Is Your SEO Copywriting Any Good? 3 Tell-Tale Tests
Welcome back! Today’s video SEO copywriting tip concerns how to tell if your Web SEO copywriting is any good.
Whether you hired an SEO copywriter or are doing it yourself, you may not be sure how to gauge the quality and effectiveness of your SEO copy. Join Heather as she outlines three tests to tell if your SEO copywriting is any good, focusing on what you need to watch out for:
Test #1: Does the writing work?
This is the easiest test of all: read the copy and ask yourself if you like it. Does it work for you?
What you should watch out for:
- “Fluffy” Copy Meaning, what could be conveyed in 250 words is dragged out with no apparent purpose or reader benefit to 500 words. Often this is the result of the SEO copywriter being told that s/he needs to reach a certain wordcount. As Heather has discussed in previous posts, this is a persistent SEO myth.
- Boring Copy Self-explanatory. Either you wrote it when you were brain-dead tired, or you’ve hired an SEO copywriter who hasn’t grasped the tone, feel, and voice of your site.
- Bad Copy Again, self-explanatory. If the copy reads like someone wrote it in five minutes, then they probably did. While Google Panda has eliminated a lot of poor content, you can still find copy riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and/or that seems to make no sense.
Test #2: How’s the keyphrase usage?
Look at the use of keyphrases in the Web copy and start drilling down from the SEO perspective.
Here’s what to watch for:
- Too many keyphrases As with SEO copy wordcount myths, keyphrase density remains a tenacious hangover from pre-Google days. The notion is that you have to a certain percentage of keywords, or keyword density, in the copy. And again, this is counter-productive nonsense as Heather has addressed before with her video post on over-optimization.
- Too few keyphrases On the other side of the spectrum is the overly-cautious SEO copywriter who fails to include enough keyphrases in the copy for fear of keyword stuffing. For instance, s/he may have only incorporated the keyphrase in the page Title and called it good. This is something else you’ll want to evaluate.
- Are the keyphrases appropriate? This can be a more difficult thing to judge if you’ve outsourced your SEO copywriting and the writer has chosen the keyphrases for you. Just know that if you’re in a highly competitive market and are targeting general (= highly competitive) keyphrases, such as “digital camera,” that it’s going to be that much more difficult to position for those keyphrases.
Look to make sure that the keyphrases targeted aren’t too general. You want keyphrases that are specific to the page you’re optimizing for.
And, if you do have questions, be sure to ask your SEO copywriter how they selected the keyphrases they’re using, and why they decided upon those particular keyphrases. Hear what s/he has to say.
Test #3: Conversion Power
At the end of the day, we all want our sites to do something for us – be it blog comments, subscription sign-ups, direct purchase, or contact.
What to watch for:
- Reviewing a sales page? Be sure the benefits to your prospect are front and center, and that you’ve included a clear call to action.
- Reviewing a blog post? Check to see if the post is engaging and optimized with a keyphrase-rich Title.
- Reviewing a FAQ or article page? Does the FAQ page or article link to other areas of the site? Are there any “dead end” pages that fail to help the prospect take action? The point of all your SEO copywriting efforts is to get your readers to move around your site.
Great advice (as usual) any recommendations on keyword/keyphrase frequency since Panda update? I’m still including keyphrase in meta-data and headline, but I’m not sure how much to use KW in copy. For instance if I write a web page with 300 words, and have the KW in meta- data and headline, how many times should I use in copy? What do you think copy Wonder Woman?
Ah, FANTASTIC question!
There’s never been a hard and fast rule around “how many times” or “keyphrase density.” I used to say, “include your main keyphrase at least three times each” – but even that became a fake “rule” that people followed. :P What I do is look for opportunities within the content and add as many keyphrases as I can without stuffing the content. I also focus on the three SEO copy keyphrase “power positions” – the headline (and subheadlines,) the Title and hyperlinks.
Does this help…?
Thanks, H!
Definitely some good things to look out for when outsourcing your writing.
IMHO, no one can write better for your blog than you can yourself. :)
Ana
Thanks, Ana! :)
Thanks Heather, that is more “pure gold” advice!