Unlike an Ikea wardrobe, Rome wasn’t built in a day. The same applies to effective keyword research.

Given that keyword research is the most important aspect of your search engine optimization campaign, let’s get things underway by laying a strong foundation.

My no-compromise keyword service means, once the dust has settled, you’ll benefit from SEO-enhanced web copy which raises awareness, drives traffic and increases sales.

Keyword Research Content Strategy

If your website is targeting the wrong keywords, the search engines and your customers may never find you – it’s just that simple. That’s why I offer clients a professional keyword content strategy service ahead of the web copy writing stage.

Understanding your users

When it comes to keyword research, it’s paramount that we understand your users’ language. Remember, your user is unlikely to work in the same industry as you, so technical jargon may prove ineffective.

Undertaking a user identity means we can answer these questions to accurately judge the keywords users are typing into the search engines to find you.

Niche keyword research

Sometimes, the big dollar keywords aren’t always the most beneficial. Niche keyword research is a great way to unearth less competitive terms which can render business changing results. As part of the keyword research strategy, we’ll work out how best to deploy these keywords. It could, for example, be the case that we need to develop inventive ways of creating landing pages which contain these niche keywords.

Web page structure

Web page structure is also a vital part of any effective search engine optimization campaign. Keywords should be included in the:

• Title Tag
• Meta Description Tags
• Headings
• Alt text
• Anchor Text/ Navigational Links

SEO enhanced web copy

So that’s the keyword research process, but what about the final product? This is where the art of good web copywriting comes into play.

Armed with a master list of keywords, I’ll proceed to seamlessly sprinkle them into masterfully composed web copy. The end result will be branded, user-driven, SEO-enhanced web copy which gets the job done.

Measure Your Keyword Success

Professional keyword research is all about results. With your website marketing, we measure how successful your keyword strategy has proved and step things up even further to increase traffic and conversions.

All the different possibilities kept coming up over and over again, like bubbles in a dishevelled can of Coke.

Taking a stiff shot of brandy, I shook myself back to reality. I was off the clock now and besides, I’m a man first, detective second. What do I care why she’s here?

Keywords in Title Tags: Femme Fatale

Her name was Jenny, but as she’d later tell me: “My friends call me Keywords in Title Tags.”

Interesting name, I thought.

A long red dress hung from her person with the majesty of visiting royalty. The curly blonde locks sat atop her flawless face like icing on a cake. I wanted to take a bite.

She was the type of woman that made you drop to your knees and thank God for making you a man.

Keywords in Title Tags: Legs like a moisturized giraffe

Keywords in Title Tags cut through the band of drunken deadbeats like a warm knife through butter. She had the type of legs that made men behave like squirrels – you just wanted to climb them.

We locked eyes.

“Come sit down. Have a brandy with us”, I said.

She silently acquiesced, taking perch on the adjacent stool.

To all appearances, I was playing it cooler than an iceberg in the Antarctic. Truth is I was more excited than some kid on Christmas Eve. I wanted to open my present and I couldn’t wait till the morning.

All the same, things just didn’t sit right, something was wrong.

But it didn’t matter. She took my breath away faster than a forest fire. She was even better up close.

“Can I tell you a story”, she asked, purring like a kitten in a milk factory.

Signalling to the barkeep for two more brandies, I answered:  “Has it got a wild finish?”

“I don’t know the finish yet.”

“Well, go on”, I urged, “tell it – maybe one will come to you as you go along.”

The Story of Keywords in Title Tags

Keywords in Title Tags took a long sip of brandy, paused, took another, then began her story.

“Well, sweet cakes, it’s about a gal I knew from back west. She’d stumbled across the importance of title tags to search engine optimisation.”

I looked back, puzzled, but intrigued. “Go on”, I said.

“Well my friend back west says title tags are an important ranking variable for Google and other search engines. So let me impart a little wisdom: when SEO-enhancing your web copy, feature keywords prominently in the title tag.”

Clicking back her neck to three ‘o’clock, she threw the last of her drink down her throat. This girl wasn’t wasting any time.

She continued: “Given that keywords are visible from the search engine results page, they help describe that page. What I’m trying to say is: where possible get keywords in your title take.”

This girl is all kinds of crazy I thought, but I love crazy.

Keywords and the Death of a Detective

She could have told me she’d been milking cows all day – whatever passed her lips was hotter than a baked potato in a heat wave.

“I heard a story like that once”, I said, staring down the barrel of another empty shot glass. “As a matter of fact, I’ve heard a lot of stories in my time.”

Maybe it was the brandy, maybe it was the swirl of her perfume, I’d come over all heady.

Falling back off the bar stool, I hit the ground harder than a felled tree. Timber, I thought, laughing under my brandy breath.

