Improving your website copywriting skills

Age : 45 Joined : 08 Mar 2008 Posts : 1850

Here are the steps I’ll go through to create a piece of web copy.

From the keyword lists you have chosen for your site, pick a primary and a secondary keyword that you’ll want to rank well for with the article.
Write the title of the article making sure that you include the primary keyword in the title. You can also try to fit in the secondary phrase but if you find it hard to do so and still maintain good English, then don’t worry about the secondary keyword in your title. I try and keep the title to around 50 characters in length.
Write the description tag using both the primary and secondary keywords. This should describe what the article is about and should be around 200-250 characters long.
Write the first paragraph which should be a summary of the overall article and should include both primary and secondary keywords. If you’re not sure about how to do this, have a look at my first paragraph here or study good newspaper writing. You’ll find that journalists tend to summarize the story in the very first paragraph.
Next, map out the structure of the article, writing headings and subheading that each contain keywords. Not only does this help you write good search engine copy, but it focuses your mind on what you really want to say and the quality of your writing will improve. In this article, for example, here’s the structure I’ve followed:
Using keywords in website copywriting
Example of good website copywriting
Using keywords in your web copy – 6 steps
Improving your website copywriting skills
Internal and external resources to link to.
Finally, think about the internal and external links that you might point people to. The linking text should be keyword rich. This article has given you some tips and a step-by-step process to follow. However, you’ll get nowhere unless you put some of this advice into action and then see what happens to your search engine traffic. Then build on what works and discard what doesn’t.

My favorite definition of an expert is “someone who has made more mistakes than anyone else”. So don’t be afraid – get writing, get publishing, measure what happens – and then do it even better next time.