A Strategic Copywriting Overview For Your Business.
The power of effective online copywriting should not be underestimated. Persuasive website copy can drive more traffic to your website and increase your conversion rate. Understanding how to leverage your website’s copy is key to ensure your business has an effective marketing strategy.
Writing optimized and compelling website copy doesn’t need to be an overwhelming task. Here’s our copywriting tips to keep your website persuasive, authoritative, and SEO-friendly.
How to Write Compelling Website Copy:
1. Appeal To Emotion
The most successful and memorable marketing campaigns are the ones that make us feel something. I can still recall P&G’s advertisement that aired during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
This advertisement tugs at our heartstrings and taps into past experiences that are widely applicable. Everyone has a mother and the vast majority of people participated in some sort of childhood sport. This advertisement appeals to those memories to invoke a sense of nostalgia and emotion. Aim to convey the same emotional appeal in your online copywriting. Take some time to reflect on how your business can appeal to emotions and be sure to highlight this in your website content.
2. Know Your Audience And Speak Their Language
Who are you writing for? Instead of writing for a target audience, narrow your focus to one ideal reader. Create an avatar of your ideal reader and write your website copy in a way that appeals to them. Here are some questions to ask when creating your avatar:
- Who is my ideal consumer?
- What are their demographics (age, gender, income, education, etc)?
- How do they speak and interact with the world?
- What are their values? What is important to them?
- What do they look for in a company?
- How can my business be of value to them?
Remember, compelling online copywriting doesn’t need to sound like a sales pitch. Our digital lives are packed with advertisements. We have become normalized to advertisements, which makes them easy to tune out. Companies need to be innovative in how they appeal to their audience. Hiding behind professional jargon is only going to get you so far, consumers want real voices. Use the kind of language that your avatar would use. The goal is to engage with your reader in a way that is familiar and comfortable to them.
3. Understand Their Needs
Show your reader that you understand their perspective. They are seeking out your products or services because they have a specific need. Show them that you understand their needs and offer your business as a solution. If your reader feels that you understand their needs, then they will feel more compelled to trust your solution. For example, focus on how your services or products are beneficial rather than listing features. Your reader shouldn’t feel like you’re trying to sell them products or promote your business, they should feel like you’re trying to benefit them!
4. Be Valuable
The online world is filled with an endless amount of content, and you need to convince users that reading your content is the best use of their time. When writing your website copy, appeal to your reader’s needs by providing informative and helpful content. Show your reader that you are a valuable resource!
The goal is to make your reader feel like you are adding value to their lives. Principle of Reciprocity is a powerful psychological effect, where people feel compelled to return the favour after you have done something useful for them. By providing valuable information, you are encouraging the user to reciprocate the action — preferably as a conversion in the desired manner.
5. Be concise
Use your website copy to get straight to the point — no reader has the patience to read something that isn’t essential. Lindsay Kolowich, author of Hubspot article on successful copywriting, highlighted a brilliant copywriting example by Urban Daddy. As seen below, the copy is concise and doesn’t try to present the product as anything other than it is, an elastic gun.
6. Tell Your Reader What To Do
If you want your reader to act, then you need to tell them what to do! Always include a call to action. Make the action clear and concise. Additionally, including words such as now, exclusive, or limited communicate urgency to your reader.
How to Write Website Copy for SEO:
Search Engine Optimization is constantly evolving. According to Dr. Peter J. Meyers at Moz, Google made over 3000 changes to their search engine algorithm in 2018. Every business is fighting for the top-ranking position in Google search results, and it can be overwhelming to keep up with the ever-changing SEO tactics. Although Google hasn’t publicly released their algorithm, SEO experts have agreed on several ways to ensure your website copy is optimized for Google search results.
1. Provide Quality Content To Gain Authority
According to Neil Patel in his article on SEO copywriting, the most important thing that Google considers when ranking your website is quality. Google aims to provide search results that are informative, high-quality content from reliable sources. There is no shortcut here. Writing quality website copy takes time, but is worth the effort in the long run.
Providing quality website content increases your chances of getting backlinks from other sources. That is, other websites are referencing and linking to the information provided on your website. The more backlinks gained from other quality sources, the more authority assigned to that webpage. Receiving backlinks from these sources shows Google that your online copywriting is trustworthy and high-quality, therefore, it is more likely to rank higher in their search results.
2. Research Your Keywords
Keywords are what allows a Google bot to identify the topic of a particular webpage. It is important to choose keywords that are relevant to your website copy. Heather Lloyd-Martin, author of Success Works, noted that website content needs to be seen as a relevant resource that is answering reader’s questions according to their search query. However, you also want to choose keywords that have a high search volume. Do your homework to identify keywords and phrases that are popular in your industry. Using tools, such as Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, can help you identify high volume keywords to use in your digital copywriting.
3. Focus on People
In his SEO copywriting guide, Neil Patel sets the record straight on SEO priorities. Google bots scan websites to determine their ranking in Google search results. Some writers have tried to tailor their website copy to appeal to Google bots, however, this is the wrong approach. Your copywriting needs to appeal to people. Writing website copy tailored for Google bots isn’t effective and alienates your reader in the process. Prioritize writing online copy for your reader, then optimize your content where appropriate.
4. Find the Goldilocks Zone of Keyword Density
The key to successful SEO copywriting is using your keywords enough, but not too much. You want keywords to be placed throughout your website copy in a way that flows naturally. Notice how I casually use the term website copywriting several times throughout this article — it isn’t a coincidence. However, you don’t want to mention your keyword too much (Goldilocks likes things just right!). Keyword stuffing is a tactic where a writer inserts a keyword excessively in their website copy. This often results in website content that is barely readable and won’t win you any favours with Google. In fact, using keyword stuffing can hurt your ranking in Google search results. The SEO optimization tool Yoast, suggests a keyword density between .05% to 3%
5. Use Internal and External Linking
Whenever is a natural opportunity, provide links within your copywriting. If you mention one of your products/services, then provide an internal link to that webpage. The goal here is to make it as simple as possible for your reader to follow through on your suggested action. Additionally, it is important to use external linking. When writing on a topic use external links to reference quality sources or more comprehensive guides for your reader. By having links to both internal and external sources, this demonstrates to Google how your website content is adding value.
There is no quick fix the boosting your website’s SEO. Be patient and consistent with providing high-quality website content. If you’re struggling to perfect your website copy, contact Navigator and we’ll create SEO-friendly website content that drives conversions.
