Writing a good SEO copy that ranks well is both an art and a science. It’s not just about putting words on a page, nor is it solely about focusing on keywords; it’s about understanding your audience and delivering quality content that meets their needs and keeps them engaged with your brand or service.
SEO writing is highly competitive and constantly evolving technology-wise, but one thing’s for sure: it isn’t going anywhere, so understanding both the art and the science behind killer content is key.
How can you check if your writing is good and if your SEO copy meets the art and science behind ranking? Keep reading to find out.
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What Is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is basically writing high-quality content that has been optimized for both human readers and search engine algorithms.
Essential Elements of a Good SEO Copy
In the recent past, many SEO writers wrote primarily for search engines, covering the science but not the art. However, this is no longer the case, as search engines are becoming smarter and now focus more on user intent and whether or not the content meets the expectations of readers.
In other words, an article can be perfect SEO-wise, but it won’t rank if the actual content remains useless to its readers.
A good copy consists of four elements:
- Relevance. Ensure that your content matches what people are searching for (this is where SEO techniques come into play).
- Clarity. Write in a way that’s easy to understand, with shorter sentences and readability at the 5th-8th grade level, especially on social media and YouTube.
- Engagement. Use copywriting know-how to keep readers interested, which also means keeping them entertained, even for complex topics.
- Originality. Express unique points of view not findable everywhere.
Is Your Current Content Actually Тhat Cool?
Before you start writing effectively for both the audience and algorithms, you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself to what extent your current SEO content writing is good and up to date with trends and your audience.
You can embark on a somewhat complex journey of qualitative content analysis by understanding how your current content is performing, figuring out what’s working well, and then producing more content that is similar.
There are numerous professionals in the SEO agency for b2b and tools available to assist you. Google Analytics, Search Console, or Semrush can provide insights into views, clicks, click-through rates, and the keywords you’re ranking for. Moreover, you can adjust the readability of your text using tools like Grammarly or Readability Formulas. Keep in mind that modern users prefer simple language and may have limited concentration abilities, so prioritize “easy”
Are You Sure Your Target Audience Is Really Your Target Audience?
If your business is evolving but your target audience is still stuck in the past, you need to revisit it immediately. Having a buyer persona is very important, but it might still miss the mark because your target audience has changed over time and you didn’t notice.
As with qualitative content analysis, you can go through a pretty complicated process or simplify things by checking where your target audience is today:
- Research your niche in Google Trends or AnswerThePublic and find what people are searching for now. What are the trending topics, questions, and popular content formats? This way you might notice for instance that your old 3000 word guides are not relevant anymore and your audience moved on to bite-sized micro topics.
- Review your keywords. The days when ‘copywriting’ was just a simple keyword are long gone. Instead, people use long-tail keywords such as ‘What is spelunking° or “How can I do spelunking?”. Search for good volume and the lowest possible keyword difficulty.
Study Your Competitors
To better understand if your content is good, look at how your main competitors and influencers you admire are doing online.
Use Semrush, SimilarWeb, or SpyFu to analyze their traffic, and keywords, and assess overall quality. You don’t want to copy them. You want to learn what they are doing differently so you can do it better.
It can be tiresome to do such deep analysis, but if an 18-year-old girl can look over thousands of scripts by Mr. Beast so she can crack his copywriting style and apply it to her own videos, making each one of them go viral, so can you.
Make a List of What You Don’t Want in Your SEO Copy
After you review your current content, target audience, competitors, and trends, you can create a list of what you don’t want in your content anymore.
From the “science” part you don’t want to:
- Keyword stuffing. It’s important to use keywords naturally and in context.
- Ignoring meta descriptions and title tags. Neglecting to optimize them can result in missed opportunities for improving your search engine rankings.
- Failing to update content regularly. Search engines prefer websites that regularly publish new and relevant content, so failing to update and repurpose your content can hinder your SEO efforts.
From the “art” part you don’t want to:
- Write boring articles. Experiment with new writing styles and language to see how your current audience will react.
- Cover multiple subjects in one long article. Оpt to answer one question at a time to better align with users’ expectations of solving specific problems.
How to Check if Your SEO Copy Is Good
The easiest way to check if something is good or not is to go through a checklist like the following:
- Your copy consists of one main, well-researched long-tail keyword and 2-3 additional keywords that are not overly used throughout the text.
- The text is formatted with an introduction, headings, and a conclusion. Your main keyword is mentioned at the beginning, in at least one heading, and the meta description.
- You have a meta description between 150-160 characters that sounds engaging, and the main keyphrase is mentioned naturally.
- Your copy is optimized for relevance and value. this means you’ve made sure the content is aligned with the user’s search intent, has solved a clear problem, and added backlinks of additional value.
- Your copy is optimized for readability and engagement. Measure your readability score with tools such as Gunning Fog to check the readability and make adjustments if needed.
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Wrap Up
In the fast-moving world we live in today, writing is constantly evolving. To keep your content interesting and valuable for readers, it’s important to check if your SEO copy is relevant and high-quality. Keeping up with both the trends and what your competitors are doing is key to staying visible online, ranking high in search results, and attracting new customers to your business.