In this article, you will find out more about 30+ web tools and services that everybody recommends – web and graphic designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and freelancers.
There are many topics covered: WordPress support, website builders, WordPress themes and plugins, logo generators, web development services, the best font finder, and much more. [Read more…] about 30+ Web Tools & Services That Everybody Recommends
One of the main things that drives people to your website is content. It’s one of the primary things Google indexes to create results for searches that are applicable to your website. While great content and content that’s great for search results may not always look the same at first glance, you can work on making your content stand out from the crowd and optimized for search engines.
It’s an essential part of promoting your website, finding new visitors, and turning your brand into a powerhouse.
SEO copywriting is all about creating content that’s designed to help your search engine rank. Even a great page of content may be tweaked to provide better performance on search engines. When you’re writing a page of content for your website, whether it’s a blog post, a product advertisement, or a landing page, always keep search engine optimization in mind.
Every part of your site should be designed with SEO in mind, but content is one area to especially pay attention. The reason for that is because your content is the thing that will be updated most on your site. Since your place in search results may be boosted if you update more often, SEO copywriting is a habit you’ll want to develop early on.
Of course, if you already have a lot of content that isn’t optimized for search engines, you can go back and make it stronger. Updating your old content may also give you a boost, and is worth the time it takes to do so.
Copywriting for SEO done well has three parts. First, you must write content that delivers the message you want your site visitors to absorb. Second, you must write it in a compelling, clear way that encourages people to read it and makes them want to come back. Third, you must write and present the content in a way that makes it easier for search engines to crawl your site and present it when the right keyword search is performed.
Ultimately, these will contribute to the three primary goals of SEO copywriting.
It’s all about playing nice with what search engines want so that you can reap the benefits of getting to the top of the search results. Since the first result on Google gets 33 percent of the traffic, and every result down gets exponentially less, even one upward position can make a substantial difference. If you’re not on the first page of Google search results for your targeted keywords, don’t despair. That can be your first goal as you improve your SEO copywriting and update old content.
To become skilled at copywriting for SEO, keep in mind the best practices as you write. That way, you’re always working to make your content better and more likely to be shared.
Writing compelling content is the most important aspect of SEO copywriting, which cannot be stressed enough. The reason for this is that search engines put a lot of weight on how many quality links from trusted domains link back to your content. When they like your content and share it in a positive way, you get two different benefits:
When you’re writing content designed to get people on your website, do keyword research to make sure that not all the keywords you’re targeting are competitive. You want a good mix of different types of keyword types. A handful of competitive high-value keywords that are hard to rank may surprise you when you rank higher than expected. Lower competition long-tail keywords will be easier for you to get rank in when you’re first starting, though. So when you’re designing a piece of content, consider the keywords you want to target before you start writing.
Do your research on the topic you’re writing about before you start the writing process. Having a good grasp of the topic will make your content better and provide a good first impression to any new visitors. Putting out mediocre content quick may seem appealing, but in the long run writing high-quality content with helpful information will lead to better performance for your site.
Once you have a great content piece ready, you need to put it in a compelling frame. Having relevant images that are attractive and eye-catching, related videos, and a catchy headline. Since the headline may be picked up as the title of your search results, make sure it explains the content and makes people want to look at it. Great copywriting is improved by having all the right link types, keywords, images, and structure to present it properly.
So how do you find the right keywords to build your content around? Use a keyword research tool. There are several available from Google, Moz, and Wordstream, for example. Type in a keyword you want to see results for, and then explore the available data. Look for keywords that have many searches, but lower competition. Ones with a lot of competition will be hard to rank for. Keywords with few searches won’t give you as much benefit as ones that get many searches.
Most tools will also give you data for long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific keywords that people search for and may deliver lower competition for more searches than standard keyword phrases. If your website is relatively new and lacking in the authority to take on the major industry competitors then it maybe wise to target multiple long-tail keywords and build up traffic and authority to your site and brand that way though.
