Introduction to SEO Copywriting
May 25, 2009 by Melissa Donovan
When I first started working as a website copywriter, I knew relatively little about search engine optimization (SEO). I understood that keywords open the door to search engine traffic, but I didn’t realize just how much effort was involved in successfully finding and implementing those keywords using SEO.
In hindsight, I entered the SEO copywriting niche almost by accident. Back then, I provided general copywriting services for online and for print. As I settled into my new found profession and increasingly focused on web content writing, I noticed that I was receiving more and more requests for “keyword articles.”
The premise was simple: Write an article (or ten) and use a particular keyword or keyword phrase a predetermined number of times. Some clients wanted the keyword to appear five times in an article. Others specified that the keyword must appear in bold, headings, italics, or near the beginning of a paragraph. Often, the keyword also had to be included in the title.
These assignments made me curious, so I started researching SEO to better understand my clients’ goals. After realizing how SEO could positively impact traffic to a website, I started testing SEO copywriting on my own sites, and finding the endeavor successful, I eventually added SEO services to my repertoire.
What is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is the practice of writing material for online publication that uses keywords strategically in order to attract traffic from search engines. The most targeted search engine is Google.
Ideally, extensive research is conducted to determine which keywords are a good fit for the website to which you want to draw traffic. This should be done before the SEO copy is written.
Also, there should be a strategy for implementing the keywords not just in the copy, but in the website’s code.
Understanding Keywords
Many business owners request written copy for their website and when asked about keywords, they just list keywords off the cuff, without truly understanding that in website copywriting, a keyword is more than a word from the dictionary that relates to your website or your business.
For example, a restaurant owner might suggest the keyword “food.” I don’t even have to research this keyword to know that it’s highly competitive, and it probably would be impossible for a small business to rank on a search engine for this keyword. Also, it’s extremely nonspecific. Folks searching for “food” could be looking for a grocery store, recipe, or dietary information. In fact, I’d guess it’s quite unlikely that a searcher looking for “food” is actually seeking a restaurant.
Keywords can’t be pulled out of thin air, and website or business owners should never make assumptions about keywords. Take an entrepreneur who calls herself a beautician. She’s attached to that title and requests it as a keyword in her site without doing any research. Would she be interested to learn that the keyword “beautician” generates about 110,000 searches per month through Google alone?
How would she feel about her keyword choice if she learned that “hairstylist” gets 165,000 searches a month? Or if she were to discover that “hair stylist” (two words) gets 368,000 searches?
Imagine her surprise when she finds out that “hairdresser” is searched 823,000 times a month.
Which keyword should she use?
Keywords, SEO, and Assumptions
It’s easy to assume that the beautician should target the keyword “hairdresser” because it gets the most searches. However, a good SEO continues to ask questions.
- How competitive is the keyword?
- How much research, copywriting, and other resources will it take to rank for this keyword?
- Can my business handle the amount of traffic that this keyword could potentially draw?
A large chain of salons might have the budget and resources to hire an extensive SEO campaign in the tens of thousands of dollars. Such a chain could also handle the number of customers that a massive campaign could attract.
However, an independent, self-employed beautician may prefer another strategy. It could be more beneficial to rank high for a beautician-related keyword that gets a lower number of searches and for which it will take less time and resources to achieve high rankings. This is especially true if she is intent on remaining independent and cannot handle a clientele roster that numbers in the tens (or hundreds) of thousands.
The Art of SEO Copywriting
The actual practice of SEO copywriting involves writing copy that contains keywords. This is neither as simple nor as straightforward as it sounds.
A good copywriter knows that the first priority is to create copy that compels. That means understanding the primary intent. Should this copy incite website visitors to buy a product? Encourage them to hire someone for a service? Register for membership? Click to another page?
Compelling copywriting is clear and easy to read. It speaks to the target customer and it is concise. Usually, it’s formatted to be scanable. Often, it’s balanced with descriptive and interesting images (or video).
Keywords have to fit into good copywriting, and this is tricky writing. If you build copy around keywords, then the copy will be keyword-driven rather than customer-oriented. A talented or skillful SEO copywriter knows how to work keywords into great copy, much like a chef works herbs and spices into a gourmet recipe.
Hiring an SEO Copywriter
The goal of SEO copywriting is to increase a website’s rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). A professional SEO copywriter understands this and wants her clients to succeed.
