Writing to ensure your business’ website is optimized for search engines is a valuable skill in today’s business world.  Gabriel Shaoolian of Blue Fountain Media, a leading web design company, has several suggestions to ensure you do it right. Shaoolian says “The goal of Google is to show the most relevant results for every query, giving users the most satisfaction when searching. To do so, the search engine has begun taking into account certain factors. To capture its attention you need to write in a way that blends your own intent with an eye for how search engines search.” Here are some simple rules that will help any copywriter write more effectively.

First let’s start by really defining Search Engine Optimization (SEO) copywriting. SEO copywriting is the art and science of combining three elements:

Human Content: Providing the reader with interesting content that educates them on a subject while providing them with an opportunity to learn or experience more about a particular topic, product, or service. The key element in making this success lies in your ability to deliver value in your content. This means taking into account your reader’s perspective, interests, and in your ability to give them a level of usability.

Search Content: While providing the reader with interesting content is of utmost importance, it is also important to imbed words and phrases that search engines will find interesting. This means undertaking a series of searches to understand what words search engines associate with your particular topic or product. By interweaving more of these associating words into your content, you will generate better placement.

Structure and Formatting: Search Engines are becoming better in how they evaluate a website and determine the value its content provides. However, they still rely on a variety of factors which are outlined below. There is no hard and fast rule for any of these tips. But use them sparingly, and remember the ability of your reader to understand what you have written is the most important part of your writing, far and beyond.

Use Bold, and Italics: Just like a regular old human reader the search engines give more weight to words and phrases that are in bold or italics. However, use them sparingly, or the search engines will flag your work.

Internal Hyperlinks: You are your own best resource, so promote yourself in your copy and text. Hyperlink to other resources/pages of your site which are relevant to the copy you are writing. This will benefit the reader, increase the amount of time they spend on your site and help you with the search engines.

External Hyperlinks: Incorporating links to external resources which will benefit the reader can help you in two ways (a) they provide a third-party validation to a certain extent of your “expertise” and (b) afford you the opportunity to pick up some extra coin if that resource provides reciprocal linking or has an affiliate program.

Use Bullet Points: Using a bullet point or numbered system helps break up your copy into consumable pieces, aids in the clean design of your page and makes it easy for the reader to “go back” and reference previous points without wasting time reading through dense copy.

Content “Mass”: Never have less than 400 words on a page. If the content you are providing is in fact valuable you should be able to come up with around 1,000 words.

Keyword Density: Depending on who you speak to, aim for between 5% density of keywords. That is, 5% of your total text should include searchable keywords. Too many keywords, and the search engines will pass them by. Just make sure they fit into the text in a natural manner.

About The Guest Author: Gabriel Shaoolian is the founder of Blue Fountain Media, a website development & online marketing firm that helps companies create profitable web-based businesses with measurable results. Visit them at www.bluefountainmedia.com.