One important consideration when performing SEO copywriting is that you can’t just dump paragraphs on the page like an essay. Web content should be formatted differently than other types of content, simply because it will be read and examined differently.
Consider using headings to break up your document. Think of them as the bones of your content. They make it easier for a visitor to skim the page and find the content that’s relevant to them. Don’t make your paragraphs too long. Short paragraphs or a mix of lengths is more readable and attractive.
Choose a font that isn’t hard to read. You’re looking for something attractive that fits with your page, but nothing fancy with lots of flourishes. If it’s hard for a visitor to read your site, they may move on and not come back. Always think readability when you’re working on your copy cosmetics.
“On a typical blog, only about 2% will spend more than two minutes reading a post”
Neil Patel, Quicksprout.com
Think of your content as a conversation between you and the person visiting your site. Depending on your niche and the approach you want to take, you might keep things more casual or more formal. For example, a recipe site that uses real-life anecdotes might address people like old friends. A site trying to rent business conference spaces probably wants to keep things more professional. Choose a tone and stay on it throughout your site.
Use the active voice when possible. Don’t force it, but do try to write in such a way that most of your sentences are active rather than passive. It is a cleaner writing style that resonates with most readers. Also, use powerful words that inspire emotion in the person reading your content. When they connect with your words, they’re more likely to connect with your site.
“Using active voice helps people picture themselves taking action, so it’s no surprise that it’s considered so important in marketing copywriting. After all, when you write your page copy, you want it to convert – and that means convincing readers to take action on your offer”
Sharon Hurely Hall, Sharonhh.com
Determine what questions your content could answer, and then work that into the content. Many people search for questions when they don’t know the answer to something, and if you provide the answer, you might rise in search results.
Finally, don’t skimp on the words. Writing more than 1500 words not only offers more space to answer questions and explain concepts, but it also provides more room for links and keywords. You don’t need to go overboard; every post isn’t a novel. But don’t cut yourself off, either. Write to the topic, and try to go long. Neil Patel of Quicksprout found that pages that ranked higher on Google were likely to have more than 2000 words. Pages that were higher in the results tended to have more words than those lower in the results as well.
Old SEO professionals often suggested stuffing in the keyword you’re targeting as much as possible in a post. But that creates an unreadable and unattractive piece of content. Instead, keep your tone natural and appealing. Use different variations of your keyword to target other potential searchers with your content.
Your metadata is information about your content that doesn’t appear on the page, but is visible to search engines. It may determine how your site’s search result appears on Google. Make sure to optimize your metadata before you publish your page. Even great SEO copywriting needs the right frame to get those initial views before your site develops a large following.
Not every link on your page should go to a different site. If you have other content that offers more information about a topic you touch on in your content, link it in your piece. It keeps people on your site, shows the breadth of your knowledge, and improves the utility of what you’re writing by offering a portal to other information.
Errors aren’t only grammatical issues or misplaced commas. They can also be using the same word too often, or not varying sentence lengths. You don’t have to be a perfect, professional writer to create good content. Using a great editor can be highly beneficial in making your writing better and more attractive to visitors. Look for any issue that makes reading the piece less than smooth.
Not only will quoting experts offer an SEO benefit, but it will also add authority to your piece. Read through the content that others in your niche are developing to see what they’re saying. Once you find something relevant, quote the person and link back to their site.
Repeating yourself in SEO copywriting isn’t a bad thing—but you should be introducing new ideas as your piece develops, too. Repetition helps drive home the most important points you need to make. New information keeps the content moving and interesting, as well. Try to only repeat the things that are vital for a reader to understand in a single piece of content.
If you cite a quote, paper, study, or fact, link to it in the body of your content. Make sure you find the best source possible for that link, too. For example, linking to a study itself offers more utility to your reader than linking to a fluff news piece about that study. Always err on the side of value when making decisions in your copywriting. Good content will lead to good PageRank, as long as you also focus on things like content outreach and metadata best practices.
