, good SEO text is tailored to the target audience. After all, increasing the number of visitors to the website is less valuable if these are not people who ultimately want to purchase your product or service. The consequence of attracting quality visitors is a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and thus more interactions, conversions and sales.
Quality visitors increase interactions, conversions and sales in the long run.
So with a good SEO strategy, you can make a valuable contribution to the sales team. It is important to note, however, that this will take a long time. SEO requires a lot of time and optimizations. A Google ranking cannot change overnight. If you are serious about writing SEO copy, assume a long-term strategy.
Start with the target audience
To write a good text, you need to know who the text is being written for. Get to know the target audience and find out what search questions they have. What problems do they encounter in your field? What information are they missing to buy the product? Review search intent, for example, through keyword research. For example, use the handy SEO tool SEMrush. After the research, do not automatically choose the keyword with the most volume, but choose keywords that best match the demand of the target audience.
By responding to the target audience’s doubts and search questions, you eliminate pain points. Persuade them with relevant information.
Pay attention to readability
When you start writing, readability is a relevant factor. By readability, we mean the ease with which you can read a text. For example, consider sentence length, use of jargon, white space, proper sentence structure and headings. Keep sentences short and don’t write too complicated. Guide readers through a text so they want to keep reading. To check the readability of a text, for example, you can use the Yoast SEO plug-in in WordPress.
In addition, come up with a telling title and introduction. Put the focus keyword at the front of both the title, introduction, meta-description and URL as much as possible. Use synonyms of the keyword in the rest of the text to maintain readability.
Yoast SEO
For optimizing a text based on a keyword, Yoast is the most widely used tool in WordPress. In this tool, you enter a focus keyword and the corresponding SEO title and meta-description.
These components must meet a number of requirements to optimize the text for the search engines.
Page titles
Make sure each page has a unique page title, keeping in mind SEO optimizations that can be applied to it:
- 66-70 characters;
- Put the keyword as far forward as possible;
- Do not use duplicate titles.
The title is displayed as a clickable header on the search results page and should accurately and concisely describe the content of the page. In addition, the title is also displayed at the top of the web browser. A good page title can make a positive contribution to the CTR (Click Through Rate) of a search result.
Meta-descriptions
It is important to write a unique meta-description for each page, keeping in mind SEO optimizations that can be applied to it:
- 135-160 characters;
- Put the keyword as far forward as possible;
- End the meta-description with a CTA(Call-To-Action);
- Do not use duplicate meta-descriptions;
- Provide meta-descriptions that grab attention;
- Make meta-descriptions stand out from the competition.
Heads
The H1 tag is the main headline of the page that appears at the top. This tag gives Google an idea of what the text is about. Use keywords in the H1 tag. Keep in mind the SEO optimizations for the H1 tag:
- Use only one H1 tag per page;
- Try to make sure the H1 is as far to the top of the page as possible;
- Put the keyword as far forward as possible;
- Provide a unique H1 tag; do not use the same headline on different pages.
- In addition, use H2s and H3s for a logical structure in the text.
Provide both internal and external links
Google sees a text as more valuable when the content contains both internal and external links. By building a strong internal link structure, you will indicate to Google which pages are the most important. It also helps visitors navigate through the website.
External links, or backlinks, are links from other websites to your site. This radiates authority to Google: apparently your pages are relevant enough to be named for others. Try to build an organic backlink profile. These are backlinks that you don’t pay for, but obtain naturally. So again, writing valuable content is paramount. SEMrush can help build backlinks. The tool indicates which backlinks have good-scoring pages. Associated anchors are displayed, for additional information about the topic. When you know why people use backlinks, you can respond to those specific topics.
Use a Call-To-Action (CTA).
A Call-To-Action (CTA) is a button that encourages visitors to perform a particular conversion. By putting a relevant CTA on each page, you take visitors by the hand to the end goal. Literally call the visitor to action. This could include a download, request for a quote or a purchase. The important thing is to put the right CTA in the right place. Review the purpose of the page and the corresponding customer journey of the target audience. Think about what next step a visitor might want to take. Write short, activating text for the CTA and give the button a different color. This is how the button stands out.
In summary, when writing a good SEO text, you need to consider a number of factors:
- The target audience and associated search questions
- Writing quality and relevant content
- Readability
- Using the keyword strategically in the text
- Internal link structure
- Natural backlinks
- Using an activating CTA
