The Value of Great SEO Copywriting

Copywriting has long been associated with the field of advertising. If you watched Mad Men, Peggy, one of the main characters, was a copywriter. 

The job usually means conceiving of and developing words for  product descriptions, advertising copy, posts/captions for social media and more.

SEO copywriting is specialized  within the general copywriting category. SEO copywriters come up with language geared towards both real people and search engines that crawl the internet for content. Writing tailored for SEO results in websites ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERP) or affecting which ad appears first on a results page. 

SEO Copywriting Defined

SEO copywriting is the strategic art of creating digital content that appeals to both real humans and search engine algorithms. The primary goal is to achieve higher rankings in search engine results pages. Secondary objectives include driving organic traffic to a website, increasing brand awareness and encouraging sales. Unlike traditional copywriting, SEO copywriting involves the incorporation of specific keywords and phrases that can be found through databases like Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Tools and Ahrefs Keyword Explorer. 

SEO copywriting involves the following:

• Researching the best keywords related to your industry and the page or article topic
• Using those keywords in headlines, subheads, the text of the page and alt tags for images
• Including links to other pages on your site and external links of value
• Writing meta descriptions and using keywords in meta tags
• Ensuring you’re not using content pasted from other webpages
• Pages are around 1500 words in length

Great SEO Copywriting does something else though. It meets all of the requirements above for search engine bots, but it also remembers who really matters – real people reading the page.

So great SEO copywriting doesn’t stuff the page with keywords. It always keeps a reader’s goal in mind. What did the reader visit the page for? Tell them that info right away – in the headline and in the first paragraph. 

It includes a lot of multimedia, so readers don’t feel overwhelmed by a page of dense text.

Below, we’ve included more tips on great SEO copywriting and explain exactly why it’s not something a business should skimp on. 

The Goals of SEO Copywriting Explored

Enhanced Visibility and Rankings

 Pages that are written with SEO in mind can significantly improve a website’s visibility on search engines, leading to higher rankings. Pages that are optimized include keywords in the title and headers. They also include hyperlinks to internal and external sites. Any images in the page have keywords embedded into the alt tags. 

Higher rankings in SERO usually mean increased exposure to potential customers, as users are more likely to click on results appearing on the first page of SERPs. They certainly notice those first, and are less likely to scroll to the bottom of a SERP. 

Targeted Traffic Generation

 SEO copywriting can start with databases that show how many people are searching for specific words relevant to your industry, and what phrases they type into Google. SEO copywriters also think like users. They don’t think, “What would the owner of a business use to find a web page from their own website?” They ask, “What would a regular person in x demographic groups enter into a search bar?” 

This mindset enables businesses to attract a more targeted audience by incorporating relevant keywords that align with the group’s age, socio economic status, marital status and other demographic criteria.

 By understanding the language and queries of their target audiences, copywriters with SEO expertise can tailor their content to address specific needs and questions.

Improved User Experience

People like content that is written by real people like them (well maybe with more expertise and knowledge in the area they are researching). They don’t want AI generated content. So good SEO writing comes off as very human, even if there’s a science to which words are included. Regular people shouldn’t feel like they’re reading an academic paper or text produced by a robot.  Top SEO copywriting is high quality content that is both informative and engaging, and contributes to a positive user experience.

Google examines every web page for “EEAT.” This stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Great SEO copywriters use words that demonstrate EEAT. Search engines reward websites that provide valuable content, and satisfied users are more likely to stay on a site that exudes the EEAT philosophy.

What are the Best Practices for SEO Copywriting?

Conduct Keyword Research

 Before writing a single word, thorough keyword research is required. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush can help identify relevant keywords with high search volumes. High search volumes mean a lot of people search for the word. So “lawyer,” for example, is searched for more often than “attorney.” 

That said, getting your webpage or ad to rank near the topic for the high volume search terms like “lawyer” is hard. You’re usually competing with big companies with big budgets and huge websites. That’s why some companies strategically use low volume search keywords. These are also called  long-tail keywords. Yes, less people search for them, but websites also don’t use them as much, so you may rank higher on pages that focus on these keywords. And low-search isn’t bad. Just because less people search for it, so what? People still search for these words. 

