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SEO Copywriting Tips for Google, Yahoo and your Prospects
By Angela Charles, President, Pilot Fish (c) 2008

It might not seem logical, but a web site that's well-written
for human consumption with a little SEO help usually is also
well-received by the robots of search engines like Google and
Yahoo.

So, what does "well-written" mean?  Here are some tips to good
SEO copywriting for Google, Yahoo and site visitors.

SEO Copywriting Tips – How to Write Great Web Site Content

   • Keyword research: This topic deserves a whole article on
     its own, but suffice to say that you'll want to base your
     site content on the keyword terms that you know are most
     popular among the audience you're trying to reach. There
     are online tools available that can help you determine the
     right keywords for your company. Among them are WordTracker
     and Keyword Discovery.

   • One topic per page: If your company makes 5 different
     products, you'll need to devote at least one page per
     topic.

   • Details, details: Each topic should be covered in enough
     detail that the site visitor can determine whether to
     contact you for more information. From an SEO standpoint,
     the more detail you provide on each topic, the more easily
     the search engines will be able to determine the relevance
     of your site to that keyword.

   • Kill the sales brochure: Internet users don't appreciate
     going to your web to find only a sales brochure. Avoid
     flowery language; it usually signifies a page that's light
     on content and heavy on sales pitch, which the search
     engines won't rank well. Good SEO copywriting will focus on
     objective facts about your company's products and services,
     with a call-to-action for more information.

   • Create a content hierarchy: The more detail, the better,
     but be considerate of your site visitors' time. Good SEO
     copywriting separates content into multiple pages and
     creates a hierarchy for your pages with most important
     information first, least important last. The most important
     pages you'll want on your navigation bar, with lesser pages
     linking off those. Make sure you include a site map, though,
     that lists all your web site's pages.

   • Keyword density: In order for search engines to be able to
     rank your pages for a particular keyword, that keyword has
     to be used on your page. At the same time, the more often
     you use it, the more relevant the page will seem. ONE
     CAVEAT:  Don't go overboard. Writing should sound natural
     to the human visitors you're trying to reach. Search engines
     can penalize you for "overoptimizing" by using the keyword
     too often (known as keyword stuffing or spamming).

Types of Content to Consider for Your Company Web Site

Part of the SEO copywriting process is project planning. It's
important to take the time to consider what information people
would want to know about your company. Here are some types of
content well received by Internet visitors and search engines:

   • Product details, including features/benefits,
     specifications, data sheets, diagrams, flow-charts, video
     demonstrations and photos (with alt tags, see below)
   • Technical tips, product troubleshooting guides, user manuals
   • Customer testimonials, case studies
   • Industry definitions
   • Product selection guides, comparative information

Advice on Adding PDFs to your Site

Search engines have become more sophisticated in being able to
index varying file types. PDFs work fine for information that
site visitors might want to print out and keep. But, if you use
PDFs, make sure they open in a separate browser. Also, add a
link to your home page somewhere on each PDF; otherwise, site
visitors that enter your site from a search engine via the PDF
won't have navigation to take them to the rest of your site.

Where to Get Ideas for Good SEO Content

Type your top keywords into Google and Yahoo and see what sites
and pages come up on the first or second page of results. This
will give you a good idea of some of the content that search
engines like. More specifically, take a look at:

   • Competitor sites
   • Industry portal sites
   • Industry magazine sites
   • Resource sites

See what types of content they provide that your site could
emulate (not copy).

Other On-Page SEO Copywriting Tips

Once your content is written, it's time to place it on the page.
Here are some additional details you'll need to be concerned
with to complete the SEO copywriting process:

   • Title tags: Make sure each page title tag is unique and
     complements the content of that page. For instance, if your
     page is about "blue suede shoes", then your title tag might
     be "Blue Suede Shoes | ABC Company"

   • Description tags: Likewise, you'll want each page
     description tag to be unique and complementary to the page
     it describes. This is the information that many of the
     search engines use to display a description of your page.

   • Keyword tags: Most search engines have de-emphasized use of
     the keyword tag, but we feel it's a useful tool to help you
     organize your site content. If you followed the advice above
     regarding one topic per page, then your keyword tag would be
     pretty short and limited to that topic. It'll probably have
     more than one term in it as there might be multiple ways to
     describe the topic, but this is a good check that you're in
     the process of writing a well-optimized page.

   • Alt tags: You can use the meta alt tag to help search
     engines interpret what your nav buttons and images are
     about. Search engines can't "see" images, so unless you
     specifically tell them, that information will be ignored.
     If you have a picture of blue suede shoes, use the Alt tag
     to label it as "blue suede shoes."

   • Internal linking: Build your keyword phrases into the links
     on your pages that are used to navigate from page to page.
     For instance, a call to action might be "Contact ABC Company
     for more information about our blue suede shoes," with the
     phrase "more information about our blue suede shoes" as the
     link. Avoid using "click here" as the link.

I've created quite a to-do list of SEO Copywriting Tips, but
when done properly, your SEO copywriting efforts will help yield
long-term results in the way of top placement on Google and
Yahoo and, most importantly, increased opportunity to reach new
potential customers.
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Angela Charles is president of Pilot Fish, an Akron, Ohio,
search engine optimization and web design firm
(http://www.pilotfishseo.com/) specializing in industrial clients.
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