Online Copywriting Tips
Online Copywriting Tips
This article will give you online copywriting tips and go little beyond regular articles on online copywriting, getting into keyword research and how to use it for search engine optimization and crafting a marketing copy that resonates with visitors.
The Format of your Copywriting
On the web people: scan...scan...read ... scroll...scan... read...click...read...scan...click... It's dynamic.
Eye tracking studies found that people pay most attention to
- Opening Headline
- First Paragraph
The headline must interest visitor, while the opening paragraph must ensure he will read the rest of your online copy. Keep length of the opening paragraph short. Summarize the content and put some sugar to add flavor.
Eye tracking studies also found that surfers scan your online copy after they've read opening statements, therefore, your copy must be eye catching in nature. The goal is to make eyes stop and make visitors read. In order to achieve this, break your paragraphs into small 2-4 sentence paragraphs.
- Use bullet points
- Bullet points are perfect for scanners. Bullets make people stumble and investigate more
- Bullets are perfect for summing up your biggest points / benefits, ensuring people will read.
We sometimes use bullets in the beginning of an online copy, right after first paragraph. It causes eyes to stumble and read the points you have to say.
Use bold, italics & combined emphasis. Emphasis is perfect for highlighting your most important points, such as good thoughts, or benefits about products and services. Try not to overdo it - too much emphasis is no emphasis. Again, the goal is to get your message across and emphasis stops the eyes scanning the page.
Use Headlines To Break Online Copy into Sections
This is again done for scanners. Headlines break pages into scannable chunks. It's good to keep one idea under each headline.
Now that are aware of the online copy formatting tips, time to address search engine optimization.
Search Engine Optimization Copywriting
In case you are not aware, search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN wield immense traffic power. If your website ranks well on search engines, targeted visitor flow is guaranteed. Search engines have various criteria for scoring websites beyond the scope of this article and agencies like ours specialize in promoting websites to the best search engine spots.
As a copywriter you need to keep in mind one thing - keywords. Users plug keywords into search engines, and search engines return relevant results. To increase your chances of driving traffic, make sure your online copy has keywords relevant to your article. For example, if we write about online copywriting, we ensure that "online copywriting" phrase is well spread throughout the copy.
In order to find your keywords use keyword research tools:
When writing with keywords, don't stress about the so called "keyword density". Putting more keywords will not improve your rankings, but make your online copy less readable for visitors. Write naturally and input keywords where they fit.
Major search engines maintain linguistic database and perfectly see synonym relations. If you talk about cars, make sure to mention automobile and vehicle a couple of times.
SEO Copy Tips - Headlines and Tags
Make sure that targeted and synonymous keywords are present in your headlines and subheadings. In HTML language those are represented with:
<H1> tag - the tag on top of the page, in biggest font size. It is very important to contain full keyword phrase in that tag. For example, in this article we target phrase: "online copywriting tips". If you look above, that is the first keyword in the main heading or the <H1> tag.
<H2> & <H3> tags - used for subheadings and headings within the online copy. Include various combinations of your keywords in those tags, with synonymous words. Do not include your targeted key phrase in each headline. Search engines are smart enough to see patterns to know you are doing SEO.
Writing Compelling Website Copy
The key to good online and offline copy is in understanding of your perfect customer. The
- Wants
- Interests
- Questions
- Concerns
Once you know it, writing a copy that ticks is cherries. The trick is finding it all out. We sometimes spend 70% of time on research just to write a copy! If you fall into cliches of "we are the best" you wont get far, so research is the key to good online copywriting.
Research Tips
One of the best way to research your audience is to use keyword research tools. Keyword research tools provide great deal of insight into the searches your potential visitors did. By careful analysis you can spot questions they have, their concerns and what they generally want. Read more about keyword research analysis here.
You can also head out to forums and snuck around. We also recommend participating in forums, since it puts your mind into the "community frame" and teaches you jargon that can be used in your online copy.
Blogs are good for following the news and buzz.
Research products and your field. This one is obvious. Know as much as possible about what you write.
Crafting Your Online Copy
Once you know enough about your field, once you've entered into the "mind frame" of your community, analyzed keywords and spotted key phrases you want to target you can start writing:
- Include your main targeted keyword in the <H1> tag for SEO
- Write opening paragraphs that summarize and entice readers to read on
- Use bullets to get most important points across
- Use short paragraph for scannability
- Use keywords and synonyms in the copy and <H2>, <H3> tags for search engines
- Plenty of headlined for scannability
- Emphasis to stop the eyes and highlight important points
Hope our online copywriting tips help you! Good Luck!
