10 Things To Expect From Your SEO Copywriter

F rom the perspective of a                                           business owner, webmaster,      So with that in mind, take a look  or marketing manager, the       at the following ten tips. These   change exhibited by the Internet      are the things you have a right    is profoundly exciting, yet           to expect from anyone wearing a    profoundly disturbing. The            name badge that reads "website     information (and misinformation       copywriter", "SEO copywriter",     and disinformation) it offers,        "internet copywriter", or "web     the business benefits it              copywriter"... (See also           promises, and the rules it is         http://www.divinewrite.com/websit  governed by change at such a          ecopywriter.htm and                rapid rate that it's almost           http://www.divinewrite.com/maketh  impossible to keep up.                emost.htm.)                                                                                                 These changes have led to a           1) An understanding of SEO         growing appreciation of the value                                        of quality web copy. This             Obviously, your SEO copywriter     appreciation has, in turn, led to     must have a solid understanding    an influx of opportunistic            of the essentials of Search        ‘copywriters' promoting             Engine Optimization. They must     themselves as website copywriters     know that ranking is essentially   or SEO copywriters. Don't get me      the result of a website's          wrong, there are quite a few          relevance (i.e. keywords) and      excellent SEO copywriters out         importance (i.e. inbound links).   there, and you should definitely      There are a whole lot of other     shop around. The purpose of this      factors involved, but if your SEO  article isn't to scare you; it's      copywriter doesn't understand      to help you find the SEO              these two basics, you should look  copywriter who'll deliver honest      elsewhere. If you'd like to        service and excellent results.        ensure your SEO copywriter knows   a little more than just the           snap ‘em up! They'll have a      basics, take a look at                very broad and useful working      http://www.divinewrite.com/SEOCEO     knowledge of search engines.       .htm,                                                                    http://www.divinewrite.com/seocop     3) An understanding of how many    y.htm,                                keywords to use                    http://www.divinewrite.com/seotra                                        desecrets.htm,                        You don't want to fill every page  http://www.divinewrite.com/webcop     up with every keyword you're       yenough.htm, and                      targeting. This simply dilutes     http://www.divinewrite.com/seoart     your site's relevance and reduces  icles.htm for some clues as to        readability. Ask your SEO          what you might like to ask in         copywriter how many keywords they  order to assess their knowledge.      would recommend targeting on each                                        page. Hopefully they'll suggest    2) Proven experience                  no more than 3, preferably 2. By                                         targeting 2 keyword phrases per    The proof is, as they say, in the     page, you can use them a lot       pudding. It's not enough that         without impacting readability.     your SEO copywriter can talk the                                         talk; they must also be able to       4) Clear agreement on who will     walk the walk. Ask to see some        provide keywords                   examples of websites for which                                           they've obtained some good            Someone needs to perform a         rankings. Note that it may be         keyword analysis in order to       very difficult to find an SEO         figure out what words you should   copywriter who has actually           be trying to rank highly for.      worked on both keywords and link      Your SEO copywriter should be      generation, so if you find one        able to do this for you, but it's  who has, and they write well,         quite often more cost-effective    if someone a little closer to the     engines for this keyword.          business does it. Either way,         Instead, try using a more          make sure your agreement with         specific keyword phrase like "IT   your SEO copywriter makes it very     infrastructure consulting new      clear who is performing this          york" (at the time of writing,     task. Don't assume the SEO            there were only around 4,000,000   copywriter is going to do it,         results for this search in         because they may assume you're        Google.com). The other benefit to  going to do it, and then you'll       targeting more specific keyword    blow your budget.                     phrases is that you'll generate                                          more relevant leads.               