Copywriting Best Practices for your Website

You need to take steps for your users to find your website. Studies show more than 80% of Internet users begin their time online when searching for products and services. You want to increase the likelihood that your site will come up near the top of the search results.

The sophisticated algorithms of Google, Yahoo! and MSN match the best websites for each search. The search engines are looking for the content that matches the search most closely. The words you use on your web page(s) tell the search engines whether or not your page is relevant. Taking time to focus on good keywords will likely increase the traffic to your page.

Choosing Keywords/Keyword Phrases
Think about how your target audience is searching for you. What phrases would they enter into a search engine if they were trying to find a business/product like yours? Choose 3-5 keyword phrases per page that fit your business and also would likely be common phrases that people would use in a search. Here are some free keyword research tools:

-Google AdWords keyword tool
-NicheBotClassic.com
-GoodKeywords.com

Create Relevant Page Copy
It's essential to create relevant copy by spending time researching keywords and keyword phrases that match what visitors are searching for. Examples of relevant keywords and keyword phrases could include:

-Your company and/or product (ABC widgets)
-Local attributes (New Prague Minnesota widgets)
-Special attributes (Minnesota blue widgets)

In the examples above, the keywords would be relevant or "optimized" keywords or keyword phrases. Use these relevant keywords/keyword phrases in your web page copy, photo captions, links, etc.

Quick Tips About Page Text
1) Search engines place strong emphasis on the first words on your page; place keyword phrases at the beginning and in order of importance.
2) Avoid repeating them more than 3 times.
3) Be sure text is related to the overall theme of the page and organized in logical sentences or bullet points.

Other Details to Remember
1) Use text-based keyword phrases in headings. Avoid using only images/graphics as headers because search engines cannot "read" them. When posting photos or videos to your pages, add text descriptions/captions nearby that include a keyword/keyword phrase.
2) Search engines weigh link text more heavily than plain text; use keywords/keyword phrases in on-page links.