Copywriting for your website

Writing regular, relevant website content is a critical part of the search marketing and website management process for website owners.  If your copy is not relevant, does not contain your target key phrases, then it is an almost futile and pointless exercise! If your copy is optimised, then your website content will form a powerful backbone to your internet marketing and help you drive relevant traffic, improve your search positions and generate more revenue.   

So how do you write effective Website Content?

You must always start with your keyword research. What are the most important phrases? These are the ones people looking for your product or service are using in the search engines. Be aware that it isn’t always what you think it is! Ideally you want relevant keywords and phrases with the most traffic but least competition for rankings.

Then group your keyword phrases into relevant clusters and generate semantic variations and plurals around them.

Once you have done this, sort your phrases according to their importance and how far through the buying cycle the person using this phrase may be. For example someone typing in ‘holiday cottage in northern France’ is a more important and likely buyer than someone typing in ‘holiday cottage France’. This approach helps you think about the most important phrases and gives them more emphasis.

The phrases you select will depend on the time/money you have to create different pages and the volume of searches. You must also decide which phrases are more cost effective to target with paid advertising (Adwords) or natural search.

Try to segment and target your phrases as much as is feasible within budgetary and time constraints. Ideally you want at least one core phrase per page. Then think of related keywords, substitutes and synonyms which you can use. If your use of language is too narrow, the search engines will identify this and mark you down!

The importance of your key phrases determines where they should appear in the copy.

Your most important key phrases should be in your title, ideally in a header tag and repeated in the first paragraph or generally more towards the top of the page. Then use the phrase in the rest of the page as suitable. Try to vary plurals, synonyms and similar words. If you are using multiple keyword phrases, variations on the keyword order won’t negate the value of inclusion. Use links on your keywords if relevant.

Your second most important keywords should appear in the body text several times.

Other related keywords should be included as appropriate.

Other General Advice:

•    The most important thing is that the keyword density should not compromise readability. Copy should first and foremost be written for users with search engines the secondary consideration. However, if you do not include the key phrases you want to appear under, you have very little chance of ever appearing under them!

•    Keep the page length sensible – between 300 and 500 words is a good guide.
•    Repeat primary key phrases 2 to 3 times as phrases but use the individual keywords in other ways where you can.
•    Try to keep density high without compromising readability.
•    Link related pages and related content together
•    Use your key phrases in titles, subtitles and headings
•    Add links onto key phrases – point them to other related pages or definitions
•    Use copy optimisation alongside other forms of optimisation!

What Next?

To speak to one of our Search Marketing Team for impartial and expert advice, call 0845 896 7654. You can also email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   We look forward to hearing from you.