SEO copywriting is an important skill to cultivate and master as you build your website and develop a following. It’s the base of your site and your communication with visitors. You can always hire a professional if you don’t have the time or inclination to learn, but feel confident that you can also write powerful content yourself if you’re so inclined.
Link building is one of the cornerstones of SEO and essential to rank for most competitive search terms. Doing link building the wrong way can quickly get your website into trouble and many websites and business have gone from the top of the SERPs to almost bust overnight due to the wrong link strategies so people are naturally cautious. This has also lead to many myths about link building spreading across SEO blogs, forums and social media over the years and this article is going to put a few of them straight. [Read more…] about 11 Myths About Link Building In SEO
Even when you have an attractive website filled with relevant, timely content that links to other reputable sites, there are still a few places where it’s easy to stumble and end up with negative effects on your SEO. The technical design and function of your website is just as important as the content when it comes to climbing the ranks to get a top spot on Google. One example of a technical error that can cause big problems for your search ranking is a soft 404 error. [Read more…] about Soft 404 Vs Hard 404 Errors: What’s The Difference?
When you’re setting up your marketing strategy, getting your brand out there is essential. Whether you’re climbing the ranks in a Google search or attracting new customers to your site, everything you do should push your brand to make it more popular and more visible. One way to encourage both new customers and better search rankings is getting links to your site from other sites. The type of link makes all the difference—but neither type is inherently bad. Though nofollow links have long been seen as less beneficial than dofollow links, that’s not a complete picture of the situation. Nofollow links come with their own set of benefits and offer real utility to anyone who wants to increase their SEO and promote their brand. [Read more…] about What Are The SEO Benefits of Nofollow Links?
One of the most important aspects of marketing your online business is reaching out and grabbing the attention of new customers. While you can get website visitors from other sources, choosing to focus on your website ranking and search engine position may yield the best results in terms of boosting your visibility. One important metric to consider is your organic click through rate (CTR). Boosting your organic click through rate means getting more people on your website and positioned to buy your products or services.
A click through rate (CTR) is simply the number of people who click on a link that goes to your website. There are a lot of different ways to get clicks, including advertising or social media posts. What makes a particular click organic is that it doesn’t rise from advertisements. It’s a direct click from a search where you appear because of your SEO, not your advertising budget. The number of people who click on your website in search results is your organic click through rate.
Items above the fold on Google–and items that rank higher in the search–see more clicks than others. One factor in your search result placement is how many people click on your search listing. In the screenshot above, there are many factors at play that determine which result comes first. One is the organic click through rate. Since the first Google search result gets 33 percent of the traffic, anything that improves your position can help increase your business.
Your organic click through rate gives you a metric for judging how well your keywords, titles, and meta data are doing, and whether you need to adjust them to draw more website viewers in. The less clicks your search listing gets compared to other listings, the more you’ll fall in rank. The higher your rank, the more likely your link is to get clicked on by a person who has searched for a particular keyword or phrase.
You can increase your organic click through rate by making adjustments on various aspects of your Web content. Updating past content so that it matches best practices for better organic click through rates and tailoring future content with an eye toward getting more clicks can improve the amount of traffic your website gets. Another benefit to boosting your organic click through rate is that you may see a rise in your search engine positioning. The more people who click on your link, the better you do against competitors fighting to get clicks for the same terms you’re targeting.
There is also very strong evidence that click through data is taken as a ranking signal by Google.
Next time I hear a Googler say “we don’t use query/click data in rankings,” I’m pointing to https://t.co/qETZpGEbm9 pic.twitter.com/m9DO3cBVXb
— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) March 17, 2016
If most of your targeted keywords are short one or two word terms, think longer to see an increased click through rate.
A study by Search Engine Watch found that:
“In general, we see a steady and almost monotonic increase in CTR, conversion rate, and conversions per 1,000 impressions as keywords increase in length, with the most “efficient” keywords in the 31-35 character bucket. Note that keywords above 40 characters not only generated a tiny number of impressions – they also weren’t terribly efficient.”
