How To Drive Traffic To Your Website With SEO Writing
Having great SEO helps small businesses level the playing field with big competition.
If you’ve ever seen a product review pop up higher in search results than the listing for the product itself, you’ve seen just how powerful good SEO can be! With so many of us searching for information online before making a purchase, having your website front and center can make a huge difference for your business. To get there, you’ll need to master the art of SEO writing!
First of all, What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the practice of making sure your website accurately reflects information for search engines. Basically, you want your website topic or function to be crystal clear to Google. This way Google can take a glance at your site, see that you sell handmade pottery, for example, and then show your content when people search for handmade pottery.
Depending on how good your website SEO is, Google can change your search engine ranking. You want Google (and every other search engine) to know what your site is about, that you are trustworthy, and can answer the searcher’s question. There are many factors that can affect your website SEO, but today we’re just talking about writing content for SEO.
Why Small Business Needs To Worry About SEO Marketing
When you’re competing online, it can be hard to stand out as a small business. If you sell a product in a crowded niche, how do you rise above the rest?
Having an amazing website helps, but if no one can find it, it’s not doing you much good. We love SEO marketing because, besides your time invested, it’s totally free. You don’t need to spend advertising dollars to get to the first page of Google. This levels the playing field a bit and gives you the chance to show up right next to the big guys!
Sounds great, right? SEO can be a powerful benefit to your business! We’ll warn you now not to expect results overnight, it can take months to make it to the first page of Google.
Do You Need SEO Training?
No special training is needed to work some SEO writing magic. We have a few tools that can help, however. First things first, you need to write good content. This doesn’t mean that you have to be an amazing writer! Keeping it simple is always going to be your best bet.
When writing a blog post, or a web page for SEO content, start off by finding your keywords. Once you know exactly what people are searching, you can write content to answer their questions. When you have your topic nailed down, break it up into easy to digest pieces. Each of these sections gets their own heading (like in this very blog post) which is easier for people and search engines to read. Writing these individual sections is much easier to do than starting with a blank page and trying to fill it with 500 words.
We recommend writing thoughtful content and having a colleague, or even friends and family proofread before posting on your website.
SEO Content Writing Don’ts
You never want to fill your website with gibberish paragraphs (an old and extremely cringy tactic) just to get to a certain word count. If the content isn’t informative, cut it out. The absolute bare minimum word count a page should have is 300 words.
Also, you can absolutely outsource your SEO writing needs. Just make sure to avoid super cheap options like computer-generated content. If the content doesn’t make sense to you, it definitely won’t make sense to any of your customers either! Invest in a good (human!) copywriter who can convey what you need on the page while incorporating SEO tactics.
And lastly, don’t keyword stuff on your website or blog. Keyword stuffing is when you write content and fit your keyword in as many times as physically possible. This is difficult for people to read and Google notices that it’s a fishy tactic.
Apps To Help Your SEO Writing
If writing isn’t your forte, here are a few apps that we love that can help you out!
- YoastSEO – Where would an SEO copywriter be without Yoast? Their program gives you tips on improving your SEO content before you publish. Yoast can help you to get more visitors from search engines and also increase reader engagement. It’s an absolute must if you’re planning on a content marketing strategy!
- Grammarly – The Grammarly chrome extension is beloved by our whole staff. It lets you know if you’ve made spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes so your writing looks as professional as possible. Best part? It’s free to use!
- MOZ Keyword Explorer – MOZ is a fountain of SEO knowledge! If you’re curious what keywords you’re currently ranking for, or what your competitors are ranking for, the MOZ keyword explorer is there for you.
Differences for Small Business SEO
When you’re competing with the big guys you need to set some realistic expectations. If you’re just one person, don’t stress yourself out trying to create more content than a big team of people at a huge competitor.
Instead, focus on the things that you’re amazing at and make sure it’s known! Add your unique selling point to all of your content and show off your expertise.
Also, be super choosy with your keywords. If the Google keyword planner tells you that a keyword has high competition, believe it! Opt for low competition keywords when you’re starting out. They’ll likely have fewer overall searches, but once you can start ranking for keywords in your niche, Google will start to see that you’re an authority on the subject!
Getting the SEO scaries? We know the feeling! We like to geek out so you don’t have to. Want to learn more about how to market yourself online? Sign up for a free strategy session today!