Four Ways To Optimize Website Copy and Online Content

Written by: Angie Haggstrom | November 5, 2009

Is your content really optimized to its fullest potential? I bet it isn’t.
Turn Content Into a Smooth Running Machine (flickrfavorites)

Most of the time, when people think of good quality content, they often think of an informative piece that’s free of spelling and grammar errors. Well, I’m afraid this isn’t so. One spelling or grammar error, while not ideal, isn’t likely to cause the failure of a post or home page copy.

Instead, a great blog post/article/whatever is optimized in such a way that it brings all of the various elements together seamlessly. And, if you want to see your content get more attention, do a better job of engaging readers, and still get your message across, you’ll want to follow the example set by professional business copywriters and optimize your content in these four ways:

Optimizing Content For Search Engines

Since this is the one people often think of first, I’ll address it first. Search engines work by assessing, comparing, and ranking written content, before matching it to the words a user enters in the search bar (called a query). And, if your content contains the right words, in the right places, it will get found more often and generate more traffic for your website.

So, for example, if I was a New York car salesman who specializes in selling BMWs, I’d be sure to include words and phrases such as ‘New York BMWs for sale’ and ‘BMW auto sales’. Now, don’t go crazy and start shoving the keywords in everywhere, but you do want to make sure the phrase appears in the piece at least a few times (and variations of it/related words).

Optimizing Content For Your Target Audience

Do you know what makes the difference between your mom and a stranger reading your blog? (yes, ok…besides having similar DNA) Your mom visits because she loves you, wants to show her support, and make you happy. Strangers visit because they have questions and a genuine need for the information you can provide.

That’s right. Visitors want something from you. And if you don’t provide them with whatever it is they want, they’ll leave and likely won’t be back any time soon. However, the trick is that you not only have to provide that value, but you also have to make sure they realize you’ve given them the holy grail they’ve been searching for.
Great Content Is the Holy Grail for Readers (Eddi 07)
One of the most effective ways to do this is to mention a common problem the target audience would have and express how that person likely feels when dealing with the issue. Then, present the solution, which is often your product, service, or bright idea. Aha! Sneaky right?

Bottom line, always bring everything back to your reader. They’ll relate to you more easily and see the value in your products and services. (See what I did just there?)

Optimizing Content For the Company

What do you want people to think about your company? Do you want to be known for your innovation? Quality? Great price? Expertise? Whatever it is, your content needs to be optimized for it and reflect that same image while getting your message across.

So, for instance, I want people to realize that I’m not only helpful, but also that I know what I’m talking about. What do you think? Is this piece getting my message across? I mean, after all, I could keep all this good stuff to myself, but I’d much rather share it with you so that you can produce better content, and be able to recognize the good stuff more easily.

Optimizing Content For the Website

Website design and great content is a lot like peanut butter and jelly or mashed potatoes and gravy; they make magic together, but only if you add the right amount of each. Otherwise, the end product is just never as good.

Websites are the same. Content needs to match the available space, but the design should also leave the copywriter with enough space to get the idea across! Optimizing content for the website is all about making sure the content looks its best. Ok, ok…fine. The design should look good too!
Professionalism and Quality Is Defined by the Small Details (Wikimedia)
Let me tell you a story: I used to love watching figure skating. Not only did it have great music, but the women were always so pretty and graceful. I wanted to be one of those girls. Anyway, during one competition, two of the girls had skated very well. So well, in fact, the judges were having difficulty deciding who should win first place. After a fair amount of discussion amongst the judges, they awarded one of the girls first place.

After the show, a reporter who was interviewing one of the judges asked how they had decided between the two girls. The judge replied (paraphrasing here) ‘well, the girls both did really well, but we had to choose one of them. So, we played back the tapes several times, and it was how Kristy (or whatever her name was now) had pointed her finger that became the deciding factor. It gave her the perfect form, and completed her look. When she pointed her finger in that way, we realized her true talent and level of professionalism.’

Ok, so moral of the story: it’s the little things that get ya in the end. Images, the white space between paragraphs, and even the length/shape of the sentences really do matter even if we don’t really notice it at first. And besides, who wants to discover they earned second place just because they didn’t point their finger the right way? It sounds petty, but whether you want to admit it or not, these little things subconsciously affect your opinion.

Now that you know the four ways to optimize content, is your copy optimized like you originally thought it was?

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Topics: Copywriting | Comments

Posted on 05 November 2009 by Angie Haggstrom

A resident of Saskatchewan, Canada, Angie is the founder of Angie's Copywriting where she's the Senior Copywriter, writing coach, and content consultant for Fortune 500s, new entrepreneurs, and everything in between. She's also a contributing author for several industry-leading publications, newspapers, and magazines covering topics such as SEO, social media, branding, marketing, and business. You can find her on Twitter (@AngsCopywriting), LinkedIn, or follow her using Google Reader.

Angie Haggstrom has written 9 articles for Cloud Mixer

SEOcopy

Excellent copy Angie, I am glad I surfed by this link. I always knew you were a talented writer but now I see you are very engaging.

Here is my 2ç… It goes without saying when you write for yourself rather than a client there has to be a shift in thinking. One of the important things we have noticed is clients for the most part have no clue why they are ordering articles from us. We are either in their price range or they were referred to us. It’s not until I talk to them that they finally realize they have no clue why they want those articles, blogs, ebooks, etc. I think asking them questions like “What are you going to use these articles for?” is the first clue.

I have been in business for years so I won’t bore you with my self inflated sense of "been there done that" but, I do want to mention to all the small, large business owners out there surround yourselves with people that will speak the TRUTH not what you want to hear. You see by the time the information gets to the head Kahuna it’s so muddled with what the CEO wants to hear rather than what he “needs” to hear.

Angie Haggstrom

Absolutely Justin. I think the biggest reason for this is that people forget there's a difference between giving information and communicating. Think back to your school days...your history text book or your teacher...which did you like/respect more? Which one did you really learn the most from?

Justin Parks

Its a fine balance to achieve Angie and I think far to many people ignore two specific points you mention:

- Optimizing Content For Your Target Audience
- Optimizing Content For The Company

So many people are obsessed with search engines and SEO that they neglect...no... ignore, what the content they are creating actually means to the audience and the perception it gives of the company.

This is not really their fault either.

So information hungry are the search engines that they have inadvertently encouraged this wild growth in "article marketing", churning out useless, and most of the time, dangerous unresearched information because people are under the misconception that this is the way to get ahead, when in reality, it isnt! Its a waste of time and money.

Well wrote, researched and objective engaging content is so much more powerful than this other crap because it covers all these points and due to its quality will inevitably lead to better search engine rankings.

Once that has been done then all that is left is for the audience to understand and appreciate the information you have presented and this is when you see much greater benefits to the audience in regards trust, confidence, and repeat visits and a much greater reflection of the company or brand.