How To Write For SERPs

December 16, 2008 · Filed Under Writing Copy

What the heck is a SERP? Search Engine Results Page. One of the criteria for getting a high ranking spot in search engine results is the content of your web page and the relationship it has to your keywords and description. Enter the phrase “Copywriting For Success” with the quotation marks in Google. See the top ranked results contain the search terms in the web/page title and the description.

There are several other factors that also help improve your ranking in the search results. For example the number of incoming or backlinks you get. This is one of the reasons that blogs tend to rank high. We’ll more about that in another article. You can read more about this over at the Search Engine Guide.

Let’s focus on the “On Page” issues for now. “On Page” means just that. The content and information on your page that is not influenced by backlinks.

In order to write effective copy for the web, there are two primary areas that you should look at. They are the page title and the META data descriptions. Both of these are usually the first two things that a person will see when searching the web for a particular product or service.

However, this does not apply to every search engine or directory as some do not show the META description. In some cases, they will show a snippet of the content from your site. The results you get when using a search engine usually contain about 160 characters as a description of the website’s content. This 160 character description usually comes from the META Description the web designer added for that page.

Here are the critical things to review before publishing your website content:

1. PAGE TITLE – This is the first thing that any visitor will see when carrying out a search on the web. The page title should contain your primary keyword.

2. META Description – Usually the second thing the visitor will see when carrying out a search through a search engine or directory. Again, about 160 characters the web content.

Items 1 and 2 are most likely to be shown on the Search Engine’s Results Page (SERP’s).

3. HEADING TAGS<H1> – This will relate to specific subjects within your site. Your primary keyword should appear here, also.

4. VISIBLE CONTENT – This is another area of importance that you should focus on in order to produce effective copywriting for the web. These are in order of importance:

a. Hyperlinked Text and Title Attribute – This is frequently displayed as a “tool tip”. Which is a short
message that will appear when the pointing device (cursor) pauses over a particular object?

b. Alternate Text Tags – This should be for an image and is not to be used for stuffing with keywords that
do not apply to it. Alternate text tags can be read by computer voice simulators used by the blind or
visually impaired. Since search engine spiders don’t have eyes, you should use alternate text tags for
images. This will let the spider know what the image and site are about. Your primary keyword should be
included in at least one of your image’s alternate text. DON’T STUFF. One image = One Keyword.

c. META Keyword Tags – Unfortunately, due to severe abuse by unethical marketers and uneducated
consumers these are not as strong as they use to be. In fact, most search engines will no longer be
looking at these as a relevancy factor during their search. So it is important that you make sure the
keywords you use in this tag are to be found in the visible content for the page. Again, don’t stuff. This
is worse than not having the keyword mentioned often enough. Search engine spiders see it as SPAM.

d. Proximity Index – Google now uses this algorithm to determine how close your keywords are placed
next to each other. You should never break a keyword phrase with “the”, “and” or “or”. These are called
“stop” words and the search engine algorithm starts over looking for keyword content.

Effective copywriting for the web can only be achieved if you carefully research your keywords and keyword phrases. What is the point of writing any copy, if you do not know what it is your target audience is searching for? By targeting the correct keywords and keyword phrases you are taking one of the most important steps in writing effective copy.

We’ll talk about how to find effective keywords and keyword phrases in the tomorrows article.

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