Ireland
Let’s talk about copy writing for the web today, and specifically who the audience is for that copy. It’s something of a dilemma, with some advocating the search engines as the primary audience while others identifying visitors as the more important one.
It is a valid argument that no one will see your web site unless search engines send them there in the first place. With more than 125 million web sites world-wide and growing every day, the competition for traffic gets keener by the moment. Grabbing the attention of Google and Yahoo and the rest seems just the obvious notion, with the expectation that a high rank position on them will guarantee traffic.
It is also a valid argument that no one will do business with you unless the content of your site grabs them. Compelling and well-crafted copy that holds a visitor’s attention will get you that most desired response, whether it’s a purchase of your product, or a telephone call to schedule an appointment, or a contact form submission that supplies an email address for followup contact.
So, which is it? I’m not going to answer the question, actually. I’m taking a different approach to it today, and give you even more to think about.
There’s an old line from French Revolution history that seems applicable at the moment – - something about needing to find out where the people were going so they could be lead there.
Keywords – - the words or phrases pertaining to your products or services that people are likely to use in a Google or Yahoo search, and for which you want your site to be ranked well. That’s as good a definition of keyword as any for purposes of this discussion.
You know what your keywords are, or at least you can figure them out based upon the products or services offered through your web site. In order to be indexed by search engines for those keywords, they must appear in the copy of your web site. Listing them in your source code (meta keywords) just doesn’t cut it with search engines. Read our Free Resource Booklet for more detailed discussion.
After you’ve assembled your list of those keywords, though, don’t take pen to paper just yet. Check the keyword inventory for them first. Use an online resource like Nichebot, or even Nichebot Classic – - find out how many searches were conducted for those keywords in the past and what the predicted search inventory will be in the future. Also, find out in what variations your keywords have been searched or are likely to be searched.
Think about that. You can learn what people are already searching for, what they are already wanting to find. You can learn how they are searching for you, too – - what phrase or variation of your keywords they are already using in those searches at Google and Yahoo.
Find out where they are going so you can lead them – - invaluable information. Now, take pen to paper and write your copy. Make sure it contains keywords (words and phrases) that people are already searching for and that you want to be found for, and lead them to your site.
Let that be the perspective of your writing, rather than who your audience should be. Search engines will reward you with a good rank, and visitors will have found what they have already been looking for – - your site.