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Search Engine Copywriting (SEO) Using Ogilvys Word Power By Robb Hecht, The PR Machine When your internet marketing strategy includes search engine optimization (SEO) couple this strategy with the David Ogilvy copywriting approach and a whole new marketing strategy develops.

Whether it be traditional print media or electronic media, be it advertising, newspapers, or a website, copywriting is the use of a strong blend of powerful, motivating and persuasive words that not only puts your message across to your target audiences, but also brings about desired results.

What is Search Engine Copywriting?

Unlike paid Search Engine Marketing (SEM), organic/natural Search Engine Copywriting (or SEO copywriting) is the process of re-writing text on a website page in such a manner that it continues to appeal to the site surfer while also being compatible to search engines. In this way, search engine copywriting optimizes your site content so that search engines tend to rank your site higher when keywords related to your business are searched.

One might question the need for search engine copywriting, when they already have the best copy on their website. The fact is that sometimes, even the finest written copy by the greatest copywriter might not generate the rankings on the search engines that you had hoped for, despite the fact that you have a great product or service and have spent an amazing amount of time and money in building that site. Why would this be? Because many people don’t yet understand that they have two audiences to please in search engine copywriting: search engines and the visitors to their sites.

Search Engine Copywriting (SEO Copywriting) helps in optimizing your site in such a way that; a) it ranks highly on the search engine results with your business specific keywords b) it succeeds in bringing quality, targeted human traffic to your site, generating more potential for sales and c) is intended to bring long-term 'free' traffic through 'natural' search engine rankings.

Copywriting Benefits Search Engine Marketing

Excellent search engine rankings don’t happen by accident. In order to take advantage of the tremendous exposure search engines can provide you, you have to structure your site to meet their criteria. One of those criteria is that you have optimized search engine copywriting. In fact, having SEO copywriting on your site is one of the most important aspects of succeeding with search engines. Why, you ask? Search engines that use spiders or bots (programs that survey web sites) only read text. This means that the words on your site must be SEO copywritten. Otherwise, your beautiful site and its content will never get seen when someone is searching for keywords that pertain to your business.

A SEO Copywriter Does More Than Bring Visitors To Your Site

Search engine copywriting is a must in order to get traffic to your site. But, you can’t simply place keywords and phrases all throughout your copy and be done with it. It takes more than keyword placement to impress both search engines and your site visitors. Search engine copywriting is about more than keywords. It’s also about persuading people and building a relationship with them utilizing words in a way that relate to their wants and needs.

Search Engine Copywriting Is Re-Writing

To be upfront: search engine copywriting is not developing 'creative' copy from ground zero. Search Engine Copywriting is essentially a re-writing process of existing 'creatively written' copy. It isn’t an attempt to insert several related, thesaurus-sounding keywords into the copy just to make it rank high in search engines. The fundamental goal of Search Engine Copywriting is writing (read optimizing) for both human surfers as well as search engines.

Search Engines and SEO Copywriting

Many websites have a high degree of dependency on search engines like Google and Yahoo to generate traffic to their site. Search engines collect information from websites and match this information with the keywords searched by users looking for relevant information on different topics. If the search engine algorithms detect a close match on relevant search terms, your page is likely to be ranked higher in their results. It is therefore important, from a SEO perspective, to have keywords strategically appearing in the text of your site.

What does SEO Copywriting do for Existing Copy?

• SEO Copywriting makes existing content more search engine friendly

• SEO Copywriting makes pages compatible to both the human surfer as well as to search engines

• SEO Copywriting makes copy targeted for specific themes of each page by utilizing keyword phrases relevant to the content of the page

• SEO Copywriting makes copy more structured.

Effective Search Engine Copywriting

By taking the time to understand your search engine goals, and your customers, SEO copywriting, done right, can dramatically impact your company’s bottom line. A good SEO copywriter plays a key role in your search engine rankings process. They ask these questions when looking through your site:

• Is your copy compatible with search engines and your visitors?

• Does your copy support your search engine goals and strike a nerve with your site visitors, letting them know why they should buy from you?

• Where are the best places to insert strategic keywords?

• Where are people entering your site? Are your pages optimized for maximum results based on that site entry information?

• Does your message flow? Or does it have the effect of coming across “stiff” and “generic” sounding?

• Is your copy the optimal length? (SEO copywriting shouldn’t be too long or too short in order to do its best work. Whether your site is devoted to selling one product or an entire shopping cart full of products, copy must be created that’s just right.)

The Importance of Title, Description, and Landing Page Copy

Keywords and key phrases are just the beginning of the power of copy in search marketing. Regardless of whether a search result is paid or not, the searcher sees the title, description, and (depending on the search engine) the URL. You may not be able to do much about the URL, but you do control your title and your description to some extent. Don't assume changes in the title and description will have no impact. Words and messages in titles and descriptions can make the difference between success and failure in paid and organic/natural listings.

Each landing page on your site, from home page to the most specific product or service page, consists of copy. The words, phrases, sentences, and structure of your site again serve a dual purpose:

• For searchers, copy and structure educate and persuade.

