Are areas that you want your customer’s attention drawn to clearly visible? If you’re using a “Learn More”, “Buy Now” or other clickable button, is it obvious? Make sure it stands out on page and can’t be mistaken for something else.

Is design simple and easy to navigate or is it cluttered? Some of very best web sites are really very simple in appearance, even if they do have lots of content. Don’t “drown” your copy in a complex design structure or have a million different web pages on your menu. White space is important. Let copy breathe!

Search Engine Friendly – Is Copy Optimized?

Of course, grand puba of them all – Is copy optimized? Not site itself (Although that is critically important), but copy. And is it optimized right way? We’ve all seen those web sites that use a keyword phrase 59 times on one page. Who exactly do they think is going to read that garbage? Exactly. No one.

And Search Engine Optimization is always a moving target. It’s a complex process that must be constantly fine tuned and tweaked to keep up with Search Engine’s changes and your competitor’s moves. Because you can bet that you have a few who are jockeying for that first page placement for perfect keyword phrase. When it comes to optimizing your web site copy, here is what you need to look for:

Above all else, keep this in mind: Copywriting for web is a balancing act. You want to ensure you have used your keyword phrases enough times without compromising readability of page. If you’re looking for a quick rule regarding keyword density, think 5%. More often than not, staying close to this number will get you where you need to be.

Do your Keyword Research! Whether you use Overture (now Yahoo) or Word Tracker, be sure you take a look at keywords people are using or keywords you think they should be using to find you. Then jump over to competitors web sites and view their “Source Code”. (Go to their home page, right click, and select View Source) When you do this, you’ll see their Meta Tags with keywords they are using. These may or may not be right ones to use. But, you should definitely take a look to see what they are using. The next step is to see where they are ranking for those keywords. Try to find them on Google or Yahoo. That will give you a good benchmark.

Focus your Keyword Phrases. Don’t use more than three keyword phrases per page. Actually, it would be better if you used one or two. And don’t include every keyword phrase on every page. Break it up, and use your Services page to get specific.

Do your Linking Research! The next step is to compare your links with what your competitors have. Here’s a site to bookmark immediately: http://www.linkpopularity.com. Along with Word Tracker or Overture, it will become your new best friend. Remember, that inbound links are a very important component of overall SEO effort. With Google, it’s extremely important. One thing to know is that optimizing copy alone won’t get you rankings you want. You have to approach SEO copy effort holistically. And if a copywriter says they can get you higher rankings by just working on copy alone, you may want to take your business elsewhere. It’s rarely that easy. With linkpopularity.com, you simply type in your url into link analyzer, and take a look at results. Then do it for your competitors. Presto! You have just unlocked a great resource.

Use Keyword Phrases in Links, Headings, and Sub headings. These are all places that you must use keyword phrases in to get higher rankings. What’s that you say? No Headings and Subheadings on your web page? That’s a good place to start if you’re doing a copy re-write (or even starting from scratch) Also, be sure you definitely link your pages together with text links. This helps search engines know your pages are related.

Use Go Rank’s Keyword Density Analyzer. Jump on to http://www.gorank.com/ as soon as you get chance. They have a number of different SEO tools you can utilize for your SEO copy project. Along with Overture and Link Popularity, I use it on every client I work with. The best tool is Keyword Density Analyzer. Use it and be amazed at what it tells you.

So there you have it! Your Website Copy makeover lesson is concluded. Hopefully, there were a few tricks or tips that you may not have known about. You’ll find that if you follow advice in this article, you will have a better looking, and an easier read site. And eventually, you’ll get higher rankings for your selected keyword phrases.

Good Luck!

The Rewrite

For this particular page, target customer was someone in need of wedding entertainment. The visitor might be a bride or mother of a bride looking for a wedding band (a wedding music band, that is), a DJ or some other form of wedding reception music. Most often site visitor was a bride, however.

I never want to include copy strictly for SEO purposes if possible. The copy should always have a dual purpose: to help visitor and to boost rankings. To accomplish this with Gigmasters.com, introductory paragraph of copy spoke directly to bride-to-be. It gave her feeling that Gigmasters.com understood how important music for her wedding and reception are.

Under each music classification, bride was given ideas or suggestions. Statements like, "The gentle melodies played by a harpist or flutist during prelude to your ceremony can add an air of distinction" and " Do you want your guests to dance? Consider a Latin band or swing band to pick up beat" prompted visitors to think through their selections and evaluate all their options before deciding.

Each section of copy used at least one primary keyphrase to boost support of those terms with engines. The copy was carefully written so as not to sound forced or stiff when including search terms.

The Results

You can view updated copy here: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/gigmasters-updated-wedding.pdf. What happened after changes? Within just a few weeks page began to rise in rankings dramatically! Currently, page has great rankings with various engines for various keyphrases - several in top 10 with Google and Yahoo.

And conversions? They are holding steady if not increased some according to site partner Kevin Kinyon, further proving that search engine copywriting can be helpful to real people, too.

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon’s latest e-report “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.