There’s no point putting loads time and effort into building content unless it’s going to rank well on SERPs (search engine response pages). 54% of B2B marketers and 50% of B2C marketers think the biggest challenge in content marketing is developing posts that generate high engagement rates. Why? Because useful content alone is clearly not enough. Your copy also needs to hold a certain level of quality to really capture the attention of your readers and drive them to take action.
Creating effective copy is no easy task, but help is at hand! In this article, we’re letting you in on the most important tips you can implement to boost your website copy. Nail these pointers and you’ll set your pages up to climb search rankings as well as convince your users to act.
1. Make your subheadings pop
Great subheadings are as important for SEO as they are for readability. Simple, boring subheadings will make readers want to leave, lowering the pull of your content. All that effort you’ve put into compiling a great piece is useless if your readers don’t even make it to the first subheading before losing interest in you.
What makes a subheading sing? The promise of meaningful information is a great start. Spend time crafting headings that claim an unignorable advantage or throw out a remarkable statistic. Remember to also throw in words that relate closely to your subject so that Google picks up keywords in your first headings (H1 and H2).
2. Exploit Long Tail Keywords
Speaking of keywords – exploit long tail keywords. Very short keywords like dress, car, money, and so on, are known as “short tail keywords”. They’re highly competitive and take huge amounts of work to rank highly for. In contrast, long tail keywords are far less competitive and far more focused. They don’t receive anywhere near as much search traffic, but people typing long tail keywords into Google are looking for something very specific, wouldn’t you like to be their answer?
Think about keywords that your actual customers would type into Google, then use tools like Keyword Planner to see if these phrases are actually receiving any level of traffic. If users are turning up on your pages already looking for the exact goods or services you offer, your chances of converting them are pushed through the roof!
3. Use persuasive, friendly language
Links and keywords aren’t the only powerful factors that determine your search rankings – credibility plays a huge part, too. Google likes sites that receive more engagement than others and hates sites that see large bounce rates (when someone leaves as soon as they land on a page).
The more time a visitor spends on your site, the better your chances of ranking higher on Google and other leading search engines. So, the idea is to hit your visitors with statements and types of language that gets them sticking around instead of smashing the back button.
So – how do you do it? You need to be adding phrases and sentences frequently throughout your content that keep people reading. These phrases need to be enticing and leading by promising your visitors upcoming snippets of information they can’t ignore. These kinds of phrases include:
🗣️ This will blow your mind:
🗣️ It gets better:
🗣️ But here’s the real secret:
🗣️ The best part is:
🗣️ Here’s the thing:
🗣️ What should you take from this?
🗣️ You’re probably wondering:
As you can see, these phrases keep offering the reader more if they keep going. Fill your content with these and you’re bound to see the average times your users spend on pages soar.
4. Create a sense of urgency
If the purpose of your copy is to get users to convert, which in most cases it is, then you’re going to need to create a sense of urgency. If you pitter patter around your content with no real sense of urgency, then your readers will easily get into a comfortable state of mind and push your services to the back of their list. Basically, they’ll realise that they don’t necessarily have to convert with you right away.
Of course, this isn’t the intended reaction that you want, so you’re going to need to create a sense of urgency in order to get the ball rolling. Great examples include:
🚨 Last few spots remaining
🚨 24 hours left!
🚨 This is a limited offer
5. Add call-to-action buttons
Call-to-actions are a powerful way to get people to make a move. If you don’t make it easy enough for people to click the things you want them to, they just won’t. Have great research or a certain fact that you want your users to share, and prompt them to do so by providing a button labelled, “tweet this”. Little additions like this will help you highlight key content, catapult shares, and improve your sites user experience.
Don’t throw call-to-actions everywhere and anywhere! This is a no-no. You need to be selective about the key facts and elements you want to nudge people to engage with. Stick to pieces of information or actions that your audience will find really useful. Shove call-to-actions everywhere and you’ll only annoy people, which means your bounce rates will shoot up.
Time to get writing
These are our best tips for pumping out copywriting that boosts your SEO as well as your conversion rates. Practice these techniques to draw more relevant traffic and climb your way up search rankings!