A good SEO copywriter may or may not provide keyword research and other SEO services. Some copywriters only do the writing. However, any professional SEO copywriter has a thorough understanding of how SEO works.
When you hire a copywriter, you may already have a list of keywords. Perhaps you hired a professional SEO and just need someone to write the copy. Or maybe your site has been optimized for some time and now you just want to update the written content.
In any case, both an SEO copywriter and a client should understand that SEO is not as simple as plucking keywords from one’s vocabulary and then casually applying them to written copy.
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Web Content Development 101
May 11, 2009 by Melissa Donovan
Web content development is the process of building and maintaining an online presence.
It usually starts with your website, but web content can include any online content that represents you or your business. It consists of text, images, audio, and video that live on the Internet.
Establishing an online presence can be challenging, and it can be fun. If approached thoughtfully, it can be quite helpful in terms of marketing your business.
In other words, smart web content development can lead to success. And if a business operates mostly or entirely online, content development can make or break it.
The Importance of Web Content Development
Almost every day I am confronted with websites that were not properly developed. In some cases, it’s unclear what the website’s purpose is – the concept has not been clearly established. In other cases, the content is out of sync with the design – the planning and building were poorly executed. Many more are outdated, and have never been maintained.
Businesses that take their online presence seriously, and want to establish a strong hold in the online market must take web content development seriously.
Whether you need a simple, three-page website or an elaborate site packed with content, you will find the process easier and more fruitful if you take the time to develop content that works, content that helps your business reach its goals.
The Five Phases
There are five basic phases in the web content development process. Each phase can be broken down into smaller stages, and each of these could take several weeks or several months, depending on how extensive you want your online presence to be.
- Conceptualize
- Plan
- Build
- Launch
- Maintain
Each phase is critical. Leave one out, and your site will suffer from poor development.
The Nitty Gritty of Content Development
Let’s take a more detailed look at each of the five phases in web content development. Keep in mind that this is a general overview.
Concept
Concept begins with an idea or a vision, but it has to have purpose. In this phase, you establish the purpose of your web content. Why do you need an online presence? Are you trying to build a platform, find customers, or sell more widgets?
Plan
The planning phase is the most critical, and it may take the longest. Start by deciding what web content you need in order to achieve your purpose, and then build that into a design plan. Remember, content first, then design. Your business’s marketing plan (your business does have a marketing plan, right?) comes into play here as you work your image, branding, and other marketing collateral into your website plan. In your plan, don’t forget to include methods for driving traffic to your site. This is phase in which you might want to look at working SEO into your content.
Build
Building is when you put your concept and plan into action. You may have many components being built simultaneously – a website designer creating your site while a web content writer prepares the text. A careful plan will lead to an easier build. Toward the end of the building phase, you’ll start working on your launch.
Launch
It happens in a flash. After months of web content development and website building, your site launches (or relaunches). Some launches are quiet. Others are loud. Once the site goes live, you can start driving traffic to it. This is also part of the launch – spreading the word about your site. You might have an entire marketing campaign in place for the launch, in which case, you would have included the preparation for that campaign during the planning phase.
Maintain
After the launch, it might feel like all the hard work is over. That would be wrong. Every website needs maintenance. Some sites are maintained constantly and updated several times a day. Others are updated weekly or monthly. A small few are only updated every year or so, though this is only a good idea in rare cases. Making updates to your site and maintaining it (by tracking your traffic, for example) are critical to the success of your online presence.
Common Mistakes – The Don’ts
There are plenty of mistakes that people make with web content development. Here are a handful of things you don’t want to do:
- Don’t plan your design before you plan your content. They should complement each other, but the design should be built to hold the content.
- Don’t start driving traffic to your site until it’s complete.
- Don’t launch until you’ve thoroughly tested the site on all platforms and browsers.
- Don’t forget future updates to your site. If the site is going to expand, then make sure the design is flexible enough to handle growth.
- Don’t expect your site to be an overnight success. Building a site is hard, but getting traffic to a brand new site is much harder. Be patient, stick to it, and success will come.
Make sure you stay focused on your site’s primary purpose. Web content development can get messy. You’ll have lots of great ideas, but they won’t all lend themselves to the goals you’re trying to achieve. Make sure you plan sticks to your purpose and try not to get sidetracked.
Web Content Services
Scribizzy provides a host of web content services, including web content development. If you need help planning the content for your site, or developing a new design and fresh content for an existing site, we can help. Visit our Content Development page to learn more.