5) Keywords or keyword phrases                                                                                 6) Agree on word count per page    Expect your SEO copywriter to                                            offer some advice regarding how       Always make sure your SEO          specific you should be with your      copywriter gives you an            keywords. In most industries, the     indication of the number of words  competition for keywords is so        they expect to write per web       fierce that you'll be forced to       page. While it's necessary to      target very specific keywords in      have a decent body of words on     order to rank - at least at the       most of your web pages, you        outset. For instance, if you're       certainly shouldn't have too       in IT, you probably wouldn't          many. What "too many" is all       start out by targeting the            depends on your industry, the      keyword "IT". The competition is      objective of the page, and the     immense (at the time of writing,      needs of your audience. It's       there were approx 3,240,000,000       always a delicate balance, but     results for this search in            it's certainly possible to rank    Google.com) and the IT giants         highly with only 100-200 words     already dominate the search           per page. So don't be fooled into  paying for copy you don't need!       by that standard (should you                                             decide to measure).                7) Density targets & measure                                                                                   8) Where to place keywords         SEO of a web page is NOT                                                 guess-work. A good SEO copywriter     The question of keyword placement  will talk about density measures.     has been the subject of much       This is a measure of the number       debate amongst SEO copywriters.    of time the keyword phrase            While it is still unclear how      appears on the page. It's             much impact placement has, there   expressed as a percentage of the      is a general consensus that it     total word count of the page. So      has SOME impact. Be sure that      if your page has 200 words, and       your copywriter is aware of this   your keyword phrase appears 10        impact. Popular opinion has it     times, its density is 5%. As a        that keywords are more effective   rule of thumb, your SEO               if they appear in headings,        copywriter should be aiming for a     bolded text, links, and generally  density of approximately 5% for       toward the beginning of the page.  your primary keyword phrase and                                          3-5% for your secondary keyword       9) Some comment on structure &     phrase. If your density measures      links                              are much higher than this,                                               readability will be reduced, and      Websites are generally better      you'll risk being perceived as        indexed by search engines if       spam by the search engines. Make      their spiders can traverse the     sure your SEO copywriter              entire site using text links.      understands keyword density, is       This means your SEO copywriter     prepared to state the target          should be linking each page to     density for each keyword phrase,      every other page using text        and is also happy to be measured      links. If your site is complex,    this may be impractical, so your      they can't do it overnight. By     SEO copywriter will need to           optimizing your site for your      create a hierarchical structure       target keyword phrases, an SEO     for your site. First, they should     copywriter is simply declaring     break your subject material down      the relevance of your site. If     into categories. Then for each        you engage an SEO copywriter to    category, they should write a         write helpful articles containing  summary page. These summary pages     a byline with a link back to your  should be accessible from higher      site, you can then submit these    level pages via text links. They      articles for publication on the    should also be accessible from        Internet, and this will steadily   each other. Each summary page         increase your ranking. But if an   should link - using text links -      SEO copywriter tells you they can  to a number of pages discussing       dramatically increase your         the finer details of the              ranking in a matter of hours or    category. And each detail page in     days, be wary. NOTE: Your SEO      a particular category should link     copywriter should be able to       to every other detail page in         submit your articles to various    that category (once again, using      submit sites on the Internet.      text links). This way the spiders     These sites are closely watched    are able to travel from the top       by hundreds of thousands of        of your hierarchy to the bottom,      publishers of e-newsletters and    and from left to right across any     article pages from all around the  level.                                world. High quality articles are                                         quickly snapped up and published   10) Don't believe grand promises      prolifically. And each time your                                         article is published, you've got   SEO copywriters can play a            another link back to your site,    significant role in increasing        thus increasing the importance of  your search engine ranking. But       your site (to the search           engines). If you'd like to submit     addition to your marketing         your own articles, your SEO           function. But you need to make     copywriter should be able to sell     sure you choose wisely. When you   you a list of 50 or more submit       know what questions to ask, the    sites for as little as USD$99.        battle is half won.                                                                                         Conclusion                            Happy hunting!                                                                                           An SEO copywriter is a valuable        About the Author: * Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.DivineWrite.com or http://www.ArticlePR.com for further details. Read more articles by: Glenn Murray Article Source: www.iSnare.com