Nip and Tuck - Three Quick Tricks for Writing SEO Copy

By Karon Thackston
Posted Thursday, July 15, 2004

Let's face it... some SEO copy is just awful! Yes, it may very well get ranked high in the search engines, but what then? When visitors click to your site they are faced with stiff copy that sounds like a robot. It doesn't flow... and it doesn't sell

Have you ever been to one of those sites that has obviously been written to get high search engine rankings? You know the ones... they have copy that sounds like this:

"When you buy quality silver jewelry from us, you know your quality silver jewelry is of the highest quality because we only sell quality silver jewelry that is top-notch. No other quality silver jewelry site on the Web offers the selection of quality silver jewelry that we do!"

Want to take a wild guess at what keyphrase they're targeting?

Copy like this simply doesn't sound "real." It's very forced. Yes, it may very well get ranked high in the search engines, but what then? When visitors click to your site they'll be faced with stiff copy that sounds like a robot. It doesn't flow... and it doesn't sell, either! With a little nip and tuck, you can create copy that appeals to your target audience AND ranks high with the engines.

So just how do you get your keywords and phrases into your copy and still have a nice, flowing sales message? It's really easier than you might think.

Here are a couple of strategies I use when writing SEO copy.

Headlines and Subheadlines

These make the ideal place for keywords. Why? Because keywords are normally descriptive by nature. Since headlines describe what the site visitor is about to read, it makes perfect sense to include keywords within them.

Titles

Create a chart, or a list, and give it a keyword-rich title. Just as with headlines, titles should be descriptive... another perfect keyword/copy match.

Lists

In your chart or list, include keywords in the headers and within the list descriptions. For example, if your keywords include softball trading pins, employee recognition awards, lapel pins, and lapel pin you could create a list that reads like this:

Creative Lapel Pin Uses

- Baseball and Softball Trading Pins - Lapel pin trading among baseball and softball teams has dramatically grown in popularity... be sure to support your team with custom-created baseball and softball trading pins.

- Employee Recognition Awards - Employees take great pride in wearing lapel pins that show their achievements, and they will treasure employee recognition awards that they can frequently show to others.

See how the list uses keyphrases within the headers and again within the list description itself?

Using keywords in carefully chosen places allows you to have more freedom with your copy itself. So now, instead of the forced, unappealing copy we read in the first example, you can have something more relaxed like this:

Quality Silver Jewelry Is A Rare Find!

If you've been looking for quality silver jewelry long, you know that quality is, in fact, a major issue. Unfortunately, many companies combine low-cost metals with their silver. That compromises the quality and the appearance. That's a practice we never participate in!

How To Recognize Quality Silver Jewelry

When shopping for the best, look for these tell-tell signs of excellence.

- Quality silver jewelry that is truly created of pure silver will display a radiant sheen.

- When you touch the surface, quality silver jewelry will immediately show a fingerprint.

- Breathing on the finish of quality silver jewelry will produce a fog, while breathing on the finish of poor-quality silver will not.

And so on, and so on.

So you see, you can have copy that makes sense, provides solutions for your site visitors, and ranks high with the search engines. It's not impossible... it just takes a bit of training and practice. Before long, you'll be tucking keywords in all the right places!

About the Author
Karon is Owner and President of Marketing Words, Inc. who offers targeted copywriting, copy editing & ezine article services. Visit her sites at (http://www.marketingwords.com/) and (http://www.copywritingcourse.com/).