Key SEO Copywriting Tips for Start Ups

Understanding how to utilize the web is a crucial component in the success of a modern start-up. While social media driven businesses are becoming popular, you’re doing yourself a great deal of harm if you neglect the best source of potential customers that exists online: the search engines, and especially Google. SEO (search engine optimization) is the art of gaining high search engine rankings. SEO copywriting is the art of making sure your content not only ranks highly in search engines, but also persuades visitors to your website to buy from you.

Using Keywords on Your Site

Most start-up entrepreneurs have a vague idea that they need to know about “keywords,” but they don’t have a clear understanding of what that means. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you need to know.

Keywords are simply words or phrases that people search for at a search engine like Google. You want to do some keyword research to find out what people are searching for that relates to your product or business. You can use the Google Keyword Tool for an overview, or a paid product like Market Samurai for a more in-depth analysis of keywords.

Each of your web pages should be built around one main keyword phrase and two or three secondary keywords. The main keyword should appear in the Title of the web page, the page URL, the Description, the first headline, and it should make up 1-2% of the body copy. (If you’re using WordPress to build your site, you can make all this a lot easier by installing the All in One SEO Pack plugin).

Crafting Persuasive Web Copy

That’s a basic introduction to keywords – now you also need to understand the psychology of online selling. Just getting people to your site from the search engines isn’t enough – you want them to take some action. That action is called your Most Wanted Response. This could be making a purchase, signing up for an email list, or submitting contact details. It might even be as simple as clicking through to another page on your site. Each page should be written with a Most Wanted Response in mind. With sales pages, the Most Wanted Response is obviously to get an order there and then.

To be persuasive online your site must convey a sense of authority and trust. People are wary of Internet scams, so before anyone will punch their credit card details into your website they need to feel you are “legit.”

Your copy should also emphasize the benefits of what you’re selling rather than just the features. A feature is something the product has – a benefit is something it actually does for the buyer. For instance, if you’re selling a Spanish learning product, you might mention it includes interactive lessons. That’s a feature – but what’s the benefit to the customer? The benefit is that they can take advantage of the fast learning they would have in a class environment, without even having to leave their house.

Every feature corresponds to a benefit – it saves the customer time or money, or it just makes life easier in some way. Emphasize those benefits. Those are what people care about and what will ultimately make them buy.

Pleasing your human visitors should always take priority over making your pages “search engine friendly.” Some people get carried away with the need to get search traffic and they end up creating a lot of low-value content which has no real use to human visitors.

Don’t be one of those people. Stick to creating quality web pages and you’ll reap the benefits in the long run.

About the Author: Tom McSherry is a professional SEO copywriter and the founder of Premium Online Writing. His mission is to provide web businesses with a go-to shop for high quality written marketing materials and information product creation.

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