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.

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• Your content is outdated, and you never really liked it anyway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

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:

#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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.