We get it! Knowing that 80% of search results only get clicked upon if it’s in the top 20 results is daunting. It is enough to make you fill your page with enough keywords and jargon to ensure you appear in that bracket.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about how to make it easy for a search engine to find your content and lure prospective users, readers and clients. It is an important consideration to have when designing content for your websites, blogs and other digital communication. But does this consideration trump creativity, conciseness and the concepts expressed in your write-up? The simple answer is no.
SEO is a great hook for your target audience, but without completing that user journey of well-designed content that speaks to the user good SEO will just result in creating bigger drop off rates for you. The missing line and sinker for the people you’ve managed to hook with search engines would translate into visitors leaving the page the second they realize there isn’t a value add for them. The quality of links to your page will end up paying for it, nullifying what little momentum having your write up filled with keywords brought you.
What’s the magic pill that ensures good SEO and follow through?
Good old, well-built content. Online copywriting needs to come from a place of understanding your target audience’s need for information, following through it and driving them to take action. You will not need to force fit keywords and industry terminology into the narrative, they will organically be a part of it. Relevant content that is credible, useful and valuable will capture and hold the attention of the visitors, improving SEO results. Remember the search engine is trying to give results that helps its user the best, not the page that can trick the search algorithm the most. So, create good content that sells to your target audience as a priority, but make it easy for the search engine to find it however you can.
Does that mean I don’t care about SEO at all?
Not really. You still need to build content that is easily searchable, so your content does need to have keywords. Only, just don’t have them for the sake of having them, instead use them to bring clarity to your message. Using headlines that capture attention and act as a hook, good page load times, tags, leveraging analytics all add up. The naming and alternate text on your images, meta data descriptions on your html tags and page links make it easier for search engine spiders to determine that your page should rank higher.
Okay, but this isn’t what I’ve heard about SEO, will this work?
If your objective is to generate a lot of web traffic to begin with and lose out on them after the initial spike, no, it won’t work. However, if your aim is to have qualified searches which would find value on your page and will help you achieve your goals, yes, it will work. You will need to generate consistent, compelling and interactive content, a whole lot of it, but it will work.
What are you waiting for then? Begin work on great content now or let us [email protected] for you!