So when you’re setting up your keywords and targeting search terms with an eye toward getting more traffic, try to think of longer phrases that you want to target. If you can hit that terms length of 31-35 characters, even better.
One of the first things a searcher sees when performing a search is the title of the page. There are two things to focus on when choosing a title.
First, make sure it’s relevant to your content. If a title isn’t relevant and doesn’t properly represent the page, even a well-targeted link may not get a click when a searcher chooses to click another, more pertinent link. Catchy titles that don’t give information about the page or misrepresent it can lead to low clicks or low rates of return visitors.
The second thing to think about is whether the title is dry or appealing. People are more likely to click on titles that tug at their heartstrings, stimulate their interest or seem to offer more utility. Before you title a page, consider whether someone glancing at it will feel a strong desire to click based on the terms you’re targeting. If you think it’s bland or unappealing, try a different title.
When developing a title, try to work in the format of the piece, a power word, the type of content and your subject. All of these together will make an interesting title that will draw in more clicks. For example “Eight Shocking Questions to Ask at Job Interviews” is better than “Job Interview Questions to Ask”.
Search Engine Journal recommends writing titles from different perspectives, depending on which best matches your content. They suggest:
Keep in mind that a change in punctuation or capitalization doesn’t create a new title, just a version of the old one that looks different. Use new words and get an entirely new take on the title instead.
Go back to old content and review your titles. It’s a good idea to use targeted search terms in your titles, but that shouldn’t be the end of it. An appealing title that offers utility will draw in a searcher more quickly than just a keyword set. For example, “Children’s Books” is a possible search term that could function as a title. “Ten Children’s Books That Will Inspire You” is more emotional and likely to generate clicks.
Once you’ve developed a strategy to get higher click through rates, test it. Since there are many different approaches to combine, which ones work for you will depend on your brand, site and audience. Try a few different strategies with similar pieces of content at once to see which draws in more clicks and repeat viewers.
Once you’ve narrowed down the types of changes that work best for you, remember to go back and adjust your older content. Make sure every piece conforms to your new approach for a higher click through rate, which will increase overall traffic to your site, especially if you’re focused on evergreen content.
Don’t stop testing just because you find a strategy that works. Web marketing is a changeable field and what works today may not yield results tomorrow. More importantly, you may come across a new idea, test it, and find that it produces an even higher conversion rate. If you play around with your old content, it also has the benefit of updating the page—which is a positive signal to your Google ranking. So don’t be afraid to keep testing as you continue to grow your business.
Even when you’re trying to boost your organic click through rates, there’s no harm in testing with a paid ad, which may give you more data. Test the same ad with a few different headlines, determine which one performs the highest for conversions, and then use that headline as the title of the page you’re creating. You can use what you learn from that test to title future pages, too.
At the same time, Larry Kim of Moz says that you shouldn’t change your title every week on a particular page, because Google will think it’s being “dynamically populated.” The same applies to every type of content. Try new things, but don’t go overboard. Choose a few pages for testing–not your entire site.
Increasing your organic click through rates by improving your search result appearance, offering answers to questions and distinguishing your listing will expose your brand to more people. It’s also beneficial to optimize past content so that you have more listings appearing for more search terms. As you implement and test different ways to increase your organic click through rate, you’ll also be building your customer base and brand—so keep tweaking your site until you have the results you want. Your site will draw more viewers as you optimize your listings and increase the utility of your search results.
Posting evergreen content to your website ensures you have a number of articles that don’t fade in utility over time. Unlike information that will become irrelevant as things in the industry change from day to day, evergreen content will stand the test of time and offer benefits to both your ability to find new website viewers and your position as an expert in your field.