Create Smart Headlines and Meta Descriptions

Once you’ve identified keywords or keyphrases, write two headlines that use the keywords. They should include the keywords for search engines, but remember to keep your audience in mind. Try to grab their attention and encourage them to click. However, you want to do this without saying the word “click.” Studies have shown but humans and search engines don’t like the phrase “click here.” And it makes sense. If everything online said “click here,” you’d see that every three words on the internet. For example, you could try “5 Reasons to Hire an Attorney.” It contains the keywords, but encourages people to click for these reasons.

You can also write meta descriptions for the CMS. This is seen by users as the first 100 characters underneath a headline in SERP. Search engines scroll meta descriptions too for keywords. If you don’t know how or where to post a meta description in your CMS, reach out to us.  Content creation and keyword research are two of our many specialities.

 

Produce High Quality Content Creation

Try to strike a balance between SEO optimization and reader enjoyability. Don’t use keywords too much. If possible, mention a keyword once in a headline or title, and in two headers. Then mention it 3-5 times in text. Anymore than that, and search engines may call it keyword stuffing, which means you’re overusing a word. Search engines want to make sure you’re not producing text just to rank at the top of SERP. And readers think it’s weird when they see the same word over and over. So use the thesaurus key in Word or Google Docs. 

Pages with at least 1500 words tend to rank higher in SERP. This isn’t always the case, but experts have come to believe that 1500 words is a number Google likes. 1500 words is a lot – that’s why so many companies turn to us at SEO Design Chicago for content creation. We can turn out 1500 words without repeating ourselves, and incorporating facts and links. We also embed photos and videos and icons into text, which increases how engaged users are with a web page. 

According to one study, it takes the average person around 3 hours to write 1500 words that include links, research, facts and quotes. Do you have 3 hours to spare a few times per month? If not, let us handle this task.

Use Optimized URL Structures

 Make sure your URLs (the www part in the address bar of your browser) is SEO-friendly. URLs should include relevant keywords and provide a clear indication of the content on the page. Your content management system may do this automatically for you. But sometimes, URLs contain weird numbers and letters and symbols. We can show you how to rewrite your URLs to make them more indexable by search engines. 

Optimize Your Site for Mobile Devices

Often, people use their phones to look at websites. More importantly, mobile optimization is a crucial factor in search engine algorithms. Search engines also check to make sure your site is design responsive. That means it resizes to adapt to a variety of devices from desktops to phones to tables. 

Embed Internal and External Links

Including relevant internal links from one page on your site to another keeps people on your site longer. The longer they’re on your site, the more likely they are to do something. Search engines also rank sites higher if they include authoritative external links to reputable sources, like government sites or academic sites. Just don’t like your competition. 

Additional Tips for Great Copywriting

Improve Search Engine Rankings

Go to Google. Search your town name and your industry. How many results are there? Lots of competition right? SEO copywriting gets you to the top of the search engine results pages (SERP). This shows that Google, Bing and other search engines recognize and prioritize a website’s content.

By making a dedicated effort to incorporate relevant keywords and phrases, SEO copywriters help search engines and people understand the context and relevance of a page. This, in turn, improves the website’s ranking for specific search queries, making it more likely to be discovered by users seeking relevant information, help, goods or servicesThe higher a website ranks, the more organic (or free) traffic you’ll get to your website. Hopefully, when a visitor goes to your website, they’ll be so impressed they’ll visit you in person, reach out virtually, or purchase your goods or services. 

Get More Traffic

The main goal of SEO copywriting isn’t just to get any old traffic. You want to get  traffic from a specific demographic. Think about things like income levels, ages, marital status, rural vs. city dwellers and more. Through research and understanding of the target audience, skilled copywriters create text, videos, infographics, podcasts and photos that are geared towards specific demographics.

By addressing the problems, goals, wants, needs, and interests of the audience, SEO copywriting becomes a powerful tool for driving the right traffic. The right visitors will check out your site, inquire, and perhaps make purchases immediately or eventually. The right audience leads to conversions of some sort – purchases, signing up for email newsletters, following you on social media and more. 

