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Powerful Secrets of SEO Copywriting You’ve Never Heard Of

Your content needs to accomplish two goals – persuade your target audience to buy and get traffic

But how do you do it?

If your current traffic doesn’t convert or you don’t know how to get qualified leads to your website, it’s time to change what you do.

The problem with most SEO writers is that they don’t consider their readers when coming up with content ideas. They don’t understand their audience beyond keywords, so they just write about whatever they like.

This is why so many of them fail at ranking high on search engines and converting their visitors into buyers – they are approaching the problem backwards.

Instead of concerning yourself with high rankings, search marketers should concentrate on meeting their customer needs first

Google rewards businesses that meet their customer demands, not businesses who WANT to rank high.

So, it’s not a surprise your current SEO content strategy doesn’t bring the results you want

You need to earn the top position, not wish for it.

The good news is that SEO copywriting could present a huge opportunity for you.

What Is SEO Copywriting Exactly?

SEO copywriting is the art of striking a balance between content that persuades people to buy and content that ranks high on Google.

An SEO copywriter is someone who understands people, knows how to persuade, and makes readers take a specific action.

Without SEO copywriting, you’re going to fail in two ways…

  1. Your content won’t rank for high volume quality keywords
  2. Your content won’t turn visitors into buyers

It takes a lot of effort and talent to create copy that produces results, so at Digivate we make sure that our teams know exactly what they are doing

Whether it’s persuading people to click on your call-to-action buttons, subscribe to your mailing lists or try your products – it’s a copywriter’s responsibility to make people act.

seo copywriting secrets

So if you’re concerned that …

  • Your pages aren’t showing on Google
  • Your pages aren’t converting
  • Your content is outdated, and you never really liked it anyway
  • Your content was never optimised

… we may be able to help

Get More Leads Now

HOW CAN WE HELP? Our #1 goal is to appeal to your audience so that you can increase your sales. To achieve that we build buyer personas and utilise consumer behaviour data.

Your content must be relevant to both your visitors and search engines like Google.

You’d be surprised at how many businesses or agencies don’t consider the actual readers when building their marketing strategies.

Below are 2 actionable copywriting tactics we use to help our clients boost their rankings, increase engagement, and convert more readers into buyers.

#1 SEO Copywriting Tactic: Start with Buyer Personas

Understanding your target audience’s motivations and barriers to buying is crucial for SEO copywriters.

For the copy to be effective, it has to address a particular problem or pain point in that target group, presenting the brand as a solution

Because of this, copywriters must understand the needs and pain points of the people they are writing for.

To create targeted marketing, our content strategists work closely with copywriters and data analyst to create buyer personas.

A buyer persona document showcases different types of buyers based on their age, gender, interests, desires, media preferences, pain points, etc

Below is one buyer persona example:

persona example

HOW CAN WE HELP?  To increase revenue for our clients, we make it our responsibility to understand their target audience and create buyer personas that drive our marketing strategies.

#2 SEO Copywriting Tactic: Create a Winning Formula for Your Content Structure

Most people think that SEO copywriting is all about creating content that users are looking for

This is definitely important, but if you don’t know how to structure your content, you can easily lose your lead.

Your content may be the most amazing piece of work, but if you are not able to get people excited to click your headline, read the introduction and then move slowly down the body, you will miss your opportunity to build trust and convert.

To avoid this problem, we have created a winning formula for structuring our content writing that assures we hook people in and keep them on the site for longer.

This is how we structure our content:

  1. Create a killer headline using power words
  2. Start with an empathetic opening where you agree with your reader
  3. Impress with body copy by providing a solution to their problem
  4. A conclusion that moves people to action

Let’s look at each step in more detail below …

1. Create a Killer Headline Using Power Words

80% of your visitors will just read your headline. Only 20% will actually click on the headline.

If you want more than 20% of readers to click on your article, you need to write better headlines.

How to write better headlines?

Your headlines must contain “power words”.

Power words are persuasive, emotional words that trigger a response — positive or negative. They can make us feel scared, encouraged, aroused, angry, greedy, safe, or curious.

Below is the ultimate list of all power words selected by the emotion you want to trigger in your target audience:

Check out the ultimate list of power words

FEAR ENCOURAGEMENT LUST ANGER
Agony Amazing Allure Abhorrent
Apocalypse Ascend Arouse Abuse
Armageddon Astonishing Bare Annoying
Assault Astounding Begging Arrogant
Backlash Audacious Beguiling Ass kicking
Beating Awe-inspiring Brazen Backstabbing
Beware Awesome Captivating Barbaric
Blinded Backbone Charm Bash
Blood Badass Cheeky Beat down
Bloodbath Beat Climax Big mouth
Bloodcurdling Belief Crave Blatant
Bloody Blissful Delight Brutal
Blunder Bravery Delirious Bullshit
Bomb Breathtaking Depraved Bully
Buffoon Brilliant Desire Cheat
Bumbling Celebrate Dirty Clobber
Cadaver Cheer Divine Clown
Catastrophe Colossal Ecstacy Cocky
Caution Command Embrace Corrupt
Collapse Conquer Enchant Coward
Corpse Courage Enthralling Crooked
Crazy Daring Entice Crush
Cripple Defeat Entrance Curse
Crisis Defiance Excite Debase
Danger Delight Explicit Defile
Deadly Devoted Exposed Delinquent
Death Dignity Fascinate Demolish
Deceiving Dominate Forbidden Desecrate
Destroy Effortless Frisky Disgusting
Devastating Empower Goosebumps Dishonest
Disastrous Epic Hanker Distorted
Doom Excellent Heavenly Evil
Drowning Excited Hottest Exploit
Dumb Extraordinary Hypnotic Force-fed
Embarrass Eye-opening Impure Foul
Fail Fabulous Indecent Freaking out
Feeble Faith Intense Full of shit
Fired Fantastic Intoxicating Greedy
Fool Fearless Itching Gross
Fooled Ferocious Juicy Harass
Frantic Fierce Kinky Hate
Frightening Force Kiss High and mighty
Gambling Fulfill Lascivious Horrid
Gullible Glorious Lewd Infuriating
Hack Glory Lick Jackass
Hazardous Graceful Lonely Kick
Hoax Grateful Longing Kill
Holocaust Grit Love Knock
Horrific Guts Lure Knock Out
Hurricane Happy Luscious Know it all
Injure Heart Lush Lies
Insidious Hero Lust Livid
Invasion Honor Mischievous Loathsome
IRS Hope Mouth-watering Loser
Jail Incredible Naked Lying
Jeopardy Jaw-dropping Naughty Maul
Lawsuit Jubilant Nude Misleading
Looming Legend Obscene Money-grubbing
Lunatic Life-changing Orgasmic Nasty
Lurking Magic Passionate Nazi
Massacre Marvelous Pining No Good
Meltdown Master Pleasure Obnoxious
Menacing Mind-blowing Provocative Oppressive
Mired Miracle Racy Pain in the ass
Mistake Miraculous Raunchy Payback
Murder Noble Risque Perverse
Nightmare Perfect Rowdy Pesky
Painful Persuade Salacious Pest
Pale Phenomenal Satisfy Phony
Panic Pluck Saucy Pissed off
Peril Power-Up Scandalous Pollute
Piranha Praise Seduce Pompous
Pitfall Prevail Seductive Pound
Plague Remarkable Sensual Preposterous
Played Revel Sex Pretentious
Plummet Rule Shameless Punch
Plunge Score Sinful Punish
Poison Seize Sleazy Rampant
Poor Sensational Sleeping Ravage
Prison Spectacular Spank Repelling
Pummel Spine Spellbinding Repugnant
Pus Spirit Spicy Revile
Reckoning Splendid Steamy Revolting
Refugee Spunk Stimulating Rotten
Revenge Staggering Strip Rude
Risky Strengthen Sweaty Ruined
Scary Striking Tantalizing Ruthless
Scream Strong Taste Savage
Searing Stunning Tawdry Scam
Shatter Stunt Tease Scold
Shellacking Supreme Tempting Sick and tired
Silly Surprising Thrilling Sink
Slaughter Terrific Tickle Slam
Slave Thrive Tight Slander
Strangle Thwart Tingle Slap
Stupid Titan Turn on Slay
Tailspin Tough Unabashed Smash
Tank Tremendous Uncensored Smear
Targeted Triumph Untamed Smug
Teetering Unbeatable Untouched Sniveling
Terror Unbelievable Urge Snob
Terrorist Unforgettable Voluptuous Snooty
Torture Unique Vulgar Snotty
Toxic Unleash Wanton Spoil
Tragedy Uplifting Wet Stuck up
Trap Valiant Whip Suck
Vaporize Valor Wild Terrorize
Victim Vanquish X-rated Trash
Volatile Victory Yearning Trounce
Vulnerable Win Yummy Tyranny
Warning Wonderful Underhanded
Worry Wondrous Up to here
Wounded Violate

 

GREED SAFETY FORBIDDEN  
Bank Above and beyond Ancient
Bargain Anonymous Backdoor
Best Authentic Banned
Billion Automatic Behind the scenes
Bonanza Backed Black Market
Booked solid Bankable Blacklisted
Cash Best-selling Bootleg
Cheap Cancel anytime Censored
Costly Certified Classified
Discount Clockwork Cloak and dagger
Dollar Endorsed Concealed
Double Foolproof Confessions
Explode Guaranteed Confidential
Extra Ironclad Controversial
Feast Lifetime Covert
Fortune Money-back Cover-up
Free No Obligation Exotic
Freebie No Questions Asked Forbidden
Frenzy No risk Forgotten
Frugal No strings attached From the vault
Gift No-fail Hidden
Golden Official Hush-hush
Greatest Permanent Illegal
High-paying Privacy Insider
Inexpensive Professional Little-known
Jackpot Protected Lost
Lowest price Proven Never seen before
Luxurious Recession-proof Off the record
Marked down Refund Off-limits
Massive Reliable Outlawed
Money Research Private
Money-draining Results Restricted
Money-saving Risk-free Sealed
Nest egg Rock-solid Secret
Pay zero Science-backed Smuggled
Prize Scientific Strange
Profit Secure Tried to hide
Quadruple Sure-fire Unauthorized
Reduced Survive Uncensored
Rich Tested Under wraps
Savings That never fails Undercover
Six-figure Thorough Underground
Skyrocket Trustworthy Under-the-table
Soaring Try before you buy Undisclosed
Surge Unconditional Unexpected
Treasure Verify Unlock
Triple World-class Unreachable
Waste Unspoken
Wealth Unveiled
Whopping Withheld