“That’s for Little Charlie detective scum”, she scoffed, changing her tune quicker than a concert pianist with a gun pressed to his head. “It’s a shame. I was kinda starting to like you too. Have a nice death, detective.”

My police senses pointlessly kicked back in – I’d been drugged.

Looking up from my deathbed, I could just make out the curves of her face – she was still beautiful. But it was the most expensive glass of brandy I would ever knock back; it had cost me my life.

Pulling a silk handkerchief from her blouse, she held it over my limp body and let it slip from her grasp.

I watched as the handkerchief gracefully rode the breeze of the bar down to my expectant face. The closer it got, the further I slipped from this world.

The silky death knell veiled my face like a cloth on a haggard table. I could smell my femme fatale all over it.

Sweetness followed.

Go with me here. These lanterns are pretty flimsy. Should a curious bird peck a hole in one, it’s anyone’s guess as to where it would land. Firework factories and petrol stations would be the most unforgiving targets.

And what happens if a sky lantern gets stuck in a tree or flies through the window of a skyscraper? It just really bothers me.

Comparable problems apply in the arena of web copy. As with sky lanterns, you have to consider all the consequences, all the angles.

Commercial writing is a great case in point. You see, SEO-enhanced web copy is all well and good, but if it fails to augment and sell the brand then it is about as useful as a bucket during a drought.

Brand Building Through Web Copy

Brand building is integral to the success of any product or service. Branding is a way of saying who you are, a medium to voice your unique take on whatever it is you do. Branding is what makes you different from the competitors and in the end, lets prospect users know why they should choose you instead of the other million possibilities online.

When handling web copy projects for clients, I operate in a number of capacities. Sometimes I’ll build brands from the ground up, other times I’ll whittle into an existing model.

Whatever the case, your web copy must tap into and enhance the client’s brand.

How to Brand Build Through Web Copy

Rome wasn’t built in a day, or so the saying goes. So when developing a brand from scratch, it’s best to have a plan in place. Get things underway by mapping out a content strategy which defines the best way to maximise your client’s prospects.

Ring-fence the target audience and work out their needs, desires and tastes. Any keyword research undertaken should flow from this as you get inside the mind of the prospect user.

How are they going to search for your client’s website online? What is your client’s unique selling point and how can you make that shine through web copy? Perhaps a tagline would help build brand and character?

If, like me, you also specialise in online marketing, then it may be that your client needs advice when it comes to building website visitation and sales conversion.

So get down and dirty and work out an online marketing strategy. How are you going to build links? Would the site benefit from a newsletter, discounts, competitions, freemiums or giveaways?

If you decide upon a blog – and nine times out of 10 you probably should – then what type of content and concepts will further the brand?

It’s all food for thought.

If the brand and website already exists, then reverse engineer these questions as you look to get the most for your client out of their online endeavour.

How Inventive Should I Get with Branding?

You know what, if the project demands it, you can get crazier than Willy Wonka in a sweet shop. And if a quieter approach is needed, then slap on some Michael Bolton and enjoy the smooth times.

The bottom line is this. When it comes to branding through web copy or in your role as copywriter, each and every step you take needs to be signed-off by the client.

By all means you should advise and push your professional opinion, but at the end of the day it is the client’s opinion that really matters – even if you have doubts.

How do I turn my web copy strategy into an online reality?

That’s a reasonable enough question. It’s a fair bet that if your client has hired you to write brand infused web copy, they probably already have a web designer onboard.

In my case, I often work in partnership with a cracking web designer on an array of projects. I’ll design the content and marketing while he builds the website. Sometimes, we work on branding and strategy together, it just depends on what the client wants.

And don’t worry how technical your ideas seem, most web designers I work with agree the best scenario is for a website to be built around the content rather than the other way round.

The web designer will create the specific framework to support your web copy strategy.

Brand Building and Web Copy – The Perfect Relationship

As we speak, the dark sky is alight with the glow of a rogue band of Chinese lanterns. I swear by the belly of Zeus that five of the bad boys are currently cutting a fiery path through the clouds above my office.

If any typos have crept into this instalment of Copywriting for the Web, they can be attributed to sweaty palms. Sky lanterns make me more nervous than a vegetarian in a butchers shop.

And where do they go when they die? That’s what I want to know. For the love of God, will somebody just please tell me, where do they go?

Don’t fall into the same trap as the mountain climber who packed a tent but not the tent pegs. He had a cold night’s sleep.

So think warm thoughts and aggregate your web copy with the right keywords. This’ll get you in bed with the search engines faster than a Himalayan avalanche.

SEO Keyword Research for Existing Websites

When working with an existing website the first place you should start is with the analytics. Have a poke around and find out what keywords have brought traffic to your site.