What makes a piece of content evergreen is that it’s as relevant next year as it was last year. It’s timeless. Instead of being a flash in the pan that quickly generates views and then stops getting hits when new, updated information becomes available, it sticks. Evergreen content deals with topics that aren’t constantly changing. If you post a piece of evergreen content today, it could still draw in clicks from a search engine in five years.
When you post a piece of time-sensitive content, it may ramp up your website visitor count for a few days or weeks, and then fade away. As the information becomes less relevant, it will decrease the amount of clicks a piece can get. While time-sensitive content does help get people to your page, evergreen content will be able to generate a higher volume of clicks in the long-term simply because people will still see and respond to it as time goes by.
If you haven’t developed pieces with evergreen content in mind before, here are a few examples that can help get you started.
Instructional guides.
– Even product guides for products that are older will stay evergreen as long as people continue to use the old model.
Getting Started
– People will always need an entry-level approach into your topic. Try keeping it basic and your piece will stay relevant in the long term.
Case Studies
– If you do original research, pair your results with an explanation of how you got them to offer new information that will stand the test of time.
Neil Patel’s excellent case study on writing case studies, very meta!
Definitions
– The definitions for words rarely change. When someone searches for a word, your website may be the result they choose on Google. Going into depth about a term and its history may offer even more utility.
Lists
– Lists of unchanging information offer both an attractive format and evergreen content.
Bufferapp’s blogging tips post is 4 years old and still being updated!
Interviews with industry experts
– Connect with thought leaders in your field and ask if they’d be interested in an interview via email or Skype, many people will welcome the exposure!
Historical topics or encyclopedic entries
– Since history doesn’t change quickly—even while some industries create new history every day—a page offering historical or encyclopedia content can offer utility for years to come.
Many types of content aren’t evergreen and that’s okay—sometimes it’s necessary to publish stories that will get a high volume of hits in a short time. Time-sensitive content has its place and offers a different kind of benefit, but shouldn’t be the only thing you publish. Types of content that aren’t evergreen include:
News stories
– News stories are one of the most common content types that are time-sensitive, not evergreen.
Seasonal articles
– Though they may be relevant each Christmas or fall, for example, they won’t generate clicks all year and will die off almost completely when the holiday or season isn’t taking place.
Trends articles
– Since trends change every year, discussing them is always time-sensitive. The nature of trends also means that old ones quickly become irrelevant and are replaced with new, current ones.
The best way to reach everyone is to post a mix of evergreen content and time-sensitive content. However, unless your site is focused on providing up-to-date information and being on the cutting-edge of a topic, it’s better to focus on evergreen content. As you build a library filled with evergreen content, you’re also building up a series of links and webpages that help draw people to your site. Every new piece of content you offer is another link in the chain that brings new viewers in and helps grow your business.
Another way evergreen content can help grow your business is by generating social shares. The more relevant something stays over time, the more likely it is that a person will share it on their social media profiles, connecting your business to their friends, relatives and business associates. So instead of pulling in a bunch of views at once that quickly dissipate, you can get organic clicks through quality content that encourages shares.
If you update your site five times per month, try to make sure at least four of the five updates are evergreen content. The last one can be a piece of time-sensitive content that draws in viewers interested in something trending quickly and helps give your site a temporary boost in traffic.
Examples of time sensitive vs evergreen content
Publishing evergreen content can affect your search ranking, which has a direct effect on how many people visit your website. According to Search Engine Watch, sites that focus on evergreen content get more clicks on pages that offer evergreen content. Those pages are the most popular. Similar sites that focus on time-sensitive content are more likely to get clicks on their homepage and other static pages, rather than time-sensitive articles. In other words, evergreen content draws more clicks than time-sensitive articles in many cases.
The same post also explained that, of the two sites they compared, the one that focused on evergreen content got more recurring traffic from their articles and has greater search visibility in similar topics. So if you’re looking to grow your audience and your business, focusing on evergreen content can boost your search rankings for the terms you want to target.
When Harsh Agrawal added dates back to his evergreen content his traffic dropped by almost 40%.