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What is Web Content?
April 27, 2009 by Melissa Donovan
There’s a lot of talk on the Internet about web content. You should have it. It needs to be good. You can share it, market it, and sell it. Manage and maintain it. Have a plan – develop it. Use it to build your business. Use it to succeed.
Plenty of people sell web content and related services. You can hire a web content writer, developer, or manager. You might bump into web content consultants, specialists, or experts. You may even happen across someone who creates and then either publishes or sells web content as their entire business model.
But what is web content, anyway?
Defining Web Content
Generally speaking, web content is anything that you find on the web. It can include text, images, audio, and video.
In the early days of the Internet, which weren’t so long ago, web content was extremely limited. You could share files, but it took a long time for them to transmit. Text and light images comprised most of the content online.
Today, thanks to high-speed internet access and ever-evolving technology, web content has grown to include high-definition (HD) video, streaming audio, and clearer, crisper images, including photos. Innovations in web programming are constantly changing the way we build and access web content, and it just keeps getting better, broader, and more accessible.
Your Web Content
So, if web content is everything on the Internet, then which portion of that is yours? Is your web content limited to the contents of your own website? What about your social media presence? Your emails? The message boards you frequent?
In short, anything online that serves to represent you (or your company) in any way, shape, or form, would be construed as your web content. This is not limited to the material on your website. If you upload a video to YouTube, that’s your web content. Your photo and bio, and your entire Facebook page is also your web content, as is any message you leave on a forum or any comment you leave on a blog, and of course, any tweet you post to Twitter.
Basically, if it’s on the Internet and it can be tied directly to you, it’s your web content.
That doesn’t mean you own it, however. Let’s say you write an article for a well-known blog and they accept it, so you get a publication credit. That’s your web content, but it also belongs to the blog where it’s published. Specific details about the (copyright) ownership of the material may vary, depending on the publishing contract between writer and publisher.
You may also have some web content that the public cannot access, such as password-protected sections of your website, friends-only access to your social media networks, or private networks (intranets) not accessible except through internal, secure means.
Why This Matters
Understanding what constitutes as web content is important for anyone with an online presence for several reasons:
- For marketing purposes, it’s helpful to understand the many places where you can publish web content and therefore promote your work.
- Conversely, be wary of misrepresenting yourself or poorly representing yourself. If it’s online, people may find it, and if it casts you in a negative light, that could mean trouble for you and your business.
- Once you know what web content is, you will begin to understand that though it’s simple by definition, it’s complex in its capacity. There is no end to the ways in which web content can be created, shared, and used.
Anyone with an online presence, and especially those who use the Internet to conduct business, would do well to protect their own web content and keep a sharp eye on how the web is used to represent one’s work or business.
Web content is a wondrous thing. What used to take days or even weeks, now can be accomplished in just a few minutes. Want to watch a video? Listen to a song? Read an article? Chances are, you can find what you’re looking for online in a matter of moments.
This means that for professionals, the marketplace has expanded, and so has the marketing field. You have countless new opportunities to promote your product, but there are also countless new ways in which you can get yourself into trouble – either by not having a solid plan for web content, or no management system in place.
In future articles, we’ll talk about web content development and management, and discuss why having a plan and maintenance method are essential to online success.
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Are You Cut Out for Freelance Writing?
April 6, 2009 by Melissa Donovan
This post was originally published on Writing Forward (May 5, 2008). It has been slightly updated for republication here.
Freelance writers live in their own special universe. It’s a universe full of words, clients, and bottom lines. Many people dive into this universe headfirst and find out fast that it’s sink or swim. Doesn’t it sound tempting? Setting your own hours, having control over your income, making business decisions, trying to find clients, and establishing yourself as a worthwhile contender in the galactic enterprise that is your one-person business.
Make no mistake, freelancing is a business. Visions of lounging on the sands of your own private island quickly evaporate into late nights spent staring groggy-eyed into a computer screen that has become the center of your world. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and the light is success. Before you reach the light, before you even step into the tunnel, you have to ask yourself, are you cut out for freelance writing?
Skill
Some people will argue and claim that skill is not really a requirement for freelancers. Have a look around the web. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are fairly optional here. Proofreading is unheard of, and most web writers seem to have never discovered the editing process. That’s fine. They can peddle $1 articles at the bidding boards. If you have serious writing skills, you can actually earn a livable wage as a freelance writer.
