Website Writing For SEO

Being found on Google shouldn't be a needle in a haystack. While developers are responsible for the code, copywriters are in charge of SEO copywriting or on-page SEO – the text content, links and meta data. Here is a brief overview of good practice when optimising website copy.

Research keywords

These are the words that lead your audience to the services or products you offer. Knowing the words your customers use to find you are critical to being found on search engines.

Keyword families

For each of your content topic areas, create keyword families, also known as keyword niches. Use these as you label your pages and write your page content. Audiences often search using groups of words, and if you target these you will create more qualified leads.

Where to use keywords

Use words from your keyword family on each page as appropriate: page titles/headings, first paragraph, body copy, image names, alt text and meta data.

Be authentic and natural

Search engines can assess when you start ‘keyword stuffing’, and will penalise you. Pages that use too many keywords place search engine rankings ahead of user experience. They usually sound artificial, lacking pace and rhythm. 

Create a list of tags

Based on your keyword list, create a set of clearly defined tags and categories for pages grouped around themes and topics. Most commonly applied to blogs, tags help search engines and users search and index your content. The number of tags will depend on your topics, but aim to keep it as short and succinct as possible.

Good structure

Create a clear website structure (also called site map or information architecture), ideally with the top menu pages named with appropriate keywords. For example, instead of ‘Products’ use ‘Books’.

Index/category pages

Create a great index page for each main category of content. This provides an authentic keyword-rich page to orientate your audience.

Internal linking

Linking from one page on your site to another, using keyword links/anchors, is called internal linking. When done systematically and authentically, this helps search engines to index your content by the most relevant keywords or search terms.

By writing well, using words your audience use, you help both them and search engines understand what you do and what you can offer. After all, the engines’ job is to match user queries with the most appropriate providers. Contact us to discuss your website on-page SEO and keyword strategy.