Take note of various metrics like how quickly they left the site, how long they stayed and how many pages they viewed?

Columbo always embarked on a fact finding mission before bringing his target to book and so should you. Not only will you be able to see whether existing content is working, you’ll bring perspective to which areas of the site you want to grow.

SEO Long Tail Keyword Research

Targeting single keywords, or head terms, has traditionally been viewed as a way of generating big bucks online. Given that the internet is now saturated with keyword-heavy websites, things have changed.

The competition for many individual keywords is vast.

So set your sights on long tail keyword research and target groups of keywords.

A good way of doing this is to understand your audience and how they use keywords when searching online. Draw-up a user profile and ring-fence what search terms you suppose they are typing into Google.

Armed with a list of well-researched keywords makes it easier to tailor your content to the key audience.

So What are Long Tail Keywords?

The long tail of any keyword is the head keyword. Let me translate. In the search phrase ‘menswear Grimsby Lincolnshire’, ‘menswear’ is the head keyword and those which follow are the long tail.

Long tailing, then, is a means to modify head keywords – such as ‘menswear’ – which are just too competitive.

On the downside, longer tail keywords might not get as many hits as the head ones.

But the good news is that the query will be more targeted, driving a specific type of traffic to your site.

Users often know what they are searching for, so if you match their needs, the chances are you can pretty much get them to do what you want.

SEO Keyword Research for New Websites

When it comes to SEO keyword research for newer websites, a similar line of attack is required.

Go all Picasso and draw-up a list of keywords you think the user will search for. Throw them into an online keyword tool and search for relevant data.

If you’re starting a new website then it’s even harder to rank for those head keywords which are higher in competition. So again, bring the long tail into play.

Have a look at long tail modifiers and build the keyword you are after into a key phrase.

Keyword Research: A Crucial Part of Web Copy

SEO keyword research is a highly technical area and it’s just not enough to spam your web pages with keyword-heavy paragraphs.

Keywords and key phrases need to be seamlessly embedded in the slipstream of your web copy. When the dust settles, your web copy should be SEO enhanced to help you rank well online.

It should also embolden and further your brand identity, contain effective yet subtle sales messages, while informing and entertaining your readers.

It’s a tall, but achievable order.

With that in mind, take a moment to consider a pearl of wisdom imparted to me by a taxi driver this morning…

“It’s a topsy-turvy world and maybe my problems don’t amount to a hill of beans. But this is my hill and these are my beans!”

Well said Mr Taxidriver, well said indeed.

Tone is integral to this process.

Before putting pen to paper, or finger to keypad, once again consider your audience!

Whatever you’re selling, whatever angle you’re promoting, it’s crucial to imbue it with a voice and personality that speaks direct to the reader.

Doing so can prove a technical challenge. The copywriter is faced with a barrage of tools equally capable of excavating or burying the emotional selling point of the product.

Like a good golfer, pick the right club.

It’s no good strapping a tag-line to face cream proclaiming ‘it does what it says on the tin’. This is unlikely to appeal to the intended audience and who would want to spread Ron Seal on their face? Not me.

Active versus passive…

In exposing the emotional selling point of your product, decide whether to use an ‘active’ or ‘passive’ voice. When it comes to web copy there is no fixed rule on this but generally the ‘active’ voice imbues text with more immediacy and pace.

And given that people rarely read web pages word for word, why not try adopting an informal and personal manner as well?

An informal feel can easily be derived from first person usage of words such as ‘I’, whereas the third person, ‘he’ or ’she’, as well as the ‘passive’ voice, conveys a more formal feel.

Of course, this may suit your project. But either way, just make sure the shoe fits the foot. I call this the Cinderella Complex – no really, I do.

Tonal tinkering…

Once you’ve settled on an ‘active’ or ‘passive’ voice, there are a number of other key elements you may want to consider.

Ask yourself this: is slang appropriate? Many sayings are geographically and culturally specific, so make sure your message isn’t lost in translation.

Also decide whether your copy is jargon heavy.

Consider for a second that clichéd moment in so many movies where a bemused president calls on his chief scientist to repeat his prediction of the world’s end “in plain English”. The scientist proceeds to translate the scientific equation into language the audience understands: “Mr President, all hell is about to break loose!”

So don’t overwhelm the reader with jargon and technical terms, distill your message down to its most basic elements.

Humour is also a tricky one. Numerous television adverts, for instance, embrace broad humour in a bid to grab the viewers’ attention. But in the case of web copy it can be hard to make a joke jump off a one-dimensional computer screen.

Humour, of course, is subjective: what one person finds funny will leave others scratching their heads.

