Knowing how to write copy for your blog or website is one thing. But understanding how to write great copy efficiently is entirely different.
At Sarah McKenzie Copywriting & Web Design, we’ve been writing copy for almost 15 years – all sorts of copy (short-form, long-form, website content, etc.), for all sorts of clients and industries.
We’ve been doing this long enough to now know several tips and tricks to produce killer content consistently.
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing content for a non-profit organization, fintech company, or SaaS business – the same principles apply to writing exceptional copy.
Lucky for you, we’re here to share what you should do when crafting your own copy. Below, we highlight five of the most essential SEO copywriting tips we use each time we work on a project.
Let’s get started!
Know Your Target Audience
One of the first and most important copywriting tips doesn’t involve adding a single word to the paper!
Understanding who you’re targeting with your product or service is essential before starting the writing process. Your target audience has specific pain points – or problems that they face. And your job, via your writing, is to figure out how to address them with your business’s offerings.
For example, a lot of our blog subscribers are business owners. Running a business is time-consuming and challenging, leaving many company owners struggling to prioritize copywriting. They understand the importance of it, and want to ensure the time they spend crafting copy will produce results.
So, when we wrote this blog post, we kept this target audience in mind: busy business owners who value copy but often lack the time to prioritize it.
This post helps address that pain point by showcasing some tips on writing better copy in a shorter time. Not only do business owners learn more about crafting captivating content, but they can also learn how to do it quicker. And that’s a win-win!
Batch Your Work
Task batching – which involves completing similar tasks simultaneously – is known to increase productivity. But how can you apply the productivity strategy to copywriting?
Topic brainstorming is a great place to start. Many companies research one blog topic at a time, write the blog post, and then return to the first step for a new topic. But think of how much time you can save if you brainstorm in one sitting. That way, whenever you have to write a blog post, you’re ready to go – without contemplating a topic.
You could hire a blog writer for this research phase and streamline the process further. They could provide you with a list of trending blog topics related to your industry and research the short and long-tail keywords you should include in each relevant post.
And if you get a couple blog posts written in one sitting, then why not schedule them all at once in your website platform? Talk about gaining more time in your day!
Proofread, Proofread, then Proofread Again
Publishing content full of spelling, punctuation, or grammatical issues is one of the best ways to harm your company’s reputation. Within seconds, your target audience may think your business isn’t credible, and some of the worst errors can actually offend your reader!
Some of our best advice when it comes to editing your work is as follows:
- Never edit your content the same day you create it. Instead, wait a day or two, then look at it with fresh eyes.
We know that sometimes, that’s not possible – like when you need to send out an urgent newsletter or update your website about a store closure. But even during same-day publishing, wait a couple of hours (if possible) after writing your piece to hit that “publish” button. - Don’t completely rely on editing software. Sure, proofreading software like Grammarly and MS Spellcheck is helpful, but understand that they aren’t error-free. Consider their suggestions as simply that – suggestions – not hard and fast rules to follow.
- Print a hard copy you can mark up. For some reason, we notice more errors on a hard copy than on a screen. Sure, it may seem like a waste of paper, but try it first. There’s something so satisfying about marking up the paper in red ink, too!
- Proofread your work and make sure it’s error-free. The smallest error may slip through even if you look at your work 100 times. To help avoid that from happening, review your work a couple of times yourself, run it through editing software, and then have a trusted co-worker, friend, or professional copywriter complete one final edit.
Don’t Be Afraid of SEO
You don’t need years of education with SEO to write an SEO-optimized post. Actually, many of our clients only have a basic understanding – but they know that writing copy with SEO in mind is crucial for ranking on Google.
Developing a basic knowledge of how to conduct keyword research, knowing the best places to integrate your keywords, and including appropriate internal and external hyperlinks are great starting blocks to SEO expertise. Thoughtful Call to Actions (CTAs) throughout your writing is paramount to nudging your reader toward a conversion.
SEO changes regularly, and Google doesn’t even publicize all of the ranking systems (previously known as ranking factors) it considers when ranking content. But we know high-quality content and keyword optimization are two of the most crucial.
If you want to tackle SEO on your own, various SEO tools are available to help you. Choosing the right one depends on your budget, skill level, and software preference.
But if you’re like many of our other clients – and have no interest in learning about another topic – you can leave the SEO optimization of your copy to us.
The #1 SEO Copywriting Tip from the Experts
We can’t be great at everything in life – and SEO copywriting is no different.
It isn’t easy to craft copy that helps engage your target audience and convert them to a lead. And when we lack the knowledge to do it well, it takes even more time, yet typically leads to less results.
Like other tasks in life, you need to know when to throw in the towel and admit that copywriting is not your strong suit. Maybe you’re getting frustrated with writing content that doesn’t get read, or perhaps you dread each time you need to write a blog post.
Finding someone you can rely on to do this important task can pay off big. After all, your company’s SEO copywriting helps you rank on Google, builds authority in your industry, and convinces your target audience to choose you over your competitors.
Ready to free up some more time in your busy day? Reach out to us to book a free consult and learn more about our services.