SEO is magic. Don’t believe it?
Let’s say you type “dog groomers near me” into the Google search bar. Hit enter and in a matter of seconds, you receive a curated list that matches your request. Have you ever wondered why the results don’t include car dealerships or concerts in your area or puganese dog breeders? SEO magic, that’s how. Fluffy gets her coat shampooed and you didn’t have to leave the couch to make it happen.
SEO benefits anyone who has a website or blog. No matter if you are a charity organisation or sell funny t-shirts of Star Wars characters; without SEO your site is just yelling into the deep, dark void of the internet. With a strong SEO strategy, customers come to you. It boosts sales, increases visibility and gives you credibility — no wand or incantation needed.
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation, it’s a digital marketing tool that helps a website get found by the right people for the right reasons.
Search engines like Google (which owns 92.26% of the search engine market share; is the most popular choice and the best example to use) have a big task. There is an ocean of information, websites, blogs and funny cat pictures on the internet that need to be sorted and categorised. The search engine crawls through these websites to make its best guess as to the information it is presenting.
After crawling, trawling and hauling all the information, the search engine then presents everything in a neatly packaged and well-presented list of ranked results. This is the SERP (search engine results page) and it is a coveted piece of digital property.
SERP
What is better than the best seats in the house for a sporting event and a front-of-the-line spot at a movie premiere combined? The first position in the Google SERP that’s what. Digital marketers, SEO strategists and the local pizza shop are all clamouring to reach the #1 position (the first result on the SERP). Then, like a dragon on top of its hoard of gold, they will do everything in their power to keep that position. But why, you may be asking, is this spot so important?
"The best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google" - Unknown
Humans are fickle creatures that bore too easily. Google, being the smart machine it is, knows it has to make browsing results as effortless as possible (lest a user turns to Yahoo, the horror!). Google will rank what it believes to be the best result in the #1 position.
Remember that humans are impatient creatures? Research shows that the first organic result on Google has an average click-through rate (CTR) of 28.5%. (A click-through rate means that the person clicked on the link and went to that website.) Even just one position lower impacts the CTR severely. The #2 results position has a CTR of 15.7% and #3, a measly 8%.
Being on the first page of Google is wonderful — let’s be honest, we never truly venture past it. In fact, 75% of searchers don’t even bother going to the second page. But you still need a good rank. Being in the #10 position (with a CTR of 2.5%) is like getting a participation award. Nice to be included but ultimately, means little.
Getting on the first page of Google is difficult enough. The term “recipes” has a SERP crowded with links, a sidebar of information, a “People also ask” section and top news stories. It’s one competitive place to be. Even if you were in the #1 position for that keyword (which would require superhuman SEO powers), you would be competing with the paid advertisements that sit in position #0.
Yes, there’s a position above #1 and if you don’t want to or have the money to pay for it then you have to rely on organic search results.
With all this competition, should you even bother with SEO? The short answer is yes and the long answer is most definitely.
The Importance Of SEO
No matter what industry, company or brand you may have or be working for, there is one ultimate goal: to connect with customers. You may want to sell them something (e.g. retail), inform them (e.g. news or a charity organisation) or entertain them (e.g. blogging). Whatever you want to do, you need that connection or you will never make that sale or have a viral post.
It’s also no good if you are targeting golf players with a low handicap and the customers you are connecting with are people who take leisurely bike rides.
Getting ranked on Google means that not only do you reach the right people but it also means that Google believes you have credibility and authority. It’s an easy way to beat out the competition, increase sales, improve your reach or build trust with your audience. SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy that, when used correctly, is low risk and high reward.
How do you start? It’s quite simple actually, with high-quality written material. SEO is driven by original content and is split into two categories: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO: This is everything that is on your website from images and information to URLs and how user-friendly the site is.
Off-page SEO: This refers to anything external that links back to your website or blog — this is called backlinking. Google thinks you’re more trustworthy when other credible sites backlink to you. Some ways you can incorporate off-page SEO is through guest-blogging or creating shareable content.
