SEO is the answer to these questions and more.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) starts as a mystery for many companies, but it doesn’t have to. Understanding SEO and SEO copywriting means anticipating how search engines (like Google and Bing) rate and rank your content. Wrap your mind around that and you can write content that will land you at the top of search results and in front of thousands of potential customers.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock understood the principles of great SEO copywriting without ever logging onto a computer. The Master of Suspense delivered half a century of innovative filmmaking because he understood not just what his audience wanted, but what his team needed in order to serve that audience.

And how does this translate to SEO copywriting? An exercise in analogy can help us here.

You are Alfred Hitchcock.

Google and Bing are your big shot actors.

When your actors ask the traditional “What’s my motivation?” you can tell Google and Bing what Hitchcock told his actors.

“It’s in the script.”

Google and Bing’s motivation to include your articles and blog posts in the top search results can be found in every element of your content (your script).

What are those important elements? A look at the script of Hitchcock’s Psycho can explain it pretty well.

The Title = The H1 Tag

Psycho.

It’s in big letters right on the first page of your script for a reason: it’s the identity of the movie.
The identity of your content is contained in one of the largest ranking factors for your article: the H1 tag.

Your H1 tag is the title at the top of the article. It tells readers and search engines in a short 4-12 words what the article is all about. If it’s not clear in the H1 tag what your audience will get out of the article, Google and Bing won’t know what to do with your content.

So while Psycho may have worked for the 1960 blockbuster, you’ll need to be a little more descriptive with your H1 tag. Include your top keyword and craft an attention grabbing title.

Script Action = The Code

Woman stabbed eight times in the shower.

Don’t remember than line from Psycho?

Good, because it’s not dialogue, it’s action. It’s all the words in the script the audience never hears. But they see the results of the action. And it’s as important as the dialogue itself.

For SEO copywriting, the “script action” is all of the code on the page the audience will never read.

H2 headers are an important part of this action. Just like your H1, H2s tell search engines what the most important topics of an article are. You should be using several H2 headers throughout your writing to highlight the sub-categories of your article. (I’m using them right now, and I feel fabulous!).

Image alt text is another opportunity for SEO in your coding. Alt text is the description when an image can’t load. Search engines crawl this code, so including some keywords in your image descriptions can result in extra love in the search rankings.

The Dialogue = The Body Copy

“I think I must have one of those faces you can’t help believing.”

There are some great lines in Psycho. While script action sets the scene, the dialogue really carries the movie. With each spoken line, you learn a little more about the story.

Just like a movie’s dialogue, every word you write for your audience tells the story of your content. This is called the body copy, and Google/Bing analyze it to determine which audiences (or search engine users) should hear your story.

So if you’re selling toaster ovens, you should repeat the words “high-quality toaster ovens” in the copy about a thousand times, right? No. Please don’t.

Bad writing will lose every time.

Google and Bing are smart. When you show them a script, they want the characters to be fully-developed and believable. Including your top keywords is still essential, but you also need to be using variations of those keywords, and all of them need to be surrounded by relevant content.

The best part about this is if you’re writing engaging and informative content, you’re most likely already using your top keywords and close variations in a natural way. Good job!

From Script to (Computer) Screen

If you write a great script, you will be serving your audience as well as the search engines.

An exciting title will bring in your audience. Masterful action will draw attention to the right details. Great dialogue tells your story.

A quick confession: When actors pressed Hitchcock for further motivation, his last and definitive answer was, “Your salary.” So there’s that.

How is your script coming along?

The post The Alfred Hitchcock Guide to SEO Copywriting appeared first on Portent.

Jade asked me to write some SEO copywriting pointers that I just finished. Since these sound so proprietary-like, I just had to sneak them past Ian to share with you. So enjoy and *shhhh* Don't tell the boss.

Select one to four keywords.

Writing friendly copy for organic search is all about targeting specific search engine queries. Select one to four search queries that will fit within a 65 characters. Selecting more than four queries will dilute your page content and make it difficult to rank for your target queries.

Write the Title Element/Tag

Your title element, also called the title tag, should state the overall them of the page. If you are creating a common theme on your web site you should include the target theme query too.

