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The road to SEO success can be long. But worry not, there are some really simple hacks you can do with your SEO copywriting to kickstart your efforts...and we’ve got a bunch of the most important ones right here.
We hate to bleat on about SEO, but seriously, as a startup, you really can’t afford to be ignoring it.
Whilst it would be lovely to think that all the great writing you’re doing will get results by itself, ultimately this isn’t going to be a tactic that pays off.
To crack SEO copywriting, you need to put in the work.
This can be daunting for startups, as SEO can be complex, overwhelming and just plain confusing. The vast sea of hints, tips and advice out there can often hinder more than it helps.
But worry not. We’ve got your back.
There are some really simple hacks you can do with your SEO copywriting to kickstart your efforts...and we’ve got a bunch of the most important ones right here.
So keep reading, and we’ll let you in on some of the key things your startup should be doing with your copywriting to maximise your investment.
Ready?
Right then. Let’s get started…
Startup SEO Hack #1: Grease-slide your copy
You might have noticed a trend in copywriting.
We’re doing it now. It's called grease-sliding, and it's a copywriting technique designed to keep your readers on the page for longer.
Each line gives you a gentle nudge onto the next, giving just enough away to help the eye skim, and still get the context.
The idea is that you literally “grease” each line to help your reader slide onto the next. It’s also sometimes called “bucket brigade” copywriting, which stems from the idea of firefighters standing in a line and passing buckets of water to one another.
We know what you’re thinking.
Why on Earth would this have any impact on your SEO?
Well, by using this writing technique, you encourage your readers to stick around for a longer page visit. And longer page visits = a big thumbs up from Google.
The longer a reader stays on the page, the more Google will deem your content as being of better quality than a similar site that visitors bounce off immediately.
To get your grease-slide on, start with a transitional phrase that that helps entice people to read on - work with intrigue and suspense as a core emotions to tap into.
Here are some good examples of bucket brigade phrases:
- Just think about it:
- But wait, there’s more…
- It gets better:
- Yes, you read that right:
- I know you’re thinking:
Practice makes perfect, and you may need to call on some outsourced experts to help with this. But if you aim for one thing, make it this:
Use copywriting techniques to keep your readers on the page for as long as possible. This will boost your ranking.
Startup SEO Hack #2: Write SEO Friendly Copy
Google doesn’t just analyse a few keywords, URL, titles etc, but rather looks at the whole content of your page.
This allows it to get more relevant search results, not just ones that hit very narrow search terms.
The way you can make this work to your advantage is super simple. First up, run a basic, sensible, but specific search for what you are writing about.
Then, head down to the bottom of the page, where Google will have listed ‘Searches related to [original search term]'.
These are the additional searches that Google thinks are relevant to your topic. And if Google thinks they are, then from an SEO point of view, they really, REALLY are!
So all you have to do is grab them, and stick a few into your content. Give Google a little helping hand and make sure to leave its elusive algorithms under no doubt as to what your content is about.
Startup SEO Hack #3: Be more meta
When writing a blog post, your meta description probably won’t be high on your list of tasks.
But a good meta description will be the difference between a click, and a hard pass.
A meta description is the short text that appears on the search results page, under your page URL.
If it’s good and persuasive, you have a much higher chance of encouraging a potential reader to click. If not...sayonara, baby.
You can be as high up the page as you like, but if that bit of copy doesn’t grab attention, then no one is coming to your site.
Make the meta description your best writing. It should give just enough away to intrigue a new reader, but not so much that you give all your best bits away.
You might find it helpful to call on some behavioural economics tricks to influence and nudge potential readers here.
Startup SEO Hack #4: Make your text look as good as it sounds
Great copywriting will win you readers and keep your visitors on your page.
But sometimes the look of a page of text is more important than the content itself. After all the best copy in the world is no use at all if it's housed on a page that turns your readers off.
We’re all thinking long and hard about the user experience of a product. So extend these same principles to your reading experience, too.
Ask yourself, would I enjoy reading this text? Can my eye scan the page easily? Do I have to work hard to extract the key points, or is the page doing the hard work for me?
Long, dense paragraphs are off-putting, difficult to scan, and send potential readers into the arms of a competitor that’s easier to get to grips with.
So don’t be afraid of white space.
And watch out for weird formatting like wrapping text around images and having end-of-sentence words hanging out on a line on their own.
Don’t forget to keep your font attractive and legible...simplicity in design is key here.
Startup SEO Hack #3: Optimize the right pages
This one might seem obvious, but if time is short, focus on your best-performing pages!
Not everyone has unlimited time, so if you are looking to boost your SEO copywriting, do a bit of research and analysis and focus on the pages that already are getting numbers.
Just check out your Google Analytics, and find the most visited pages in your ‘Behaviour’ drop-down. Then focus your efforts on them to yield the most effective results.
Startup SEO Hack #4: Tidy up your URLs
Doing a bit of work on your URLs is a great and easy thing to do.
Are they short, relevant, and simple? Do they convey what the post is about to an actual human?
It’s really common for most blogging platforms to automatically convert your post title into a url. Trouble is, this can be really long and include lots of filler fluffy words.
We suggest using a tool like Yoast, that will give you the option to set an SEO specific url that is optimised for your keywords. Whilst we’re on that point: Yoast SEO copywriting can be a saviour. In just a few clicks you can optimise your title, url and meta description to make sure that Google knows very clear what your post is about. It’s also free so you really have no excuse. Give it a whirl!
Over to you...
These are a few of the simplest and quickest things you can do right now in your copywriting to kickstart your SEO.
Put these six suggestions in motion, and you’ll be well on your way to improving the performance of your business online.
And, once you’ve got to grips with these ideas, the more complicated SEO concepts will be that much more within reach.
So, shall we get to it?