Once you come up with 3-5 headline options, you can use a free tool https://www.aminstitute.com/headline/ to validate your idea.

(If your score is below 40, your headline is too weak, and you need to start again).

HOW CAN WE HELP? Our SEO copywriters are conversion experts. We A/B test different titles and copy to make sure your marketing works.

2. Start with an Empathetic Opening Where You Agree With Your Reader

An empathetic opening repeats people’s very own thoughts on a topic right back to them.

You see, one of the first thoughts in the back of your readers’ minds, as they start to look over your post, is:

“Does this apply to me?”

If they can’t figure out the answer to that question quickly, they’ll click away.

Which is why the only purpose of the first line or paragraph is to make a person read the second one, and the second line’s job is to make you read the third.

You want a reader to feel:

“Wow. This is the place for me. Somebody really understands me”

To achieve this, you need to state your most important information in the first two paragraphs.

So you need to start with your main takeaway and not bury the most important information at the end of the article.

On the web, no one can be bothered to wait around for you to get the point.

Which is why you should avoid using complicated concepts, jargon or speak in 3rd person.

A great way to start a blog article is by asking a question.

You can use something like these as examples:

  • Do you feel like… ?
  • Do you think that… ?
  • Have you experienced… ?
  • Ever noticed that… ?
  • Have you ever wished that… ?

Then add a few sentences about what your readers are thinking about their problem.

It’s best to start with focusing on the reader and their problems, not the business or well-known information.

HOW CAN WE HELP? We don’t just write content. We make sure that the content we put out makes your target audience do something specific.

3. Impress With Body Copy by Providing a Solution to Their Problem

If you managed to get your reader to read your body – congrats! You’ve managed to hook them in.

This is the part where you deliver on your headline’s promise.

Here you provide a solution to your audience’s problem and prove that you’re the right business to provide that solution

Things to remember:

  • Make sure that each sentence guides the reader effortlessly to the next one.
  • Use formatting to break up the text (bulleted lists, italics, action points, side notes, etc.)
  • Leverage “bucket brigades” that turn your page into a slippery slope.

A bucket brigade is a very short sentence or phrase that forces the reader to read the next line to get more context.

Examples:

Here’s what you need to know:
The truth is:
Check this out:
You’ll never believe this…
WOW!
You’re about to learn something amazing.
Like this:

By getting your reader to read just one more sentence…then one more sentence … you get them to “fall” down your article like a “slippery slope”, increasing your time on page and engagement rate.

  • Add an element of surprise – say something people don’t know/won’t expect. Your readers will try to anticipate your advice before you actually give it If they think they know what you’re going to say, they’ll assume they won’t have to read your posts
  • Don’t skimp on examples. Lots of examples will improve your writing and trustworthiness.
  • Understand unconscious buying triggers all humans share. Learn about consumer behaviour and neuromarketing to elicit the desired emotional response.

HOW CAN WE HELP? All Digivate team go through a comprehensive consumer behaviour training assuring our clients get better results while spending less money. We also have access to the latest neuroscientific research about human behaviour online. We use consumer data as a competitive advantage in our digital marketing.

4. A Conclusion That Moves People to Action

If you want to know how to turn the interest into a lead and that lead into a sale, you must have enticing solutions at each buyer stage.

Help Me With Sales Funnel Now

The biggest mistake many companies make is a) they don’t create sales funnels and b) they don’t include a call-to-action in their content.

They foolishly think that their content will speak for itself.

The truth is:

If you don’t ask for something, you’re not going to get it

If you don’t include a call to action in your title, description, landing page, or blog post, your reader won’t know what they’re supposed to do next.

People are lazy, they won’t spend more than 5 seconds looking for action button on your website.

Instead, they press back, go to the next Google result and hit that call to action somewhere else.

Samantha Hops
Article by

Samantha Hops

Samantha Hops is an SEO Executive at Digivate and has been working in Digital Marketing for over four years. She has experience in SEO, Affiliate, Content and Email Marketing as well as Social Media. She completed her Master's in Marketing at King's College London and holds certificates in Digital Marketing & Data Analytics from the University of Cape Town. When she isn't working to boost your organic traffic, she is cooking up a storm in the kitchen and filling her house with as many sunflowers as possible.
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