Google only shows up to 65 characters. Your home page and primary topic pages should keep within this limit. Deeper pages may be given longer title elements.

If you have space, include an adjective that will make the title element more appealing. For example Surf Boards are great, but Wicked Surf Boards is click-worthy.

Write the Meta Description Element/Tag

The meta description is a 155 excerpt or summary of the web page. Unique meta descriptions will not help a web page rank well, but duplicate meta descriptions can hurt search engine rankings. Therefore, it is important for every page to have a unique meta description tag.

Search engines use the meta description as their content in search engine result pages (SERPs). This create an opportunity to capture visitors by making the most compelling and clickable description possible.

Remember to include a call to action. Visit Tori Richards for the coolest authentic Hawaiian style shirts in the Universe. Limited edition Santa drag racing sleigh designs are here!

If the page is to be used in a link building campaign

Write five alternate title tags and five alternate descriptions for the link builder to use. Unlike the HTML title tag, these do not have to have every keyword in every title and description. When all five versions are placed together, though, all of the target keywords must be represented.

Craft the HTML Skeleton

SEO friendly web pages are built using HTML outlines to support paragraph text. Think of the outline as the skeleton and the paragraph text as all of the meat, muscle, and sinew that hangs clings to the skeleton. They are also like outlines for English term papers.

H# tags are important signals for telling search engines what is important on an HTML page. Because they are standard tags the search engines can recognize them and accord them influence.

Do not use h# elements in navigation or for in templates. These should be styles by using CSS.

The h1 element

The h1 element is much like a web site’s title tag. It should state the overall purpose of the page and include all of the target keywords. There should be only one h1 element on a HTML page.

The h2 element

The h2 element may be used either as a sub headline directly beneath the h1 or to denote a section of content within the page.

As a sub headline the h2 should appear directly after the h1 tag and include the most important of the target keywords.

To denote content the h2 should be used in the same way that English term paper outlines use I. II. III. Etc. Each should denote a major section of the web page. Each h2 should include the target search query or queries for its section.

The h3 element

The h3 element may be used either as a sub headline directly beneath the h2 or to denote sections of content between h2 elements.

As a sub headline the h3 should appear directly after each h2 tag and include the most important of the target keywords.

To denote content the h3 should be used in the same way that English term paper outlines use A. B. C. Etc. Each should denote a major section of the web page. Each h3 should include the target search query or queries for its section.

The h4, h5 and h6 elements

I am sure you recognized the similarity between the h2 and the h3 elements. The h4, h5, h6 are used in the same manner and continue the hierarchy.

Most web pages will not use h4, h5, and h6 as it is rare to break down a HTML page so precisely.

Paragraph text and span text

In paragraph text employ liberal use of the target keywords, especially the ones that correspond to the h# section you are in.

Use different forms of the keywords including adverbs, present tense, past tense, singulars, plurals and others.

Use related words that one might naturally expect to encounter. For example, if you are writing about baseball include words like bat, ball, glove, strike, and home run.

Keyword density

When reading about SEO you may see the term keyword density. This is the percentage of keyword text compared to all text on the page.

In earlier days, getting the correct keyword density was an important part of search engine optimization. Expert recommendations ranged from 4% to 7% and even higher. Today, no one correct keyword density exists. If you look at the keyword density for any search engine results page, you will find that the density fluctuates wildly from listing to listing.

Instead, we recommend packing pages as tightly as possible with target keywords and their variations and related words…that is, as tightly as possible while still sounding normal. Once you begin to sound robotic it is time to pull it back a bit.

Usability for people, not SEO

While this article is about writing copy for SEO, do not forget that most pages are for people too.

On the Internet people like to scan more than read. They prefer short, easy to view navigation. They like white space. They like brief paragraphs and short stories. Readers particularly enjoy bulleted and numbers lists, italics, bolding, indentations, and anything else that makes a story easier to parse visually and absorb.

No one will read a 1,000-word article unless they drilled down to and found exactly the content they sought.

The post Basic SEO Copywriting in a Nut Shell appeared first on Portent.