Make the User Experience Better

Beyond keywords and SERP ranking, SEO copywriting focuses on keeping customers engaged, informed and even entertained when appropriate. The content is put together to be informative, engaging, and easy to digest. 

That means double spacing between paragraphs or long sentences so there’s white space.

We just did that – you see? White space, according to studies, makes it easy to read a lot of text on a page on a screen.

Well-organized and well-written content not only keeps visitors on the page but also encourages them to explore further by making inquiries, putting items in carts, scheduling appointments, following companies on social media and even completing purchases. 

This positive user experience, which is judged by factors like how long people spend on sites,  signals to search engines that the website is valuable and relevant, further boosting its ranking. Additionally, a user-friendly website is more likely to retain visitors and convert them into customers, fostering brand loyalty. Make sure your site is mobile friendly – search engines check for that. And more importantly, people want to view sites and read content on their phones. 

Establishing Expertise, Experience, Authority and Trustworthiness (EEAT)

EEAT is a Google term that stands for Establishing Expertise, Experience, Authority and Trustworthiness. Google ranks sites higher in SERP if they can demonstrate EEAT to bots and human reviewers.  SEO copywriting establishes a brand as an authority in its niche. SEO copywriters interview experts, post relevant links, update their sites regularly (that’s one reason why we run a blog) and more.  By providing valuable, accurate, and insightful content, businesses can showcase they are trustworthy and experienced. When users find a website consistently delivering reliable information, it builds trust and credibility.  Google considers sites that demonstrate EEAT as worthy of their “word of mouth recommendations,” which take the form of high rankings in SERP. 

Adapt to Algorithm Changes

Search engine algorithms are constantly changing. To make matters more complex, Google and Bing won’t willingly reveal what those changes are. So many companies turn to third party experts like us at SEO Design Chicago to handle ongoing SEO maintenance, content creation, revision of content and more. What worked yesterday might not be effective tomorrow.

Great SEO copywriting can adapt to the ever-changing SEO landscape. Copywriters stay informed about algorithm updates and industry trends, allowing them to adjust plans. We start every day reading publications about SEO. 

This commitment to constant learning ensures that we, as digital marketers at SEO Design Chicago, can continue to deliver top quality content to you. Plus, we love this stuff! We see it as a competition – we love studying search engines, avoiding penalties and maintaining or improving a webpage’s ranking.

Provide Content for Social Media

Whether it’s right or wrong, companies need a social media presence. You don’t have to update every platform every day. You should focus on the platforms that your target audiences use. That said, coming up with content to post can be challenging. What’s great about SEO copywriting is that you can reuse it, or use parts of it, for various social media platforms. Shareable, engaging content not only attracts a wider audience but also increases the likelihood of people  visiting your site through social media. Some platforms even have shoppable links. So SEO copywriting isn’t just about getting to the top of SERP. It’s about creating content you can use on social media, then reuse the next season on social media. Got a post about Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? You can reuse it, or simply create a different template with the same core words and images or videos for the next year. 

Prove There’s a  Return on Investment (ROI)

One of the distinguishing features of great SEO copywriting  is that you can measure the effectiveness of it. Is it working or not? Seriously – that rules. Numbers and data can tell you if your time, money and efforts are paying off. Through various analytics tools, businesses can track the performance of their SEO efforts, from keyword rankings to conversion rates. If you don’t see an improvement in organic traffic, conversions, or sales, something isn’t right with your SEO strategy. That means you can either learn more about great SEO copywriting or contract out professionals like us at SEO Design Chicago. 

Data from Google Analytics 4 allows for informed decision-making and the optimization of strategies for better results. The measurable ROI makes SEO copywriting a valuable investment, providing businesses with insights into the impact of their online presence. And Google Analytics 4 is free. So basically, there’s no way to argue the value of great SEO copywriting.

What SEO Design Chicago Can Do to Ensure You Get Value from SEO Copywriting

One of the most popular types of content we create for our clients is blogs. We specialize in blog writing. You’re reading a blog post right now and whether you’ve realized it or not, every SEO best practice has been strategically implemented here.

Our digital marketing team does not just include writers, but also web designers who can create assets for your written content to help your audience (and search engines) understand topics even better. Graphics can be embedded within blog content and used separately for social media posts.

