13 Dec 9 SEO Super-Powers That Will Make You A Content Hero

SEO Copywriting – Clever content is key to a successful SEO strategy

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

Search engine optimisation, aka SEO is, in sum, the concept of maximising visitor numbers to a particular website – by ensuring that the site appears high on the returned-results list for certain keywords important and closely related to the business.

Sounds simple enough … But Google and other search engines update their algorithms frequently; sometimes as often as daily. Without keyword-optimised, interesting and fresh content your other online marketing efforts could quickly become utterly useless. Clever SEO copywriting is absolutely key. Top-notch content will get algorithms and human readers equally hooked, engaged – and coming back for more. Search engine optimised content is key to ensuring your site will rank well and stand out from competing websites on the net.

So go grab your cape and let your SEO content fly with these nine super-powers:

#1 – Keyword Research

To start, take a good look at what terms and phrases you want to be found for. You might need outside help to dig deeply into this with a competitor analysis. But you know your business, so even without hiring an expert to do your keyword research you can create a list of terms and phrases that your clients use(d) to find you.

#2 – Don’t Keyword-Stuff

Once you get writing, the temptation is great to ensure your chosen keyword pops up all the time. More is better, right? Wrong. It will make for terrible reading – and create awful SEO results. You want your SEO content to feature your targeted keyword in no more than 2.5% – 3.5% of your text. Any more and you’ll get punished by being ranked badly.

#3 – Long-Tail Keywords + LSI

Using the one keyword over and over on your website or blog won’t get you good results. And it is a poor writing style. For a long text or a full website it can be challenging to achieve great ranking results without using related keywords, grammatical variations, synonyms, long-tail keywords or LSI (latent semantic index based keywords). For highly-competed for search terms this is an excellent way to focus searches and carve out your own niche.

#4 – Add Some Magic

Your keyword should feature in your blog post title or page headline, but there’s more to an irresistible headline. It sets expectations (which you must fulfil), the tone of your writing and makes your first impression. Here are some powerful tried-and-tested headline formulas that will get you started.

#5 – Numbers + Lists Attract Eyeballs

Us humans, we’re a funny lot. We do love lists, well, our brains do. Because they create order and are easy to spot when numbered. They help us digest concepts with more ease by creating context. So if you want people to read your articles, use number in headlines. And if you want extra cut-through, make those numbers odd ones. You’ll get about 20% more clicks than using the same headline but listing an even number.

#6 – Use (Super)Power Words

Emotions create engagement. And power words create the emotions that will have your readers glued to their screens. Those power words will make a good story extraordinary and unforgettable. Here are 317 of them to start you off.

#7 – Copywrite for More Than SEO

Optimising your writing for SEO should never, ever interfere with content quality. Awkward, verbose, repetitive text will turn both your potential clients and Google et al off your site. You’re better off to leave that keyword out – and save it for another time.

#8 – Utilise SEO Tools

Write great content – and then run a smart tool over it to SEO-optimise it. Whether you are, like me, using the Yoast SEO plugin for your site or any other of the myriad of SEO tools; there are nifty ways to double check that your copy ticks all the right SEO boxes.

#9 – Buy SEO for Your Website

Not everyone is a writer, or has the time to write. And that’s ok – not everyone is made to be a dentist or plumber, either. So if it’s all too daunting or time-consuming simply outsource your blogging, webcopy and SEO copywriting to clever content writers.

Always remember: with great power comes great responsibility (right, Spider-Man?).