When writing content for websites there is a vital question that needs to be paid proper attention. A question that can prove decisive for your website and your online business. Finding the right answer can win you the world, but getting it wrong can also spell doom.
The question
To whom should the content, or the copy to be exact, be aimed at? Is it for the search engines who scour the web after a search query or is it for the user who types those queries in the engines? Should the copy be heaped with keywords or should it be styled in natural reading language?
Keywords, the key?
It is common knowledge that the search engines drive traffic to your site. And for search engines to take note of your site there needs to be ample keywords spread in the copy. The keywords tell the search engines what you do and engines rank your site accordingly for a particular search query. Now if your site gains a high ranking in the search results for a user query because of the keyword-rich copy it’s a good job done you might think. But wait.
Picture this!
There is of course, reason for you to rejoice but not celebrate yet. There is still some way to go, some clicks to be made before you can do that. What if the user comes to your site only to wave a sudden good bye because you didn’t have what he had in his mind? What if the copy on your site is so dull that it drives the user miles away or maybe to the competitor next door on the web? Now that can be a real scary scenario, right?
Readability matters!
The point here is that readability matters and it matters a lot. Remember, it’s the visitors who buy your product or service, not search engines. To convert a visitor to a customer it needs meaningful content which makes sense to the reader. SEO content/copy writing is, actually a re-writing process of creatively written copy. It just won’t make sense if one inserts several disjointed keywords just to make it rank high in search engines. And then there is the danger of your site being marked as spam by the honorable search engines themselves.
The answer
To answer the question then, your website needs copy written for humans that interests them. But before you begin getting your copy written, make sure to visit a keyword suggestion site like the one created by Google itself and get a list of relevant search terms. Once you have this list let your content writer integrate these keywords within naturally flowing, interesting website copy that your visitors will enjoy. Readability is what interests the user and it should never be compromised. Writing for the humans with one hand while optimizing for the engines with the other , that’s the balancing act you need to perform. It can be tough but it’s worth doing it for sure.
oh wow! This is an awesome article. I have had experiences where many sites were so “key worded” and was down right uninteresting to me.
It’s true, you’ve given an improvised info on this topic.
Image looks so balancing to the article chosen & it is fantastic !
The task with the content creators is their copy should quench the needs of search engines as well as human beings. And in your SEO work too a keyword centric content works great in getting results.
Hayden
Yes Hari It is a balancing act. We need to put the soul inside the content, place the keywords cunningly inside the content to satisfy the search engines. If the website isn’t so great, but having good content makes all the difference.
Asha
All search engines aim to offer the most relevant results to the users in response to their queries. If website content is useful for the user and has relevant content that matches surfer’s query, then obviously search engines will offer the content for the benefit of the user. Write for the benefit of the user and the user only; that’s what the search engines love and look for. It’s good Harish that you have reminded us once again about this very important aspect.
Nice post for prospective readers!
Every website owner should reinforces that producing targeted copy relevant to the potential searcher is crucial and narrowing down keywords is also vital to be on top. By sprinkling your keyword wisely on the web content, you will be able to get the greatest advantage from the copy writing effort you do put on your site.
Yes, we need to quench the quest of our visitors with rich and snazzy content. Also include captivating titles and headings. Most importantly, to come up to the visitors’ expectations, we need to be conscious of their mind and what they are looking for. One can find a lot in this article. Nice post.
Highly relevant web pages can help both human users and search engines to quickly determine what the site is about. Content relevancy means not showing our literature skills or using explosive writing style. Remember net is known for its knowledge-at-first-sight nature. So we must be pithy in creating our content for websites. According to a study conducted by Yahoo! last year, the results indicate that 88 per cent of web users automatically block out irrelevant information when surfing the internet.