SEO Copywriting: How to Write Content Your Readers, Google Will Love?

Content has never been more important.

We are no longer in the era of niche blogs with a small and loyal readership.

In today’s world, every business needs content. It does not matter whether you sell pens or help people with taxes; if you have an online presence, you need content.

According to a survey by Ziflow, 95% of customers take content as a marker of a business’s credibility.

That brings us to the all-important question — how can we create content that both readers and Google love?

Google is the leader in the search engine market by an overwhelming margin. Be it audio-video content or textual content, everything needs to be Google-friendly to have an impact on your business.

Making content easier for Google to find and scan is what we call SEO, or search engine optimization.

Top 3 SEO Copywriting Strategies That Will Make Your Readers And Google Will Love Your Content

SEO is one of the most important skills to learn in 2022. As more and more businesses move online, the competition to rank your content also increases. When it comes to writing copies, sticking to SEO principles is non-negotiable.

At the same time, content needs to appeal to readers, otherwise, its very purpose is defeated. Let’s find out how to write content that both readers and Google love.

1. Stick To SEO Principles

SEO is a vast and expansive topic, and it goes beyond the scope of this blog post to cover every aspect of SEO. However, it is not impossible to stick to the fundamentals of SEO. That includes keyword research, on-page search engine optimization, and making content reader-friendly.

Learning the best SEO practices need not be difficult. Google publishes its own set of SEO guidelines that have all you need to know about ranking your pages.

Apart from that, there are tons of resources available on the internet that can teach you SEO at both beginner and advanced levels.

If you’re a business owner, it’s not possible to know and implement all of the SEO strategies at once. You may want to hire a SEO person who can help you execute your strategies. You can use an SEO copywriting assessment, you can easily evaluate where the candidate stands in terms of using keywords and understanding different search behaviors. 

Now, let’s understand a few fundamental concepts of SEO before moving forward with SEO copywriting.

a. Keyword Research

Keyword research is the most important thing to do before you set out to write content for your website.

The term keyword research might seem intimidating to the uninitiated, but it follows a very simple principle.

Keyword research involves looking for key search phrases that most people are using. For example, millions of people search for something like ‘restaurants near me’.

If you run a hospitality business, you would want your business to show up in the search results when someone types this query in your region. To do that, you need to have the phrase ‘restaurants near me’ in your content at strategic positions.

However, keyword research is not that simple. It might be very difficult for small businesses to rank for a common search query like ‘restaurants near me’. But not everyone is entering the same search query.

Some people will be looking for ‘vegan restaurants near me’ or ‘casual cafes near me’ and so on. Good keyword research involves searching for the relevant search queries and finding ways to seamlessly integrate them into your content.

b. Meta Titles And Descriptions

The meta title and meta description are not a part of your content, but they play a huge role in ranking your pages. Even if you don’t know what a meta description is, it has definitely influenced you to click on one Google search result over another. The same applies to meta titles.

Meta titles and descriptions show up on the Google result page. For a blog about cats, the meta description can include approximately 150 characters about cats. However, ‘this is a blog post about different types of cats’ is not a good example of a meta description. If you see this under the search result, the chances of you ignoring that search result are high.

On the contrary, a catch meta description and meta title are all you need to make people visit your webpage. If you can intrigue the reader and make them curious, more readers will choose your website over other similar results. Coming up with efficient meta descriptions is a skill that needs time to perfect.

c. Page Links

Page links are broadly of two types – external and internal.

When you are adding an internal link, you are hyperlinking some content from your own website to your content. With external linking, you are linking content from other websites.

Page links serve a very important purpose in SEO. It shows Google that your webpage is well-connected with other content across the internet.

For the readers, effective page links can enhance the reading experience.

For any SEO copywriter, understanding effective page links is of utmost importance.

The only thing to keep in mind while linking pages is to make them relevant.

Linking random and unrelated websites to your content will do you no good from either the reader’s or Google’s perspective. With relevant and valuable page links, your content becomes more Google-friendly and valuable for the readers.

2. SEO Copywriting —Write For Human

Writing for humans and not machines might be very vague and generic advice, but it does hold merit. It is very common for writers to lose touch with what humans want to read while chasing SEO scores. But that is not how you create truly successful content.

We understand that such vague advice has no meaning unless we break it down. So here are some ways to make content more reader-friendly.

a. Break down information into small sections

For blogs and website content, what you don’t write matters as much as what you write. It might be very convenient to write everything in one big chunk, but that will not make it reader-friendly.

The white space between text plays a huge role in making content more readable.

Break down information into small sections to make it easier to read. With this simple method, you can make more people actually read your content.

b. Use Lists

Humans love lists. When writing for fellow humans, make sure you list things wherever possible. You might feel more inclined to write a long, descriptive para, but that’s not what Google or your readers want.

Lists are efficient because they convey maximum information with the least number of words.

Lists make it easy for people to skim through the content and take note of what is important. Overall, lists make your content more readable, easy to understand, and in turn, more Google-friendly.

c. Pay Attention To Headings And Subheadings

Headings help readers navigate through your content. With dull headings, your readers might not feel inclined to go past the headings and into the main content.

Headings also play a very important role from an SEO perspective. It is very important to add keywords to headings to make the content more Google-friendly.

The role of subheadings is very important in breaking down content into small chunks. With a subheading for each aspect of the content, readers will find it very easy to scan and skim the text and take note of what is relevant to their needs.

Learning to write headings and subheadings is one of the most important skills for any SEO copywriter.

d. Use Images, Videos, And Gifs In Your Content

Content writing is not all about words and how you use them. How you use different elements and tools to make the content stand out is as important as the actual content.

With pictures, videos and gifs, your content becomes a lot more fun to read and easier to understand.

One of the easiest ways of incorporating images into written content is through infographics. Infographics are a great way of summarizing dense information into an easy-to-understand format.

If you use infographics strategically, your content will become significantly better and easier for readers to understand. Similarly, using relevant audio and video clips can make your content much more attractive for readers.

3. Show Off Your Writing Skills, But Don’t Go Overboard

SEO copywriting is not composing poetry.

It is not where you want to show people how many words you know and how you can make a simple subject complex and deep. Nonetheless, if you do have a flair for writing, show it off by all means without going overboard.

Be it humor, passion, or emotions, it takes a skilled writer to inject them into written content.

For an SEO copywriter, the ability to weave words is often the differentiating factor. It separates an average copywriter from an exceptional one.

Working on writing skills is perhaps the most underrated advice for any copywriter, new or experienced.

Conclusion

Writing content for Google and readers at the same time can be tricky. It takes skill, patience, and hard work to be a good SEO copywriter.

With the tips and ideas we talked about, anyone can start writing content that has an impact on both businesses and search engines.

Read Also:

• 5 Proven Ways To Get More Clients For Your SEO Agency
• SEO Mistakes That You Might Make (And How To Avoid Them)
• 4 Updates To Google’s Algorithm That Influenced The SEO Industry