Website copywriting is an integral part of any web experience. Website copy is the core text that leads people to your website and tells them what they need to know and convinces them what actions they should take.
But website copywriting can do more than just inform or lead the customers; it can help measure and improve your SEO or search engine optimization.
How can website copywriting help measure SEO? Read on to learn some key tips for measuring and optimizing your copy for the web.
Tip 1: Know How SEO Website Copywriting Really Works
You may think SEO copy is just about repeating certain keywords over and over. But it’s more than that. SEO copy is about crafting compelling content that makes people want to promote your content through linking to it or sharing it. Doing this increases your trust and authority and helps your pages rank well.
Using proper keywords is still important, but Google now evaluates content based on quality and relevance, which means what others think about your content, and how they describe it, is incredibly important.
Tip 2: Create Measurable Goals
When it comes to SEO, copywriters should be focusing less on how words sound, and more on how they’ll rank. Web copy is about getting customers to take a certain action, and so your goals should be about that too.
Here is what your SEO goal needs:
- Measurable value (this could be new leads, downloads, email captures, etc.)
- Be easily seen on site (page views, downloads, button clicks)
- Drive business growth (this means it should be helpful for other teams like sales, acquisition & product)
Tip 3: Embrace Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a great way to measure business goals and SEO results. Google Analytics can measure site visits, impressions, bounce rates, and average time on site, which are important metrics for any web copywriter.
When reviewing Google analytic results, it’s important to ask yourself the following questions as a copywriter:
- What keywords or phrases drive the most traffic?
- Are long-tail keywords or brand phrases driving more traffic?
- How does the opening paragraph on higher-performing posts read in comparison to less successful ones?
If you can identify the keywords that resonate most with readers, you can tailor your writing to speak to those people more effectively.
Tip 4: Test Your Content
When it comes to web copywriting, you shouldn’t be afraid to test different versions of copy to see which text works best for your site. A/B testing lets you test two versions of copy simultaneously to see which one impacts business goals more. By constantly testing and updating copy, you can guarantee you’ve picked the best version for your business.
Tip 5: Pay Attention to the Length of Your Content
It’s not just about how you say words, it’s about how you use them. Longer articles with 1,200 to 1500 words perform better for SEO than shorter articles. With that being said, you should make sure you break up your content so that it’s still readable for your audience.
You can make your writing more readable by:
- Making your paragraphs only 2-3 sentences long
- Using subheads
- Including images & videos
- Using bold and italics to emphasize certain points
- Using bulleted lists (like this one)
Final Thoughts on Website Copy
Google has evolved, so website copy must evolve as well. Keywords, while still important, are not enough to drive traffic or business growth. Content needs to be helpful, engaging, and relevant for readers, and it must be presented in a way that’s easy to see and easy to understand.
Any SEO tips we missed? Let us know in the comments!