Done properly though, it can help spice up your copy and sound a unique voice the reader won’t forget. But as we said at the beginning, let the subject and audience dictate the tone of your copy, this way success is a matter of keystrokes away.

And just remember, people scan webpages, picking out individual words and sentences, so make each one COUNT!

The only real dividing factor between The Good, The Bad, and The Copy, is how successful your content turns out to be in real terms i.e. does it sell your message and reach its intended target?

Well does it…?

As discussed in the previous post, get things underway by ring fencing your audience. This will automatically set you on the right travel of direction with regards to creating winning content.

Now you know who you are writing for it’s time to prepare the necessary ingredients.

Let’s make a cake…

As a general guideline, it’s best to set your ego aside when writing for the web. All too often – and on occasion I have fallen victim to this –copywriters lose sight of their audience. Unless the subject demands it, avoid the pitfalls of novelistic devices and flowery prose. If you are writing web copy for a new line of washing machines, a Dickensian one page exposition might not be the most fitting approach.

Sure it sounds good, but does it sell?

Have a look round your room right now – unless you’re sat on a beach – and you’ll be amazed by the extent of copy that falls into your eye line. No doubt you’ve forked out hard-earned money on some of these products so the chances are the copy attached to them is successful.

Typically, but not always, triumphant web copy veers away from the complexities of creative writing in favour of the simplistic.

So complex sentences, long words, jargon-heavy paragraphs may make us look smart, but given the trend for people to scan online, it’s often not the best route.

The key objective is to sell the message.

Flip the coin and where appropriate use short sentences, be snappy and to the point, deploy simple words that are easy to read and don’t require a dictionary.

As George Orwell recognised: why use a long word when a short one will do? Atta-boy George!

Boy George…?

So take unnecessarily long words out and parachute simpler equivalents in. In doing so, why not use contractions such as ‘don’t’, instead of ‘do not’, or ‘you’re’, as opposed to ‘you are’.

By limiting the verbiage and getting straight to the point, not only will your content cater for the needs of the online reader, but the visual layout will also become more succinct and easier on the eye.

It’s a win win situation.

Less is often more, just let the subject and your audience dictate the copy.

‘Copywriting Secrets and Tips’ is a guide for website owners, authors, and web designers on creating engaging SEO enhanced copy. Over the coming months I’ll carve out a quintessential source of information on the subject of online copy. So sit back and prepare to embark on an epic tale of copywriting in a virtual age…

The rules of engagement…

Let’s set the ball in motion by saying there are no rules – as with any creative venture, the end result should always serve the subject!

Does this mean adopting a Dirty Harry-like approach of shooting first and asking questions later? Perhaps not. But instead of talking in absolutes, it’s best to think of writing for the web as an organic process.

As such, I’ll share with you a set of interchangeable guidelines, tips, and points of contention when tackling web copy.

Where to start…?

If you’re planning a road-trip this year you might be advised to map-out the route prior to departure. The same applies to web copy. Don’t be lured into putting pen to paper until you’ve developed a firm understanding of how people read online – resist the temptation!

Instead, step into the mind of your reader and learn the ways of web copy. Seeing things from an audience perspective will help inform all aspects of your project from layout, to content, headings, pictures, and beyond.

So is this really necessary? You betcha it is.

Online reading is a distinct animal that requires a special diet of tailored copy.

When it comes to the internet, for instance, research shows people are prone to scanning content and deterred by heavy-blocks of information. Your copy might be on par with the work of Shakespeare, but if people aren’t willing to give it a chance, then it’s bound to fall short.

Reading on the web is a very particular process and successful copy projects are shaped to suit this need. Consider for a moment: it’s raining outside, rolling winds spark an overhanging tree into life, its branch-like tentacles reach forward and rat-a-tat-tat on the window; you’re perched on the couch – a warm cup of coffee in one hand, War and Peace in the other – you take solace in your surroundings.

Now consider the same scenario sitting upright at your desk, a searing computer screen locked in battle with your waning eyes – it’s different right?

On a computer, the reader often wants quickly digestible facts, a swat-team style in-and-out approach, whereas with a novel, the reader is prepared to inject a different level of commitment.

Easy rider, easy reader…!

Reading on a screen is undoubtedly hard on the eyes, so use the tricks of the trade. Things like short sentences, plain English instead of jargon, paragraph breaks, lists, headings, sub-headings and keywords are integral to the online reading experience.

Such measures will distill overlong paragraphs into content pleasing to the eye. Avoid drowning the reader in a torrent of words; massage the visual layout of the webpage, and write with a mind to the reader.

And therein lies the key message of this opening post: begin any web copy project by developing a grasp of your readers’ needs then build them into your content.

So remember, where possible, keep it simple.