Every piece of SEO advice has its own diverse nuances, but it’s also true that some recommendations are simply more successful than others. We’ve all looked at our rivals’ websites and wondered “Why aren’t we getting the views they are, and what do I need to write to make that happen?” 

While many sites will offer you great advice on keywords, headers, and ensuring you play to your audience’s search intent, we’re here to go deeper than that.

The following 11 items form an SEO copywriting checklist to help you delve into some details you may have missed. Below, we will detail how to plan your copy and ensure it hooks viewers, how to select the best internal or external links, and so much more. So, prepare to learn some new actionable insights you can use moving forward and start seeing much better results.

Developing Effective and Appealing SEO Copywriting

Copywriting and SEO are not only about throwing words on a website and hoping they convey who you are to your readers. You also need to make an active effort to communicate who you are and what you do to search engines and engage the readers who then find you.

1. Creating Authentic Content Topics

First, you cannot simply start writing and expect everyone to want to see it. If your target audience is “everyone of every age”, I am sorry to offer you this harsh truth: Not everyone wants what you offer.

To save you time and effort, perform market research to discover who your product is most popular among. You can then research trending topics among these groups using tools like Google Trends or Buzzsumo to learn more. 

When you understand your audience, develop a content calendar with fresh and relevant topics that speak to them. These should offer helpful and informative content that people want to either return to or share with others. Also, use an on page SEO checklist to check every piece of content follows a minimum standard of SEO quality.

2. Writing Meta Descriptions That Promise and Deliver

Crafting a high-quality meta description means more than summarizing what is on the page. You may already know it’s the perfect place to leverage search engine optimization by describing the web page. On top of that, you also need to give your readers a well-worded promise as to what the page will deliver.

People often use the meta description on a search engine result page to decide whether they want to click. Thus, describe a unique selling point you are trying to offer your customers with the pag. This way, when people come to your site they will be hungry for what you can supply them.

3. Selecting Optimal Internal and External Links for SEO

When you add internal links to your site, you want them to be a part of a journey. Use links that continue a natural question or thought process when moving around your site. This way you can allow your customers to learn more about which of their needs you can meet without awkward leaps of logic.

In some cases, you can also use keyword-rich anchor text for any links you have. While it doesn’t necessarily boost your search engine ranking, it can often help maintain a user’s context with the page they’re already on.

Make sure you don’t link to competitors with your external links, though, as you may end up with your customers disappearing to them. Also, audit any links now and then to ensure they remain valid. You want to keep that “link juice” as fresh as possible, after all.

4. Understanding The Whys and Hows of Long-Tail Keywords

When working through your SEO checklist for blog posts, you want to ensure it doesn’t get in the way of high-quality, high-volume keyword content. When you focus your article on such terms, it can also benefit you to look into smaller keywords that are easier to target. These can help to “kick-start” your visibility, especially among very niche audiences.

Long-tail keywords show a more dedicated, specific intent of searching for a term. If there are only 100 people looking for it every month, then these are people who are laser-focused on discovering something like what you offer. You can then create content that pulls in these people without difficulty.

Make sure not to use them in an unnatural way, though. To do this, try:

• Spreading them throughout your content so they do not look like a cluster of keywords
• Using natural language without butchering your spelling and grammar to make them work
• Ensuring they are relevant to the core of the content you are posting

Following each of these tips will ensure that a search engine will not look at your content and think you are trying to “game” the system.

Publishing Helpful and Relevant Content

Many creators try to jam as many pages and blog posts on their site as possible. While this can be useful when you are just starting to give you a foundation of content, you do not want to overdo it. Search engines will see when you do this, after all, and may consider your site “spammy” if you do not take steps to avoid it.

Make sure that everything you create aligns with the intent of users who are likely to visit your site. Do not create content that doesn’t have anything to do with what you offer, just because you can use a high-volume keyword. This will lead to people bouncing off your site when they realise you don’t have anything to offer them.

Instead, use your content calendar to plan posts such as:

• Appealing infographics explaining your company and product
• “How-to” articles
• Information for specific audience niches
• Tips and tricks for improving how someone uses what you offer
• Centers on creating content that not only attracts but also retains the interest of the audience

These all give your site a more “effortless” and real feel, encouraging return visits.

5. Crafting Compelling SEO Hooks Using AIDA Writing Techniques

Your intent when starting any article is to end up with your reader responding like Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained:

“You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.”

