Writing for the web is not all about keywords

Why writing for maximum SEO benefit is not all about keywords

As SEO professionals we are always explaining to copywriters about the importance of finding the right keywords and using them in their copy. However, the danger of focusing on the importance of keywords is that we can end up writing keyword rich, but soulless copy which bores the reader. It is all very well to write for search engines, but if your website is full of dull, uninteresting and poorly constructed sentences readers will desert you in droves.

Copy written without emotion will not sell. Sure, it may fool the search engines and get the visitors, but they won't convert into sales. The result is a wasted opportunity.

Similarly, if you write great engaging copy but ignore your key phrases, you won't get the visitors in the first place.

The trick of it is a balancing act. You want to produce lively, emotionally engaging content that is also rich in the right keywords.

Our advice is to start with the emotionally charged, benefits-led copy and later at second or third edit stage, replace synonyms with you chosen keywords.

Read the edited content out loud, and listen to your words as spoken. I like to record my reading, wait ten minutes, then listen to my playback. this simple trick soon shows me where the copy is too obviously written for SEO benefiot, or converesly, where another instance of a key phrase might benefit the piece.

Writers are always asking me how many times to put a key phrase into a webpage or article. I reply that this is not the best way to think about it. Rules like 'no more than 5 words in every hundred should be a key phrase' are simply too prescriptive.

If the copy is good enough, just one or two instances of the key phrase will be enough to bring you the SEO benefits you need while retaining the quality of your written work.

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