So they say that content is king. But why is it that even with amazing content your blog articles or web copy doesn’t get as much search engine traffic as it deserves ?

The answer is in SEO copywriting. Copywriting and SEO go hand in hand and is very important to each other. SEO does well with better copywriting and for better web copies, SEO suggestions are required.

Here’s how  it goes. Generally when you write a web copy, you write it for the people. You have their faces in mind. But when you write it for SEO, you also have to take the role of a marketing guy, and make your copy attractive to get eye balls. This doesn’t mean that SEO copywriting is bad. No. SEO Copywriting is in fact as good as nice, attractive copy, just that there is the additional responsibility on the author to make it fit for the search engines too.

So, what are the SEO Copywriting golden rules?

1. Write for your friends first, then engines.

One mistake many folks do is to write a copy that is heavily skewed to impress the search engines. Adding more keyword density, stuffing in keywords, repeating phrases are common in these methods. This isn’t right. While a good mix of keywords are good to nudge search engines of the topic, overdoing it will not impress them, contrary to popular belief. Therefore, a lot depend on how much the volume of your content is, what the topic is, how heavy the competition is for the content compared to elsewhere on the web etc. A good idea is to write first for your friends, and then tweak it substantially to help the search engines figure out what the content is about – not the other way round.

2. Repeating keywords will bore people as well as search engines.

As I said, there is a popular belief (unfortunately) among SEOs that repeating keywords a couple of times in the copy will impress search engines and make the article pop up on the top searches on Google for the keyword. Good projection. My only question is – So, what if your competition repeated the keyword more than you ?
Either they will rank better or Google will figure out that there’s something unnatural with both you folks and will compromise you. Most likely, the latter.

3. Take time to research and link well to resourceful articles.

Don’t get obsessed with inbound links. Its good practice to link to resourceful, authoritative articles related to your content as well. While writing articles, sprinkle it with good authoritative articles from resources you trust like the Wikipedia or a popular blog. People will love the contextual references and so will search engines.

4. Give an anatomy to the article with proper subheadings.

Give it a shape, with head, body and end. Make sure there are sub headings that refer to the primary and secondary keywords aptly. The introduction and summary should have ample references to the primary keyword while the body sprinkled with variants of it. Search engines go through the entire text, while people skim through sub headings, so make sure the subheadings are attractive and helpful while the body actually complementing it.

5. Do not automate it, write it as you’re addressing a crowd.

Be natural. Do not over do it. Automating copywriting with those article mincers and copywriting bots is the best and easiest way to raise red flags for your site at Google. Instead, write it as you’re addressing a group of people. Believe me its more easy and efficient that way.

Summary

So, there you have it. Google bots are very intelligent than we can imagine, they keep getting better with each pattern they see and each mistake they make. Once a 6% keyword density article might have fooled them and gotten through to the top ranks. But that’ll never repeat. Today, they can even figure out what a natural copy is and what one is which is written for the sole purpose of SEO. Although its difficult to fool them, its not difficult to understand them, their patterns and suggestions. Once you keep it natural and fun, you’re creating a win-win situation for all. Chew over it.