The days of “build it and they will come” websites are long past. With today’s competitive marketplace and slew of rival websites, you need to take every advantage in order to set your website apart from the thousands of others. Search engine optimization (SEO) of your website’s copy is one of the best ways for improving your websites ranking.
Scrapbooking is notorious competitive, both online and off. With thousand of kit companies, online stores, magazine and posting boards, standing out in the crowd can be nearly impossible. One way that you can set your website apart is by optimizing the copy on your website, from your home page and landing pages to product descriptions and educational articles.
Since search engines can’t see pictures or design, no matter how beautiful or innovative, search engine spiders require text to read in order to find and rank your website’s pages. Potential clients require text to explain and describe a product. Both of these purposes can be fulfilled with solid, well-crafted copy text.
Search Engine Optimization
Writing (or rewriting) text is both a science and an art. Search engine programmers are secretive about how they rank web pages so there is no definitive guide on how to write the perfect copy. But by studying what has worked, we can take an educated guess on how to increase page rank just by optimizing your copy.
The key to highly ranked copy is ironically keywords. You need to know how your potential customers are searching for you and your products. Once you know the keyword groups most searched for, sprinkle them throughout your pages and product descriptions for increased ranking power.
You can find the keywords most used for your products by visiting www.wordtracker.com. This is an invaluable tool for professional freelancers but there is a free version that will help you start using keywords in your copy. You will want to use several of the exact word groups in your copy, as long as they still sound natural. Try replacing several pronouns with keywords for a simple fix.
Next, add keywords or groups of keywords (exactly as they are searched, not reworded or reordered) in your headlines, subheads and internal links. These positions can sometimes rank higher than just copy text. Consider adding internal links that “suggests” another complimentary product. This helps upsell more products as well as creates internal links that help page rank.
Product descriptions should be simple to understand and coherent. Aim for descriptions that run between 100-250 words. Since scrapbooking is a product that is not a necessity, use a unique selling proposition that both teaches usability and solves a client’s problem. Use emotion words and create excitement.
After you have perfected your copy and product descriptions, you should check with your web designer to make sure your back end has been optimized as well. You will want to use keywords in your html, meta tags and title tags.
Good copywriting should be part of your overall search engine marketing (SEM) plan. Search engines remain a mystery and algorithms can change in a nanosecond. But good content retains its value year after year. By improving your websites copy, you will find your page rankings and sales rising dramatically.
