Guest Article by Rick Sloboda
Editor’s Note: This article contains great advice on bridging the gap between search engines and carbon based units (humans). Write too much for search engines, and you get no support from your visitors. Write too much for your visitors and…wait…you CAN’T write too much for your visitors!
Unless it’s boring, un-targeted, irrelevant, pedantic, or any other fancy word meaning “bad writing!” Here is how you can avoid the latter…
When you’re writing for the Web, you answer to two masters: humans and spiders.
For your website to reach its full potential, your web writing needs to appeal to the emotional needs of your target audience as well as the logical needs of search engine spiders.
Nourish the spider
Search engines, such as Google, identify relevant web writing for their search results by sending spiders (or robots) to ‘crawl’ and index websites. Complex sets of rules called algorithms are then employed to determine how useful your site is and where it should rank in the search engine results.
Given the facts that more than 500 million world-wide searches are made daily, and search engines account for more than 85 per cent of all new visitors to a website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is by far the single most effective marketing strategy you can use to gain online presence.
But before your webpage can be optimized, you must determine which keywords to target. This involves:
• Finding relevant keywords
• Determining their popularity
• Assessing the amount of competition
• Deciding which keywords can be best supported with quality web writing
The selected keywords must then be tactfully integrated into your web writing. Search engines reward sites with well-written, relevant and content-rich copy, so your web writing should comprise a keyword density ratio of three to seven per cent. This is calculated by dividing the keywords by the total number of words on a page.
Engage the human
Once you drive traffic to your website, your web writing must connect with visitors on an emotional level to engage them and ultimately convert sales.
What’s the quickest and most effective way to achieve this? Give people what they want: relevant web writing!
When you’re writing for the Web, recognize and address the real needs of your visitors, and make it easy for them to find what they need or want to know.
Do:
Engage, inform, influence and convert online visitors into customers with clear, concise and relevant web writing.Don’t:
Bore or irritate visitors with company-centered, self-absorbed messages, which will only guide cursors to the ‘back’ button.
Ignite readers’ emotions by clearly communicating the benefits of your products or services. It’s surprising how many businesses, large and small, overlook this all-important aspect, and instead focus exclusively on features. Promoting benefits will help visitors envision themselves experiencing your product or service.
By providing relevant web writing, you empower visitors to make informed decisions. This gains you instant credibility and trust, increasing your chances to turn them into full-fledged customers.
Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at www.webcopyplus.com
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