The Effect of Date Stamps on Blog Traffic [Case Study]
One aspect of SEO that evergreen content affects is keywords. Choose good keywords and phrases that will drive traffic to your site, and then use them in your content. Doing so will help your site rise in the search results until it’s more visible to searchers.
For example, targeting a term like “wooden furniture repair” may be hard to rank for at first because there are millions of results on Google. However, as you generate more evergreen content, search engine crawlers are going to pick up more from your page. When you write evergreen pieces that use the keywords you’re trying to rank for, and those words are picked up by the search engine crawlers, you’re going to get boosted in rank for that term.
The pages those keywords exist on give you a better boost in search results if they’re not out-of-date and if they have more traffic. Since evergreen content produces more views over time, it will be favored over time-sensitive content when being indexed by Google and other search engines. This means that pages that use your keywords and feature evergreen content are more likely to be visible to customers who search for those keywords over time.
Evergreen content also offers the benefits of giving you brand authority. Brand authority shows that you’re an expert in the area of your business and offers them confidence in trusting that you can provide the best possible product or service.
One way to both gather evergreen content prompts and increase your brand authority is to take questions from customers on your social media profiles. Answer the questions in a frequently asked questions page or on its own page, if warranted, and then you have new evergreen content that someone could perform a Google search to find.
A great piece of evergreen content on lawn care by Lawnstarter.com
Another strategy is to publish interviews with experts or people well known in your field. Not only will it give you a new set of keywords, but it will show that you’re plugged into your industry and knowledgeable in the field. Interesting interviews also serve as another type of evergreen content.
As always, the most important way to offer utility and increase your brand authority is to offer well-written, honest and high-quality information in your evergreen content.
Not all evergreen content has to be writing. One way to increase the effectiveness of an instructional video, for example, is to illustrate the process of something hands-on with a video or pictorial. You can make a mix of content types before posting in order to give your audience the best return for their click and also to keep them coming back to you for more information on other topics.
Try making a question and answer series to generate some fresh evergreen content. Other people may be searching for the same questions other viewers have, and answering those questions on your site will draw those people to click on it. As long as the answers aren’t dealing with news topics or trends, the question-and-answer format is an easy way to post solid evergreen content.
Another way to get creative is to use interactive content. 75 percent of respondents agreed that interactive content can “provide a ‘sample’ of the brand, resulting in a higher degree of lead nurturing,” according to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute. This means that you can use interactive, evergreen content as part of a long-term strategy to grow your business by introducing your brand to new customers.
Concerthotels.com put together this very impressive piece of interactive content that looks at vocal ranges of pop stars
Before you publish your content, ask yourself these questions to make sure it’s evergreen:
Before hitting publish on your article, check to see whether it connects to other articles on your site. If it does, include links from that article to another one. It will help your search engine ranking and lead visitors to other areas of your site and new topics they might not have considered.
Update pieces as necessary to keep them evergreen. If you’ve written something about the history of a specific type of technology, you can go back and add a new bullet to your timeline in just a few minutes. Doing so will keep the page relevant and offer better, more complete information to visitors. The more complete your coverage of a topic, the better your expertise will appear to viewers. This can help grow your business by giving a customer confidence in your products and services.
Ultimately, publishing evergreen content will help build your business by drawing in new viewers and making your site into an authority on its topic. Over time, evergreen content will build up until you have a series of links and pages that draw in new customers and get your offerings in front of them. While there is a place for time-sensitive content, a marketing strategy that focuses on evergreen content should deliver better results in the long-term.
Engaging with an audience is one of the most important aspects of marketing your product or service on the Web. One major way to reach people is with updated content that you share on social media, including articles, blog posts and new Webpages. However, it’s possible to push out too much content and fatigue your audience or oversaturate their feeds. While there is a clear benefit to posting new content regularly, finding the right amount and times is an essential part of any marketing strategy. [Read more…] about Posting the Right Amount of Content for Engagement