Drive
You’ll need someone who can pilot your space shuttle into the freelance universe and guess what? If you’re freelancing, it’s going to have to be you. This is a business, not a hobby, and it requires a considerable amount of ambition. You’ve got to want it. Bad. You won’t have a boss or any coworkers asking how that project’s coming along but you will have endless distractions and temptations vying for your attention. If you can’t commit your energies, then your ship’s going to crash.
Sacrifice
I bet some people slip into freelancing and never notice a change in their work hours. Don’t ask me where these people are. I’ve never met them. You can call yourself a freelancer until the sun spins out of its orbit, but what you really are is an entrepreneur and you know what entrepreneurs do? They work hard, long hours. They give up social activities and hobbies so they can throw their energies into the business and make it succeed. Is the sacrifice forever? I don’t think so, but expect to have very little free time during your first year or two.
Educability
Perfect! I thought I was making up the word “educability” but it turns out that it already exists. And that’s my point. You have to be willing to learn. You have to be willing to grow. I’m now in my second year of freelancing. I love it and one of the things I love most is that every single day I learn new things. I learn new stuff about writing, about people, about business, and about the universe. I learn what works, what earns money, and what kind of limits or goals I need to get myself to the next level. Much of freelancing is trial and error, especially in the beginning. Learn and live. Live and learn.
Flexibility
Some freelancers still probably operate in the real world but most of us are living and working on the Internet. The Internet changes at a rapid pace and if you’re a web-based freelancer, you have to be able to keep up. Sometimes this means adjusting your rates. Other times it means offering new services. Usually, it means updating your website so it doesn’t look like an antique UFO from the 1990s. If you like a fast pace and think you can keep up, then freelancing online might be right for you.
Acumen
Not just any acumen, you’re going to need business acumen. Can you balance a checkbook, manage a spreadsheet, keep track of your income and expenses? Do you know what marketing is? Can you negotiate? Pitch yourself? Convince a client they need your services? Do you know the difference between being in the red and being in the black? Can you always have a backup plan? Sure, you can start freelancing and learn the business stuff as you go, but it’s good to have an advance grasp on the basics.
Spine
People will try to take advantage of you, so you’re going to need a spine and some thick skin. Aliens will ask for special discounts. People who make five times as much money as you will ask for special discounts. Space invaders will steal hours and hours of your time going back and forth ironing out project details and then they’ll never sign the quote because they found someone else who offered a better discount. Negotiating a little is fine but if you agree to give everyone from ET to R2-D2 a discount you’ll find yourself working for pennies and then you’ll scratch your head wondering why you don’t have enough money to pay rent even though you had plenty of work all month. Can you say no?
Love
Okay, so some freelance writers probably don’t love freelancing. Or writing. But I do. People ask me how my business is going and I tell them I’m exhausted and overwhelmed. I’m working longer hours than ever before and until recently I was making much less money than ever before. But I absolutely love it. This is a big, wide open universe and it suits me perfectly. If you don’t love business, or writing, or working on a computer all day, then you probably won’t be happy doing this. And that is really the goal, right? To find happiness.
What are some other qualities that a successful freelancer needs? Have you thought about quitting your job and taking the plunge? What’s holding you back?
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Website Design Solutions: WordPress
March 30, 2009 by Melissa Donovan
WordPress is quite possibly the best thing that has happened to websites since the Internet itself.
If you ask someone what WordPress is, there’s a good chance they’ll tell you that it’s a blog platform, but it’s so much more than that.
Since it first hit the web in 2003 as a blog application, WordPress has evolved into a fully functioning content management system. It stores your content, keeps it organized, and makes your website easy to manage and navigate. Best of all, it’s free.
For those of us who once coded websites by typing HTML by hand, WordPress is a monumental blessing. It doesn’t have the same restrictions and complications that programs like FrontPage or Dreamweaver present because it’s highly customizable and flexible enough that a website designer can take full control of the design and layout while simultaneously giving consideration to the actual content.
About WordPress
Most website hosting providers offer one-click installation for WordPress. That means once you’ve signed up for hosting, getting WordPress installed on your website is just a click away. Only a few, outdated hosting providers still require manual installation, which involves uploading the WordPress files and database to the server on which the site is hosted.
