How do you write SEO-friendly copy that ranks well and converts well?

How do you write SEO-friendly copy that ranks well and converts well? Yes, knowing your audience is paramount. Yes, speaking to them in familiar ways and tone is vital. Yes, I think this question/answer sentence structure is a bit of a cop-out for proper writing. What I want to caution folks on is how you execute the audience-friendly speak. As marketers, we often approach problems like this from a research angle first. That is super useful, but I often see that turn into jargon-speak. Overly complicated sentences and all-you-can-eat keyword buffets aren't going to get you that conversion, even if you are talking to your special audience. Remember, humans are humans are humans. Make it digestible.

To craft SEO copy that ranks AND converts, you must understand your audience's search intent & the language they use when searching. The goal of a search engine is to serve the most relevant & helpful content that matches the user's search intent. So your best bet to rank is to create content that's optimized for the end user. Analyze what they need at each stage of their customer journey, how much they understand about the problem, and what language they use to describe it. Use the language your audience uses, not industry jargon. They search in their words, not yours.

1) Craft a copy that targets your ideal customer persona and addresses their needs and wants 2) Use reader-friendly language that appeals to everyone, right from an individual contributor to executives 3) Avoid keyword stuffing and instead focus on a select combination of long-tail and short keywords 4) Identify what it is that you're trying to address with your content and what action you would like your readers to take 5) Optimise and refresh your content periodically and weed out low performing pages and content

That’s spot on. Understanding your audience is the bedrock of effective SEO and conversion strategy. You're looking to get into the minds of your potential customers, figuring out not just who they are but how they think and what they're searching for. Tools like Google Analytics and Trends are invaluable for getting a bead on their interests and how they articulate their needs. And yeah, ditching the jargon is crucial; it’s all about speaking their language, not impressing them with ours. It’s this kind of tailored approach that not only boosts your visibility in search results but also turns that visibility into real engagement and conversions.

J'ai mis du temps à le comprendre et c'est pourtant évident. Vous croisez un polonais à Paris qui parle que le polonais. Vous lui parlez dans sa langue maternelle, sa réaction positive va être instantanée. Vous communiquez avec sa langue de ❤️. Vous touchez son cerveau limbique, siège des émotions et de l'action. Vous enclenchez automatiquement un principe de persuasion très puissant : la sympathie. 50% du travail d'un copywriter est cette recherche approfondie de l'avatar 👍😉🙂

Keyword Research: Identify high-intent keywords and naturally integrate them into your content. Write for Humans First: Focus on clear, engaging, and valuable content while meeting search engine requirements. Use Compelling Headlines: Craft titles that include keywords and entice clicks. Optimize On-Page Elements: Include keywords in meta descriptions, headers, and image alt texts. Incorporate CTAs: Place persuasive calls-to-action that align with user intent. Focus on Readability: Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings for better UX. Test and Refine: Monitor performance metrics and tweak copy for continuous improvement.

Pro Tip - You get TWO titles for every page: The Meta Title & the H1 (Heading 1). The Meta Title is the "SEO" title that appears in the search results page. This title should entice users to stop scrolling & click. It should speak to the user's search intent and stand out from the other results. The H1 is the on-page title that usually appears at the top of a page. This should communicate what the page is about to re-assure users they're in the right place & encourage them to stay & engage. Include only one H1 per page. These titles could contain the same keyword or you can use a different variation for each. Subheadings (H2, H3, etc.) should support the main headings & can also contain keyword variations.

Top tip: run your headlines as paid ads. After blasting through 100 of your best headline ideas, you'll have real data to select the winners and A/B only those.

Short & sweet is the name of the game. Don't take your website too seriously either - you can have some fun with it. Try to use more of a human voice, most users will respond better to copy that sounds like it was written by a human being.

Couverture et titre = le plus important. Une belle promesse avec les chiffres magiques, ça marche bien. Une question qui amène un oui aussi 😉

Heading tags are about more than changing the size of your font, they're vital for both SEO & UX. Search engines use heading structure to understand what the content on the page is about. It helps them define the hierarchy of the content, break it into chunks & understand how the concepts relate to one another. Headings help humans in a similar way. They make it easier to scan a page, understand what it's about, & find what's relevant. Use headings and subheadings to naturally include keywords and variations throughout your content. Use them to nest related concepts and expand on topics. You can also include a question-based keyword in a heading and answer it in the body to win featured snippets.

Structure content with headers, subheaders, bullet points, and paragraphs to make it easy to scan and digest. Break up long blocks of text.

Absolutely, nailing the headline is crucial. It's your first impression, and you've got to make it count. Using language that's both clear and compelling makes all the difference. It’s like telling someone exactly what they’re going to get and why it matters to them, in a nutshell. Including the main keyword naturally is key for SEO, but you're right, stuffing it in there just turns people off. And I love the tip about modifiers! Numbers, questions, and phrases like "how-to" or "best" can really dial up the specificity and appeal, making it more likely that someone will click through. It’s a mix of art and science, getting that headline just right to draw both readers and search engines in.

Luckily incorporating SEO keywords isn’t that hard, especially since you’re writing about a certain topic anyway. Add your main target keywords into your headlines and subhead. Then, use secondary keywords and LSI keywords in the body text. Just make sure adding those keywords sounds natural and compelling!

It’s also important to understand schema markup and how/when to use it. Structured data is a key component in content creation and can help insure that crawlers understand and rank your articles.

That’s the perfect balance right there. Writing for humans first is essential because, at the end of the day, they’re the ones reading and engaging with your content. Yet, weaving in SEO best practices without compromising the natural flow and value of the content is what separates good content from great.

Off-page and technical SEO are like the behind-the-scenes work that helps search engines understand and prioritise your content, while on-page SEO makes sure that once humans land on your page, they find what they’re looking for—and enjoy the experience. Including keywords in your SERP listings is crucial for visibility.

Use off-page and technical SEO tactics to appeal to the SERPS and bots. Use on-page SEO tactics to appeal to the humans. And, while you want to include keywords and secondary keywords in your SERP listing (title tag + meta description), make them interesting and eye-catching so humans will be compelled to click.

The main purpose of your copy is to drive the reader to take an action. Your CTA is important, but you want to prepare the ground before that final "call to arms". Your copy should offer so much value that the reader will want to know more from you. That's when people find themselves with a burning desire to take that action. To ensure your reader has no option other than clicking, your CTA copy should: - Be clear - Be emotive - Be specific on what they need to do - Communicate the value they'll gain - Focus on one action and one action only An example? "Want to take your first step towards financial freedom? Download our free ebook '10 Reasons Budgets Don't Work' and free yourself from restrictive budgets (they never work!)"

Tailored content reduces bounce backs to SERP, signaling the site's relevance to search engines and complementing SEO by enhancing SERP positions. Employing front-end technologies for personalization, like twik, hides changes from Google, eliminating the need for complex strategies like maintaining a static, canonicalized copy unaffected by variants, thereby simplifying the process.

Improving and optimizing existing content is almost always easier than creating new content. Google Search Console offers some of the best information about opportunities to improve your content. My process is to filter the report by the page you want to optimize and then sort the queries by impressions. From here, you can see the keywords where you are getting impressions, but few or no clicks. This should give you ideas of what content you need to flesh out in more detail or add to your content.

Citing your sources is also important. If you are writing long-form, informative or educational content, linking to reputable sites that support the points you are making in your copy is important to show the research you did to create the post.