A List of SEO Copywriting Tools and Resources

SEO Plugins

A plugin is a tool that can be added to a browser or a content management system. 

SEO plugins like Yoast SEO (for WordPress) or All in One SEO Pack to streamline on-page optimization if you use WordPress. You can also use the SEMrush plugin if you use Google Chrome. These  tools provide real-time feedback and suggestions to improve the SEO-friendliness of your content. So before you hit publish, you’ll see what could be improved. 

Content Management Systems

Your CMS should have an SEO tool that acts as a wizard, i.e. guiding you through what you need to do. Wix, Squarespace and Shopify have built in tools. 

Others offer apps, or plugins, that you must install (some are free).  

Analytics Tools

Why go through all of this effort if you don’t know if it’s working? Use analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 to track the performance of your SEO efforts. It’s free, and will show you your SERP ranking for various pages, organic traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates.

We offer a free SEO analysis. Reach out to us, and from there we can discuss how to improve your SEO copywriting, or how we can handle the task for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What’s the difference between regular copywriting and SEO copywriting?

Regular copywriting focuses primarily on persuading and engaging human readers, while SEO copywriting must appeal to both humans and search engine algorithms. SEO copywriting incorporates strategic keyword research, optimized headlines and meta descriptions, internal and external linking, and specific technical elements like alt tags for images. The goal is to create content that ranks well in search results while still providing genuine value to readers.

2. How long should my SEO content be to rank well in search engines?

Pages with at least 1,500 words tend to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This length allows you to thoroughly cover topics, naturally incorporate keywords multiple times, include valuable internal and external links, and provide comprehensive information that satisfies user intent. However, quality is more important than quantity – your content should be engaging and informative rather than just lengthy for the sake of hitting a word count.

3. How many times should I use my target keyword in my content?

Use your primary keyword strategically rather than excessively. Aim to include it once in your headline or title, in two headers (H1 and H2 tags), and 3-5 times throughout the body text. Overusing keywords (called “keyword stuffing”) can actually hurt your rankings and make your content sound unnatural to readers. Use synonyms and related terms to maintain variety while still signaling relevance to search engines.

4. What is E-E-A-T and why does it matter for SEO copywriting?

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness – factors that Google uses to evaluate content quality. Great SEO copywriting demonstrates E-E-A-T by featuring expert insights, citing authoritative sources, providing accurate information, including author credentials, and maintaining consistent quality across your website. Content that exhibits strong E-E-A-T signals tends to rank higher and build more trust with both search engines and users.

5. Can I write my own SEO content, or should I hire professionals?

You can certainly learn to write basic SEO content yourself, especially for simple blog posts and page updates. However, effective SEO copywriting requires significant time investment – typically around 3 hours to create a well-researched 1,500-word piece with proper optimization. Professional SEO copywriters like those at SEO Design Chicago bring expertise in keyword research, technical optimization, and content strategy that can deliver better results more efficiently, especially for competitive industries.

6. How do I know if my SEO copywriting is working?

Track your SEO copywriting success using free tools like Google Analytics 4 to monitor organic traffic, keyword rankings, bounce rates, and conversion rates. Look for improvements in search engine rankings for your target keywords, increased organic traffic to your website, longer time spent on pages, and higher conversion rates from organic visitors. If you don’t see improvements within 3-6 months, it may be time to revise your strategy or seek professional help.

7. How can I optimize my content for mobile devices?

Mobile optimization involves ensuring your website is responsive (automatically adjusts to different screen sizes), loads quickly on mobile devices, and provides a good user experience on smartphones and tablets. For content specifically, use shorter paragraphs, include white space for easier reading, make sure images load properly on mobile, and ensure that buttons and links are easily clickable on touchscreens. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so mobile optimization is crucial for SEO success.

8. How can I repurpose my SEO content for social media?

SEO content can be easily adapted for social media platforms by breaking longer pieces into smaller, shareable snippets, creating quote graphics from key insights, turning blog headlines into social media captions, and using blog images for social posts. You can also create video content based on written articles, develop infographics from data-heavy content, and schedule social media posts that drive traffic back to your full blog posts. This approach maximizes your content investment across multiple channels.