The code and files include instructions that tell a browser how to display the WordPress website on the screen. This is done through WordPress themes, which are templates that drive the design and layout of each site.
The content of a WordPress site is managed online, from the WordPress control panel, which is as easy to use as web-based email. From the control panel, you can compose pages for your site as well as blog posts, and add media including text, images, audio, and video.
WordPress Themes
Often, people are turned off when they hear words like “themes” and “templates.” But WordPress themes can be customized to the point that they don’t even resemble the original look and feel, and there are an enormous variety of themes available.
Most people want a completely original and unique website, especially if they want their business to stand out from the crowd, so it’s understandable that themes or templates don’t sound too appealing. However, there are a number of benefits to using these themes on a website.
For example, many themes have certain standardized components. A navigation menu across the top of a website, a clickable header, and sidebars are familiar to website visitors and make them feel at home. This makes any website easy to navigate and therefore more attractive to visitors.
Also, since the themes are so customizable, it’s entirely possible to strip down a theme and make it look completely different. You can even start with your own design, find a theme that loosely resembles it, and then tweak the theme to match what you had in mind. Or, you can choose a theme you like and tweak it until it has a look and feel that satisfies you.
Some of the available themes are premium, and these you must pay for. However, most themes are free. Many premium themes are available via license through designers who have purchased the right to customize and resell the themes. If you have considerable HTML and CSS skills, you can learn how to customize a WordPress theme quickly and easily on your own. And if you don’t have those skills, you can simply hire someone to do it for you. Chances are, it will be a lot cheaper than hiring a website designer to code your site from scratch.
Problems with Traditional Websites
Traditional websites, which are coded with HTML, present a host of problems and frustrations for business owners:
- If you don’t know how to code your own site, you have to hire someone to do it for you, which means every time you need to make a change or update (no matter how small), you’re reliant on someone else. And you have to pay for it.
- Large amounts of content can be difficult to manage, add to a site, and keep track of without some kind of content management system.
- Small changes to a site’s structure could be costly and time-consuming. For example, you may need to change your URL structure to optimize the site for better search engine performance. That could be tedious and expensive for a larger site that’s not running on any kind of database.
- Designing a site from scratch without a theme or template costs more than customizing a theme because it takes a lot longer.
- It’s difficult to switch designers once your site is up and running. Because a WordPress site runs on a theme, if your designer is unavailable or unsatisfactory, you can easily find another who can update your site for you.
WordPress Benefits
WordPress solves many of the problems presented by traditionally coded websites:
- Once your WordPress theme customization is complete and your site is launched, you (or any of your employees) can quickly and easily add content or make changes. It’s literally as easy as composing email.
- WordPress uses a database to manage all of your content, and through the WordPress control panel, you can view and manage that content with great ease.
- With WordPress, changing the URL structure, for example, is just a matter of renaming pages or categories, and that can all be done in a matter of minutes.
- Because the site’s design starts from a theme and most coding is done by amending the style sheet, a WordPress website will probably be a lot less expensive than sites rendered the old-fashioned way. The code is already there and it just has to be customized.
- Once your site is up and running, anyone with knowledge of WordPress and themes can make changes to your design or content. This can be done from within the control panel.
In addition to solving problems that traditional website design presents, WordPress offers a host of perks:
- Plugins like All in One SEO make keyword optimization a breeze, and are easy to learn.
- Other plugins make website management much easier. Google Analytics plugin automatically installs on every single page of the site.
- Still more plugins make the site attractive to visitors, especially when your site includes a blog.
- WordPress tells you which other websites are linking to yours.
- Using categories and the blog feature, you can generate categorized blog posts or articles, which is a great way to communicate with your customers, connect with other professionals, demonstrate your expertise, establish credibility, build transparency, and generate content that will help your site perform well on search engines.
Website Design Solutions and WordPress
Of course, there are plenty of other content management systems out there and WordPress is not appropriate for all situations. Mammoth sites might need a more powerful (and costly) system. WordPress is ideal for small to medium sized websites and may even be appropriate for some large, content-oriented sites.
One of my favorite things about WordPress is that it allows you to grow your site so easily. I can continually add content, and WordPress handles it seamlessly. I don’t have to keep track of all my files, file naming conventions, folders, and directories. WordPress handles all that for me.
I also appreciate being able to update my site from any computer with an Internet connection as well as from my mobile phone. That definitely comes in handy.
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