Today I have a special guest on the blog – Kayla Dean, a website copywriter and messaging strategist. She’s here to share the relationship between SEO and copywriting, and how they will serve your website strategy overall.
As a website designer, I always recommend that clients work with a copywriter. Kayla’s here to share all about her work and how it can benefit you and your creative small business as you’re rebranding or updating your website.
In this post, you’ll learn what SEO is, hear more about website copywriting, and discover how these two are related to the success of your website overall. She’ll also be debunking some SEO myths and answering common questions.
What are we waiting for? Let’s get started.
Post Table of Contents
What Is Website Copywriting?
What Is SEO?
What Does It Mean To Have SEO-Optimized Copywriting?
Myths About SEO Copywriting
Other Ways to Optimize Your Website For SEO
How To Keep An Eye on Your Website SEO
Looking for a Website Copywriter?
Before We Get Started… Who Am I, and How Can I Help You?
Hi, I’m Kayla! I specialize in helping service providers identify and highlight what makes them different so they can stand out and sell on their websites (and, by extension, everywhere they live online). We accomplish this through the messaging on your website, aka, your website copy.
You may be wondering… why is a copywriter here to talk to me about SEO? Shouldn’t you be talking about, like, writing?
Short answer: Your website SEO and copywriting are inextricably linked and NEED to be talked about together.
I may be a conversion copywriter (that means I focus on how to make the words on your website sell), but every project of mine includes a heavy dose of SEO keyword research and optimization.
So without further ado…
Let’s Define Terms – What is Website Copywriting?
Before we go any further, let’s define some terms.
Website copywriting is the written content on your website, but as I often tell my clients, it’s is not simply ‘the words on your website’ – it’s so much more.
Copywriting drives the underlying structure of your website design and explains who you are, what you do, and why you’re different on the way to selling your services. As a copywriter, I help you create and communicate your brand’s message– your voice, values, point of view, unique differentiators, and offers– and convey it within your website.
As a whole, copywriting is about persuasion– what we aim to do with your copy is turn a casual website visitor into a client, solely through the words we use.
It is not creative writing– it’s sales-focused writing. Something I hear a lot from my clients is that they are ‘pretty good’ writers, but the reason they hire a copywriter is because they don’t have the specialized knowledge of how to sell through website copywriting.
It’s often said that design may grab that first impression, but copywriting keeps them engaged, reading, and excited to inquire with YOU.
Too often, entrepreneurs think of copywriting as a ‘nice to have’ when really it’s an essential way to connect with ideal clients. Designers may try to work with whatever text you give them, but truthfully, you’ll get a better result when you have both aligned copywriting and web design.
What is SEO?
Now that you’re familiar with website copywriting, let’s define SEO.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of maximizing visits to your website by incorporating the search terms search engines (primarily Google) will look for to rank your content.
Search Engine Optimization is an entire field of specialty in and of itself, but as your copywriter I help you with SEO by conducting keyword research to find what your ideal clients are searching for and then weave those words into the content on your website.
Basically, we want to make sure that when someone is searching for that keyword, we’re serving them the most relevant and helpful result possible. Enter: your business!
For example, if you’re a photographer in New York, one of your keywords might be something like New York Wedding Photographer, so naturally, we’d want to incorporate this keyword into your copy.
So, what does it mean to have SEO-Optimized Copywriting?
When we say that copywriting is SEO-optimized, that means that the copywriting has the appropriate keywords incorporated at the proper levels within your content.
SEO-optimized copywriting will have…
- Focus Keywords for each page – On every page of your website, we want to focus on about 1-2 keywords per page to ensure that we are purposely targeting specific queries. We choose the right ones by conducting SEO keyword research to find out what people are searching for, and what words will result in the best possible visibility for your business. We don’t want to keyword stuff or try focusing on dozens of keywords, so we create an intentional, targeted strategy for each page that gives you the best possible way to get found on Google by your ideal clients.
- Page Titles and Meta Descriptions that align with what searchers are looking for and will align with search intent. You know when you type something in on Google and each result has a blue headline in larger text and a smaller sentence or two below that? That’s your page title and meta description. Your page title needs to match your focus keyword for the page, while your meta description entices searchers to click on your result.