These two categories have one thing in common and it is the backbone of any SEO strategy: keywords. Keywords are, excuse the pun, the key to SEO success and making sure you are leading the race.
“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” – Wendy Piersall
What Are Keywords?
Keywords used to be the be-all-and-end-all of SEO but times have changed. While there are more SEO strategies that you can implement, keywords are still the starting point. Without them, you don’t have a strategy.
Keywords or keyphrases are carefully selected words or phrases that will connect you with your audience. When Google looks through your site, it doesn’t know what’s important unless the writer or site owner leaves it clues. You do this by using keywords in a strategic way in your content. Keywords should best describe what you are offering (“pizza” vs “vegan pizza”) and/or who you are offering it to (“cakes for birthdays” vs “cakes for diabetics”).
Nowadays, keywords are broken down into multiple categories for those serious SEO-ers but there are only two that you really need to know about: short-tail and long-tail keywords.
Short-tail Keywords
You need to start somewhere and you do it with short-tail keywords. Let’s use the example of vegan pizza. The keyword “pizza” is highly competitive. A search will bring up recipes, places to buy it, and its history — we need to be more nichéd (discovering your niché is a valuable asset in an SEO strategy but more about that later). Short-tail keywords include one or two words that are a good balance between specific and general.
You can determine your short-tail keywords by considering what makes your product or service unique. In this case, it would be “vegan pizza”.
Long-tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are short-tail keywords that have evolved. They are considerably more nichéd and target a certain type of buyer. While the search volume (i.e. how many searches there are for this keyword or phrase) might be lower, the conversion (i.e. sales) is generally higher. This is because people that are searching these keywords have usually made up their minds about the transaction. Whereas short-tail keywords attract people who are doing the research before a purchase.
If your short-tail keyword is “vegan pizza” then a long-tail variation could be “gluten-free vegan pizza” or “vegan pizza in Rome”. The second example incorporates a local keyword which is just a keyword that is area-specific. As many as 46% of searches are for local goods and services so it pays to include them.
How To Use Keywords?
So you know what keywords are and that you need to include them in your content in order for Google to rank you. The best way to use keywords is in a strategic and well-thought-out manner. Moderation and consistency will return the best results — SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
You may think the simple solution is to shove as many keywords into one blog post or webpage as possible. Not a great idea. Google knows that people do this and being the fair machine it is, it doesn’t look kindly upon keyword stuffing. In fact, it actually appreciates well-written content more. It’s a machine of taste you see.
Your content writing for SEO should always be written for human readers in order to place better. After all, the final goal is either to inform, entertain or make a sale to human customers. That is until the robots rise up and start googling “vegan pizza in Rome”. If that happens then keyword stuff away.
Why Are Nichés Important To SEO?
Just like keyword stuffing won’t help your cause, being too general also hinders your SEO success. It’s a logical fallacy: targeting more people will generate more sales. Not exactly. No matter how much you advertise to the Jeep owner, they just aren’t interested in your BMW parts. Niching down ensures that the right people are hearing about you. It also allows you to capitalise on a gap in the market and secure your position above your competition.
Who needs an SEO strategy?
Do you have a website or blog? Do you want to make sure the right people visit it? Then you need SEO. It’s as simple as that.
It’s not a difficult and laborious activity but will return great benefits when used correctly.
With the right keywords and a solid niché, you can be climbing your way to the #1 position in no time.
How Can A Copywriter Help?
A good SEO strategy starts with original, user-centric content. And that all starts with a copywriter (or content writer). They are the CEOs of SEO-driven content. Remember how I said that SEO is like magic? A copywriter or content writer can "bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" your brand onto the first page of Google. (But only those well-versed in it, lest you want to risk becoming a toad.)
Until next time, I'm Sam — your friendly neighbourhood copywriter.
This post was originally written for Riddle Me Write and has been adapted.
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