Knowing SEO is great.
Knowing copywriting is great.
But when you can do BOTH?
That’s when you can slap an “S” on your chest…
…because you’ll be unstoppable.
And today I have something that will make you feel like you have SEO superpowers:
17 insanely actionable SEO copywriting tips that you can use right now.
Note: This post was first published in 2015. I recently gave it a much needed update. I also added a bunch of new tips that I recently learned. Enjoy!
Look:
Most people think SEO copywriting is all about putting words after words.
But in my experience, the STRUCTURE of your content is just as important as the writing itself.
And what better place to find proven content structures than Udemy?
(In case you’re not familiar with Udemy, it’s a MASSIVE directory of online courses)
Here’s how you can use Udemy to make your next piece of content 2-3x more compelling:
First, head over to Udemy and enter a keyword.
For example, let’s say you were writing a blog post about photography. You’d search for “photography”:
Udemy will show you all of their popular photography courses:
Next, pick a course with a lot of reviews.
Here’s one:
Once you pick a course, take a look at how many people have already enrolled in it.
As you can see, over 70,000 people have enrolled in this photography course:
Do you see how huge this is?
You’re looking at content that 70,000 people have shelled out cold hard cash to get access to.
That means you don’t need to rely on your Spidey sense. You KNOW there’s going to be demand for your content.
Thousands of people have already voted…with their wallets.
Now:
Once you’ve found a popular course, scroll down to the “Curriculum” section.
That’s where you’ll find the proven structure you can use for your next blog post, video or infographic:
Obviously, you don’t want to rip off the instructor’s course.
But you can use bits and pieces of the curriculum for your outline:
Now that you have your outline, it’s almost time to put pen to paper.
Before you do, make sure to read the next technique on my list…
Tweet this SEO Copywriting techniqueWhen someone lands on your site from a search engine, two things can happen:
They either leave right away…
…or they stick around.
And when people stick on your page like superglue, Google thinks:
“This is a great page. Let’s give it a rankings boost.”
But when people leave your site like a sinking ship…
That’s when Google drops you like a stone.
The bottom line?
If you want higher rankings, you NEED to keep people on your site.
How? Bucket Brigades.
Bucket Brigades are words and phrases that keep people on your page.
For example:
You may notice that I tend to use short sentences that end in a colon, like this:
That’s a Bucket Brigade.
But what are Bucket Brigades, exactly?
Bucket Brigades are an old school copywriting tactic that were originally designed to keep people reading sales letters.
I’ve adapted Bucket Brigades for SEO content and the results are, well, crazy.
In fact, here’s Backlinko’s average time on page:
Yes, that’s 4 minutes.
A good chunk of that above-average Time on Page is due to the fact that I sprinkle Bucket Brigades into every post.
Now it’s time for me to show you how to use Bucket Brigades to boost your Time on Page:
First, find a place in your content where someone’s likely to hit their browser’s “back” button…
…and add a Bucket Brigade.
Start with your intro.
Here’s an example where I used two Bucket Brigades in my intro:
(By the way, the Time On Page for that post is over 5 minutes):
You also want to use Bucket Brigades in the middle of your content.
Here’s an example from one of my recent guide to keyword research:
Bottom line: whenever you have a section where someone may get bored and leave, add a Bucket Brigade.
You can make up your own Bucket Brigades…or you can use these tried-and-true Bucket Brigade classics:
- Here’s the deal:
- Now:
- What’s the bottom line?
- You might be wondering:
- This is crazy:
- It gets better/worse:
- But here’s the kicker:
- Want to know the best part?
And — bada bing, bada boom — you’re set.
Once you’ve added a few Bucket Brigades, move onto technique #3…
Tweet this SEO Copywriting techniqueToday’s super-smart Google doesn’t care how many times you cram a keyword into your article.
Instead, it pays close attention to Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords.
(LSI keywords are a fancy way of saying: “synonyms and closely related words”)
And these LSI keywords help Google understand what your page is all about.
For example, let’s say you write an article optimized around the keyword “cars”.
How does Google know whether your page is about:
- Cars the vehicle
- Cars the movie
- The 1970s rock band (with awful hair)
- The Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs)
The answer? LSI keywords.
For example, when Google sees a page with LSI keywords like this…
…they know the page is about the cars you drive.
But when Google sees a page like this…
…they know it’s about Cars the movie.
So how can you add more LSI keywords into your content?
I’ll explain with an example:
Let’s say your keyword was “playstation RPGs”.
First, search for that keyword in Google:
Then, scan the page for bold words and phrases that aren’t the keyword you just typed in.
Here are some examples from Google’s first page:
See how Google bolds words like “Final Fantasy VIII” and “PS1”?
This means that Google considers those terms VERY similar to the keyword you just searched for.
(In other words, LSI keywords)
Finally, sprinkle these bold terms into your content…
…and you’re ready for secret #4.
Tweet this SEO Copywriting techniqueBold promise? Definitely.
But stay with me.
What’s the big secret I’m talking about?
Create your own keywords.
I’ll explain.
If you search for your brand in Google, you probably rank #1.
You may not have thought about it, but your brand is a keyword…
&
source http://backlinko.com/seo-copywriting
No comments:
Post a Comment