• For search engines, copy, structure, and links accurately describe page content.

• In organic SEO, copy is written to serve simultaneously visitors and search engine spiders. Content and copy have a lot to do with when and how often each page is found in organic, unpaid search results (by keywords, key phrases, and position).

Keywords Are Searchers' Focus

Many visitors have little loyalty to or knowledge of your site when they arrive. They must be convinced by the layout and copy they're in the right place. This holds true for search and nonsearch visitors. But search visitors are on a mission and the word or phrase they used moments earlier is their primary focus when surfing. In every case possible, that search phrase should closely correlate to your landing page and be part of its essence. Often the keyword is the product, product category, or brand you are selling. Unfortunately, instead of finding words or phrases that are the central focus (the search), searchers often arrive on a page full of promotional or descriptive language not central to their mission.

Guidelins To Make Your Text Search Engine Friendly

• Keyword Phrases for SEO Copywriting

Conducting keyword and keyword phrase research is a good SEO Copywriting strategy. Targeting the right keywords and key phrases is a significant step in SEO copywriting because this way you know what people are actually searching for and you remove guesswork. Focus needs to be on specific search phrases pertaining to what your site is offering. Once keywords have been decided upon they need to be used at several strategic places on your site.

• Your Keyword Selection Process

The first step in the keyword selection process is good keyword research. There is no point in using keyword phrases that no one's searching for. Hence, it is advisable to do your keyword research by using tools like Wordtracker and Overture. The benefit of this focused approach is two-fold. One, you would get visitors who would be looking for 'exactly' what you are offering; Second, you would be dealing with far lesser competition in ranking your site.

After you have researched for your keywords, use all the different forms of your keywords in order to rank higher. This can also include words that can be spelled differently or commonly mis-spelt words For instance, words like eMarketing can also be written as e-Marketing. . Also, make sure to use plural forms.

For effective search engine copywriting make sure that your key phrases run throughout the page, rather than focusing on just the beginning or the title of the page. So be generous while using those all-important keywords. But don’t get carried away, either.

• SEO Copywriting for Page Headings

Headlines, apart from giving a brief preview of what follows in the body copy, are also used to pass on the most relevant information on the page. One look at the headline and we decide whether we want to read the article or not. In search engine copywriting too, headlines are as sacred as in most other mediums of communications.

• Optimized Text-Length on Page

It is advisable to have sufficient text on your home page and important section pages. Search engines like to see between 250 to 500 words of text on a page to assess its keyword relevance. The longer the text, the better. Let the beginning of the page text contain your important keywords. Some search engines do not read deep in your page. As such, it becomes important that they read your initial text with the keywords. Avoid placing links in images. Search engines cannot read images. If you must have images, have a text link bar at the bottom of your page. Try and include your important keywords within the hyperlinks (anchor text) as this gives a high relevance not only to the page but also to the linked page.

Useful Tips for SEO Copywriting

• Update your content frequently, as some search engines index your content more often, if it is updated and kept fresh. But a better reason to do this is that when a user visits your site again, she should find new relevant information, which would bring her to your site again.

• Have adequate HTML text on your home page with important keywords in the beginning. This is what search engines can read. For home page and important inner pages, about 200 words of text with keywords should be fine.

• The best SEO copy written pages that rank highly on the search engines are the ones with the best information and content. These are kept so natural that a surfer, more than often does not even realize that they have been optimized. SEO Copywriting and other kinds of copywriting don't always blend well, but that's exactly what SEO copywriter has to ensure, because SEO copywriting would only help in bringing people through the search engines to the website.

SEO Working with SEM

Several things tie organic/natural search engine optimization (SEO) to paid search engine marketing (SEM). Keywords and key phrases that drive high traffic and conversions for paid listings perform for organic listings, too. You should thus consider giving your organic SEO team and content management people access to paid SEM conversion and return on investment (ROI) reports. The SEO folks can use them to adjust page layout, copy, keyword use, and linking strategies. The paid SEM team also benefits greatly from data usually not shared with them from the SEO team. If at all possible, give them access to your Web analytics. Most of the better analytics tools provide reports that show conversion of search engine traffic by keyword. If you tagged your paid listings with unique inbound URL identifiers, you’ve done a good job. This allows those reports to isolate paid and unpaid conversion and site behavior.

Your site may have an internal search engine (a search box or form). If you have a search box and a visitor doesn't immediately see a direct link to what they're looking for, chances are they'll use the search function. Often, the types of things visitors search for within your site are the same keyword searches that belong in paid and unpaid search campaigns. So attempt to collect these words they type in.

Using Ogilvy’s Word Power

Don't ignore opportunities to integrate your campaign from the David Ogivly copywriting SEO side and conversely from the SEM search engine side. Most importantly, ensure a good communicator is part of your internal, external, or combined SEM/SEO team -- a writer who can watch over all the places where words and copy impact a campaign. Get your teams synchronized. If you don't have a trained writer, have someone assume the role of keeper of the words, copy, and message. Paid search engine marketing (SEM), and organic SEO for that matter, are not static. The best SEM and SEO campaigns are moving campaigns that work together like a symphony online.