- Header tags that match the primary focus keywords. Within your copy, we want to mention that primary keyword once in a primary header, and at other points on the page to properly target the keyword.
- Strong Copywriting that will be relevant and valuable to the searcher – That is as much if not more important than the keywords themselves. If there was any doubt, copywriting isn’t something to sleep on. Not only does your copywriting help you get found by the right clients on Google, but it also seals the deal with ideal clients! When your SEO, copy, and design are working for you, you’ll have a client attraction tool that will help you get more inquiries and book more of the clients you want (and less of those you don’t).
- Navigation that makes sense. Most websites have similar navigation labels for things like Home, About, Services, and Contact. You might feel motivated to be ‘creative’ and call those different things, but please don’t! Having clear navigation makes it easier for people to find what they’re looking for on your website, and also looks good to the Google bots crawling and indexing your site.
Now that you know more about SEO Copywriting, let’s debunk a few myths…
Myth #1: Your website will immediately show up on page one of Google after publishing.
This one is simply not true! Just because your website is live and can be visited does not mean it will immediately show up on Google. It takes weeks, and often months for search engines to crawl and index your site. So don’t worry if you don’t see it when you type in your target keyword– it’s possible you just need more time!
No one really knows how long it takes– I’ve seen pages index miraculously fast, and others take what feels like forever. Don’t worry if this is the case! SEO is a long-term game with many moving parts, so don’t lose heart and keep at it to see the best results.
Myth #2: Just because we use that keyword, you will show up at #1 on Google.
The more a keyword is being searched, the more websites are using that keyword. If there are more businesses trying to rank for that word, the competition increases. There are more than a few factors that go into ranking for certain keywords, and we can’t promise you’ll rank #1 for any keyword. Being first is great, but it’s not everything. If someone promises that, be skeptical. We can implement best practices, but it takes work to maintain a top position for a specific keyword.
Myth #3: I can just hide keywords on my page so it doesn’t have to look ‘ugly.’
SEO will not take away from the beauty of your website. It is possible to have the right keywords on your page AND have a seamless, enjoyable user experience. But a major no-no is hiding text in images where Google can’t read the text or ‘hiding’ keywords on the page where they blend into the background. This is a HUGE red flag to Google that could seriously hurt your website. Do everything above-board!
Now that we know how SEO and copywriting go hand in hand, how else can we make sure your website is optimized for SEO?
- Google My Business Profile – One of the best ways to show up on Google is to have a Google My Business profile that is optimized to your locations and specialties. When your Google My Business profile is set up properly, you have the opportunity to show up in the maps people when people search for businesses like yours in a specific area. You can also highlight your Google reviews and build authority.
- Name Images Properly for Image Search – In addition to your website pages, you have another opportunity to rank for queries: your images. It’s worth spending some time naming the file types of your images to properly reflect locations and specialties. If you’re a photographer, you have an amazing opportunity to make image search work like a dream! Always name your images by session type, venue, location, or style of photography.
- SEO-Optimized Design – It can be confusing when both your copywriter and your designer say they’re going to focus on SEO… so who is right? Answer: both of them! We work on different areas of SEO. Your designer will make sure your title tags are correctly marked, the metadata is entered correctly in the backend of your site, and that your website design presents a strong user experience and clear, focused website design that helps searchers find what they’re looking for.
- Sitemap submitted to Google – Another key to helping Google understand and catalog your site is your sitemap. Typically, your designer will help you submit your sitemap to Google so the robots can crawl it properly and help you move towards ranking for your desired keywords.
How can I keep an eye on my website’s SEO?
Once you have SEO-optimized copywriting and design working for you, you are well on your way to ranking for the keywords your ideal clients are searching for. But there are several ways you can continue boosting your SEO and keep track of its progress.
I always recommend installing Google Analytics on your site so you can track your website visitors, most visited pages, and more. To stay proactive and rank for more keywords, blogging is a great way to boost your SEO!
On the search for a copywriter for your website?
You can find me at theliterary.co or on Instagram right here.
And don’t forget to check out AnneMarie’s design services to see how you can work together on brand and website design!
