News & Reviews

Writing effective web copy July 2009

On-page optimisation
Last month I spoke about the importance of search engines, most noticeably Google, in the fight for visibility on the web. There are certain things that you can do when you write copy for your web site that will help you increase your Google ratings. And notice how I'm suggesting that you write the copy. Yes, you! You know your business better than anyone so please don't leave it all up to someone at your web site company who may only have met you a few times. At the very least look over it and make changes once it is done. I offer a web site copywriting service but I insist on getting to know my clients and getting underneath the skin of their brand before I even attempt to write one word.

Role play as your target customer
First of all, it's important to get into the mind set of someone who is searching for your business online and wants to find your spa but doesn't know about it yet. What kind of words would that person type into the Google search bar? Now, I expect you will immediately think of phrases like "day spa" or "beauty salon" but that's not specific enough. Put those kind of words in and you will be among the 26,500,000 other days spas listed under that search term.

What are your search engine USPs?
The key is to think of all the unique information about your business that will appeal to that person who is searching, e.g. where the business is situated (there is nothing more unique than your address; include nearest towns and cities), how long does it take to get there, what kind of facilities you have, what kind of treatments, packages and promotions you offer and at what price, do you offer gift vouchers, can you buy products online, will you offer a special price for a referral, do you cater for hen nights, wedding parties, couples, men, what is your latest news, do you offer a membership etc. This list will start to throw up key words and phrases that you can start to build into the copy of your web pages.

Drawing in the net
A search engine will search through 200 - 250 words per web page (I have written way more than that already) so keep your copy short and succinct. And don't stuff your web page full of your key words. Keep your key word density to about 5 - 10% of your page, otherwise the search engines will think that it is spam. Organise and structure your information so that it is easy to read. Divide your web copy up into manageable chunks of information and put in key word relevant headings where it makes sense. Introduce key word rich hyperlinks that are easily spotted to link the pages of your site.

For example, say you want to write about taking group bookings. In the copy, you could mention birthdays, anniversaries, hen and stag parties, bring a friend special rates, day and weekend packages including 2-course lunch, free access to fitness suite etc. Then you could link this information to your treatment menu with hyperlinks such as "hen party packages", "spa weekend for two treatments" and to your restaurant with "spa lunch specials" or gym with "free fitness assessment".

PDF - Please Don't Forget
One last thing - a word of warning about attaching treatment menus as PDFs. They look beautiful but the search engines will pass a lot of them by. I recommend that you list your treatments in the copy on your web page as well as having a PDF attachment which can be downloaded and printed off.

Now that you have done the groundwork on your copy, it's time to set the tech guys at your web company to work. Next month I'll give you a check list of things to ask them to do to improve your page optimisation.

 

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