Some clients want beautiful words on a page. Some want to get people to get to that page. Most will drift toward one or the other but doing both is possible. If you design websites and partner with a freelance copywriter/web content writer or someone like me, they need to know a thing or two about writing for websites as well as writing in general. At the risk of sounding like everyone else, here’s …..Six things web copywriters should really be on top of.
Things good copywriters know about web content
- Does the client need SEO content? A controversial one to start with. Some companies do not rely on the Internet to get work. I have written for multi million euro companies that still do business the same way they did it twenty years ago. They certainly need well-written, engaging content for their website. But they may not need SEO keyword-rich content – simply because their customers do not find them this way. Experienced content writers will only give them what they need.
- Keywords – who decides when a keyword is really a keyword? Most web agencies see this as an aspect of their role. It certainly can be but a copywriter that understands SEO should be capable of researching and identifying the relevant keywords for every page. If your agency has an SEO specialist in-house, that’s great. But if you don’t, hire a copywriter that provides this service too. After all, they will ultimately have to weave these words into their fresh new content anyway.
- Title tags – again this is usually supplied by the designer or developer. An experienced digital copywriter can do this for you. They know about character limits on the major search engines and the best formulas to work with for consumers and industrial marketing alike.
- SERPs – it sounds a bit like a contagious disease but it can be a vital weapon in the armoury of a good digital copywriter. Writing copy for Search Engine Results Pages is all about understanding your target audience and their instinct for a CTA or Call-To-Action. If your copywriter can write a good classified ad, they can write for SERPs. Number of characters used here is vitally important and they should be hitting under 170 for Google.
- URLs – these can be generated by the CMS or edited easily. Keyword-rich urls have huge SEO potential. Your web copywriter needs to understand this and they’ll be happy to recommend URLs, as part of the overall SEO strategy.
- HTML – this is a ‘nice to have’. You don’t need to know how your engine works to drive your car but if you do, it probably helps a little. Same goes for web content writers and HTML. It would be nice if they had a rough handle on it but it’s probably not a necessity.
Web content writers are not SEO specialists and there is more to SEO than content alone. Finding a writer with a handle on issues like the ones referred to above will help you a lot and save you plenty of time and hassle.
So, a little knowledge does not have to a dangerous thing after all. If you’re looking for an experienced web copywriter, why not give me a shout. I’ve written copy and content for some of Ireland’s best digital agencies and web developers.