We’re a modern copywriting agency, which means more and more of our work is about search engine optimisation (SEO). The search industry has had a bit of a bad name in the past, but today understanding how algorithms work – and feeding them – is critical to the success of SEO copywriting.
When we chat with any new client, we talk to them about what they want to achieve with their website. Only by understanding the fundamental growth strategy of the business can we use content to help them.
We ask the following questions:
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Why are you successful?
- When do you want a campaign to start?
- Where do you want to be seen?
- Who do you want to see you?
- How will you measure success?
Now, we don’t sit down with a piece of paper and interrogate our customers. Instead, we use the Business Model Canvas – a really useful tool for any business of any size at any stage. (It’s now entered the public domain, so can be downloaded, reproduced and printed for free.)
SEO + Keywords
Once we know a little more about the business, we can get to work on identifying the right keywords and search terms that will get results.
We’re not going to go into detail here, but the process is fairly simple. We look at the marketplace, competitors, the current keywords rankings, search volumes and more.
This helps us identify the search terms that we can target. This information then informs our content strategy. We develop a content route map that uses content strategically to support your business objectives.
Complete SEO content
When we produce SEO content, we create everything that you need. That includes:
- Page title
- Meta tag
- H1, H2 and H3 tags
- Body copy
- Appropriate internal links
- External links
- Copyright-free images and image tags
We make it as simple as possible for SEO copy to be uploaded to your website. We know how frustrating it can be if your SEO content is incomplete or inaccurate.
We also check all character counts to ensure that everything will fit.
This may seem like a long and elaborate process, but it’s crucial that all elements of the page work together to ensure the maximum impact on your search ranking.
Reporting & analysis
SEO is about reviewing and refining. We work with our clients, using regularly reports and analysis to help us shape our approach to copy.
We work in partnership with you and your team to tackle any issues and to use content to help you achieve the results you expect and deserve. We’re always on hand to answer any questions you might have about SEO.
Is SEO a dark art?
It’s a question we get asked quite a lot, and the answer is no. The algorithms Google and others use are complex and sophisticated. SEO experts spend inordinate amounts of time understanding how these algorithms work, and use these insights to finesse your site.
Today, algorithms more accurately reflect the way that you and I search. They value relevant content that’s well-written. They know visitors want to get the information they need quickly and with the minimum of fuss.
These complex programmes also know when someone is trying to game them by using familiar tricks, like crudely lacing hundreds of keywords into an article.
Algorithms constantly change. What doesn’t change is great content. It may sound self-serving, but we advise our clients to spend less time trying to shortcut SEO and spend more time generating high-quality content that people want to read.
That’s our approach to SEO and, if you’re looking for long-term success, it should be yours too.
