[aageneral] Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copy - The Down and Dirty Details

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Summary:
Want a quick lesson on writing for the web so that people
actually see it, read it and take action as a result of it?
Then take a look at the "Down and Dirty" details..

Word Count: 1132

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Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copy - The Down and Dirty Details

Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword
phrase is like having the most memorable prime time
television commercial in 1973.

Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going.
It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become
more important over the next ten years. If you can get on
that coveted first page organically, well then, more power
to you!
I know you probably have read other articles about writing
SEO copy and how it relates to achieving high search
rankings, there are plenty of them to go around. But some of
the articles are complicated; some are too long, others
boring. Still others don't explain that great SEO copy is
rarely effective just on it's own - in order to get those
high rankings (which is the goal after all), you have to do
other things too. So, we decided that what most people
really needed was a "down and dirty", easy to understand,
ten step method. You ask, and we deliver. Here are the
official ten steps in order:

1) Check your Competitors
Who are your competitors? Do you know? If you don't, you may
want to go online and do a search for your product or
service. Who is on the first two pages? That is your target.
Those are the companies that you want to compete with.
Because right now, they are getting your customers. Take a
look at their website. Notice the copy. Analyze their
business. Are they successful? What are they not doing
right? Look for the holes. You're going to meet the needs of
their customers (that they are not fulfilling) so they
become YOUR customers.

2) Research your Keyword Phrases
Remember, Keyword Phrase research is critically important.
It can also be a little tricky. Do you know what keywords or
keyword phrases your customers search for when they look for
you? Are you sure? Se what your competitors are using. You
can do this by right clicking on their home page, selecting
"View Source" and then checking their keyword meta tag.
Next, go on to Overture.com (Now Yahoo), click on "Visit the
Advertiser" section, and use their Keyword Selector Tool.
Its great - and its free. You can also use Wordtracker.com,
but it does cost $7.50/day.

3) Write Good Copy
Now its time to start writing. Or re-writing. And if you
can't write, you can hire a website copywriter to do it for
you. The bottom line is to write about benefits, not
features. Don't tell them how great your company is. They
will discover that for themselves when you overwhelm them
with your service and deliver the perfect product that meets
their every need. Make the copy to the point and snappy.
Make it sure it has impact, and asks the potential customer
for their business.

4) Integrate Your Keyword Phrases
After you figure out which keyword phrases you want to use
on your site, you need to integrate them into the copy of
your site. Think Home Page and Services page as the most
important pages to use them on. Essentially, you want to
them to make up 5% of the total words on the page. It's not
that hard actually. Just don't use them all over the place
like some stupid copywriters do - you could get de-listed
from the search engines. Definitely use them in your
headlines and sub headlines. That will get you extra points,
so to speak.

5) Check your Links, Build if necessary
Do you have any inbound links pointing to your site? If not,
no amount of awesome copy is going to get your site high
rankings. Links are very important. And even more so for
Google. Go to linkpopularity.com and see what you have. Also
check your competitors. If they have more than you, you need
to get some high quality links. You can either do that
yourself or hire someone to do it for you. It can be time
consuming and expensive. But you gotta do it. It makes you
look important to the search engines. A good way to do it is
to make sure you are listed on directories, including DMOZ
and industry related sites. Go to incominglinks.com to see
which ones you should be listed on. Then write articles and
submit them to article submission sites. That could
potentially give you hundreds of links for free.

6) Use Go Rank's Analytical Tools
GoRank.com is a fantastic free resource for SEO. They have a
Keyword Density Analyzer, Link Popularity Analyzer, Top 10
Keyword Analyzer, Research, News and lots of other great
stuff. It's a great tool and something I use every day. It
will help you in your SEO copy efforts.

7) Submit to the Search Engines
After you've ensured that your website copy and all the
other important SEO considerations have been completed, it's
time to submit to the Search Engines. Do it manually. Go to
the search engine and do it yourself. Definitely don't pay
someone to do it for you. You may have to resubmit a few
times, but eventually, your site will get noticed.

8) Tweak the Copy as necessary, Add New Content
After your site has been up for a while, go back and take a
second look. Ask friends and customers what they think of
it. Can anything be improved? You'll be surprised what you
may hear. If something isn't working, fix it. Make it sound
better. The other thing that you should also be doing is
adding content regularly. Build free resources into your
website. This will make your customers and potential
customers happy, and it will make you appear to be more
important in the eyes of the search engines. Adding articles
to your site is a great way to give your customers new, free
content. Write about things that they would find
interesting.

9) Partner with a Great SEO Firm
You may want to also consider partnering with a great Search
Engine Optimization firm. There are probably a hundred very
good ones out there. There are also 1000 bad ones. For the
good ones, check out topseos.com. and marketingsherpa.com.
They both list reputable firms. Whoever you go with, make
sure they have a list of client success stories complete
with stats to back it up.

10) Measure Your Success!
Finally, measure your success. (or progress) Get a software
program that will provide you with some web metrics as it
pertains to your site. WebTrends and Statcounter are great
ones. There are quite a few others as well.
As you can see, Search Engine Optimized copy is only part of
the overall SEO story. There is a lot to it, so make sure
you cover every area. After all, we want to get your web
site to the very top!

C2005 Jon Wuebben. Do you need Search Engine Optimized (SEO)
Web site copy that moves customers to buy? Are you looking
to create an effective newsletter/e-zine article or ad for
your business? We provide world class copy that helps you to
be found on the web. 10 years experience providing superior
copy to businesses nationwide. Contact us for a
complimentary Website Copy analysis. Subscribe to our
Better Business Writing (BBW) Newsletter and receive
2 free reports. http://www.customcopywriting.com/

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