Web Copywriting and search engine positions

Search engines rank pages based on relevancy i.e. they want to return pages that users will find relevant to their query. Numerous factors are examined in order to calculate relevancy and each page is individually evaluated, search engines rank web pages not websites.

One area that every search engine looks at is the words contained in a page. Instances of words as well as location and proximity are all factored in. For example, a page about SEO Copywriting would naturally have multiple instances of the term, it would appear in paragraph text, headings, links, Meta tags, page title etc.

SEO Copywriting and Keyword Density

Notice that we say 'naturally', any benefit achieved chasing some magical keyword density ratio is minimal and more often than not detrimental to your search engine rankings. In the early days of SEO keyword density was a widely used metric that did produce results, however, modern search engines are far more sophisticated and primarily look at off page factors when calculating relevancy.

Technical document describing the futility of keyword density.

By using a natural writing style your content will be easier to write, easier to read, and allow you to concentrate on your marketing message and call to action rather than search engine algorithms. Concentrating on copywriting to gain positions defeats its real purpose which is to convert visitors into customers and forward the business goals of the site.

That being said, if your existing page titles and headings etc. have been poorly written, better targeting of keyphrases in those areas will see your rankings improve and even rank well for non competative terms. On the other hand, if your site has been correctly optimised their will be very little, if any, improvement in positions, however conversion ratios can go through the roof.

SEO copywriting on its own will never achieve rankings for competitive terms and it is this distinction that has to be understood before you spend money employing the services of an SEO copywriter. If you are contemplating employing an SEO copywriter and you have little or no visibility in search engine results, stop, address the visibility issues first, especially if you are in a competitive market.

N.B. At the beginning of this document we mentioned that search engines take account of instances of keywords, do not confuse this with keyword density. Some areas of the page are more important to search engines than others, page title and heading tags for example. Ensuring that you include instances of your keywords in these areas makes it easier for search engines to determine what a page is about. If you adopt a natural writing approach these areas should take care of themselves.

Googles description of how they determine relevancy and rank pages.

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