The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
December 2006, Volume 5, Issue 12

Which Came First, Keywords or Copy? An Approach to Writing Search Optimized Content

Heather Braswell, Marketing Copywriter, iProspect

The last few copywriting projects I’ve undertaken have illustrated a valuable point. When writing search optimized copy for websites, sometimes not having the targeted keyword phrases selected beforehand works best.

For a variety of reasons, I’ve begun my last two copywriting projects without initially knowing the keyword phrases to target on each page. Now if this happened to you, you might be nervous about having to eventually go back and “ruin” your beautiful, persuasive copy by forcing sometimes unwieldy keyword phrases into it. But the fact is that going back and adding the keyword phrases is surprisingly painless. By writing quality content for your website, you’ll find many opportunities for incorporating the keyword phrases into the copy naturally. So, even if you have a keyword target in mind for a page, I still recommend writing the content before adding the search terms. Trying to include the keywords as you go can sometimes result in awkward, clunky sentences and can detract from the persuasiveness and flow of the content.

Content is King, but You Must Play by the Rules

iProspect’s research shows that having keyword phrase-rich textual content that a search engine spider can crawl and index is an important factor in achieving visibility across the major search properties. Most online marketers understand the importance of keyword phrase-rich textual content, but some assume that means the more keywords the better, and they stray into the dangerous waters of keyword “stuffing.” Others write content for the sole purpose of having something they can insert the recommended number of keyword phrases into without regard to the readability and relevancy of the content. Either strategy can be detrimental to your website’s success. The first option can get your site banned from search engines and the second could send visitors right back to the search engine results page to find your competitor’s website instead.

Writing for Search Engines

Keeping your audience intrigued while making the search engines happy at the same time can be a balancing act. Remember, both are equally important. Focusing on one, while ignoring the other, makes both irrelevant.

When writing for search engines, you need to have as much content as necessary on each Web page to be able to include enough keyword phrase occurrences to help spiders associate the keyword phrase with the overall theme of the page. In addition to including the primary keyword phrase throughout the body copy, you should also be sure to include it in the key meta data of the page. This will help the search engines consider your page one of the most relevant on a particular keyword phrase, which translates into increased search engine rankings and, in turn, increased traffic coming to your website.

Remember, while search engine spiders crawl your site in search of keywords, the engines also pay close attention to the quality of your content. Google wants website owners to “write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content” and Yahoo! prefers web pages with “original and unique content of genuine value designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary.”

Writing for Your Audience

Your copy must also speak to a variety of different people—those who are ready to buy or convert, those who may buy or convert if the site convinces them they should, and those who are just gathering information. Well-written content will help build rapport, trust, and credibility with your visitors; and it will help build momentum toward and will guide visitors through the intended conversion process.

Well-written, useful copy will also make your website more attractive from a “linkability” perspective, which will help build the quantity and quality of links to your site from other authoritative sites—another important factor in achieving search engine ranking success.

So simply begin by writing copy that fulfills the purpose of each page—describing a product for sale, explaining your checkout process, reassuring visitors about your security and privacy policies, etc. When you’ve had someone proofread it and when you feel that the copy is as perfect as it can be, then go back and add in keyword phrases. This will help you maintain the delicate balance between having interesting, well-written copy that draws visitors in and persuades them to convert, and having the optimal amount of targeted keyword phrases correctly placed to appeal to search engine spiders.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: December 2006, Volume 5, Issue 12

Which Came First, Keywords or Copy? An Approach to Writing Search Optimized Content

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
December 2006, Volume 5, Issue 12