This is more than simply talking about something you consider interesting. Instead, think about how a reader processes information when coming to your page. You want to hook them, then sell them on what you want to discuss.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely because you went through a similar process. If that’s the case, go back and look at the introduction to this article. You will see it fits the AIDA template very well:

AIDA = Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

Attract attention: Start with a bold statement or intriguing fact that causes curiosity.

“…some recommendations are simply more successful than others…”

Maintain interest: Provide insights and imply your article bears relevance to the reader. One good method is to describe how the scenario in the first sentence results in a need for them.

“Why aren’t we getting the views they are?” 

Create desire: Highlight that you have the knowledge, service, or product to solve a reader’s need.

“…we’re here to go deeper than that. […] Below, we will detail…”

Call to action: Inform the user why reading the article will help them to remove the problem or need from their life. Suggest their life would be better in some simple or small way.

“ So, prepare to…”

If you didn’t realize this was how we formatted the introduction, look at the next few articles you peruse online. Once you know what this entails, add AIDA to your blog post SEO checklist. Many of the most effective intros online follow this formula and could offer you some inspiration you can bring back to your own website.

6. How Readability Scores Impact Who Visits Your Site

While your readers aren’t stupid, you don’t want them to feel like they are being lectured to. Reading simpler content helps people feel comfortable engaging with you and can make what you say sound accessible.

Write in clear, concise language that avoids the use of very long words or sentences. Someone who reads at around grade nine or below should be comfortable with understanding it.

When you don’t know whether you are writing to too high a level, tools like Hemingway can help. They will tell you the level of writing you have written for and whether you have any specifically difficult sentences. After checking the content, edit it to bring the level back down to a more acceptable grade.

In brief, try adding some of these to your on page SEO list so you remember to check your content is more readable:

• Using bullet points (like these!) or other segments to break up text
• Use subheadings to prevent your writing from feeling like a wall of text
• Reduce sentence length
• Use shorter words rather than long technical ones
• Optimize your content for mobile devices and other small screens
• Use multimedia elements like pictures to complement text

Of course, when you aim for a target audience who might understand technical terms, you can nudge the grade a little higher or lower. Though, remember to monitor your analytics to see in which direction you need to go.

The Finer Details of an SEO Copywriting Checklist

While having a checklist is useful, understanding its nuances will put you over the edge and into having the best chance of success. After you communicate everything you intend to, even the smallest change might get you that number-one spot on Google.

8. Balancing Keyword Density with Reader Value

In truth, there is no ideal keyword density. Beware the myths of stuffing keywords into an article, though. In the past, this would help you rank higher for that term, but that has not been true for nearly two decades.

Instead, use keywords naturally throughout the article. Ensure that when anyone reads them they are not to the flow of the article and that they align with what you want to communicate. Write in a human manner first, even if they are important to include rather than allowing the keywords to dictate how you write.

If you have to use the keyword multiple times, instead try to use synonyms. These “semantically related” phrases communicate the same concept without repeating the wording. This way, you can help the search engine know more about what a user might want to find on your site.

9. Elevating Images Beyond Mere Aesthetics

Images are not only the pictures people see on the screen. Each image on a website holds several variables, each of which can help a search engine understand how to contextualize a site’s contents.

After using these pictures to break up a site’s text, add the following to them:

Alt text: This describes the picture for those using screen readers. Search engines use these to understand what is in the image too.

Image filename: This, like the alt text, helps a search engine crawler learn the nature of a picture. Use hyphens to split up words, and be clear and concise in the details.

Format and compression: Use the right image format to prevent the site from loading slowly. Use JPEG to limit the file size or PNG if you need transparency, for example.

Captions: These come under images and can offer a context to the picture. As these are more text, a search engine will crawl them like any other text, offering more places to use keywords.

You may also want to investigate the use of an image sitemap. This gives a search engine more information about the images it should expect to exist on your site, even if it does not load the whole page during a crawl.

Finding the Perfect Partner to Manage Your SEO

Raising your website to a higher standard is much more than following a simple SEO copywriting checklist. Instead, it’s about creating a long-term strategy that both drives and converts traffic, something not everyone has time for. 

Here at Rose & Cactus SEO, we offer much more than an enhancement of your existing content. We can also help you turn your website into a powerful tool for growing your online visibility, helping you turn viewers into customers. If you’re ready to see how we do that, contact us to learn more about what we can do for you.