Copywriting Makeover: Search Engine-friendly Can Also Mean Visitor-friendly

it comes to search engine optimization, copywritingthe same time, we were able to help visitors make
plays a big role. You want to have excellent copythe best choices for their wedding entertainment.
that appeals to both your visitors and the engines inThe Rewrite
order to create pages that will rank highly. However,For this particular page, the target customer was
sometimes there can be potential problems withsomeone in need of wedding entertainment. The
fitting copy into certain types of sites. Due to spacevisitor might be a bride or the mother of a bride
constraints, page layout requirements or other issues,looking for a wedding band (a wedding music band,
some site owners hesitate to include SEO copythat is), a DJ or some other form of wedding
thinking it will detract from the visitor's experience. Itreception music. Most often the site visitor was a
won't if you do it right!bride, however.
is a database site that allows visitors to search forI never want to include copy strictly for SEO
any number of entertainment options then bookpurposes if possible. The copy should always have a
them directly from the site. They segmented theirdual purpose: to help the visitor and to boost
target audience by the events visitors would bookrankings. To accomplish this with Gigmasters.com, the
entertainment for (i.e., wedding entertainment,introductory paragraph of copy spoke directly to the
birthday party entertainment, etc.) Pages were thenbride-to-be. It gave her the feeling that understood
created for each entertainment type.how important the music for her wedding and
The Problemsreception are.
wasn't ranking highly for its keyphrases on a numberUnder each music classification, the bride was given
of pages. In fact, for the page we're focusing on inideas or suggestions. Statements like, "The gentle
this article (see the original copy here: wasn't rankingmelodies played by a harpist or flutist during the
in the top 50.prelude to your ceremony can add an air of
The page desperately needed more copy. Thedistinction" and " Do you want your guests to dance?
concern was that visitors would be distracted by theConsider a Latin band or swing band to pick up the
addition of more text. After all, customers who comebeat" prompted visitors to think through their
to a site to book entertainment are going to focusselections and evaluate all their options before
on the information in each performer's bio…deciding.
not the copy on the category page, right? As weEach section of copy used at least one primary
found out, this was not at all true.keyphrase to boost support of those terms with the
In addition to quantity (word count), the page alsoengines. The copy was carefully written so as not to
needed quality. The one paragraph of copy that wassound forced or stiff when including search terms.
on the page was rough and sounded awkward.The Results
The SolutionsYou can view the updated copy here: What
Writing copy that appeals to the site visitors and thehappened after the changes? Within just a few
search engines should be the goal of every SEOweeks the page began to rise in rankings dramatically!
copywriter. You never want to sacrifice one for theCurrently, the page has great rankings with various
other. However, I knew that adding a long block ofengines for various keyphrases - several in the top
copy right in the middle of the page would not be10 with Google and Yahoo.
using good judgment. Good thing nobody ever said allAnd conversions? They are holding steady if not
your copy had to be in one place!increased some according to site partner Kevin
By breaking the copy up and adding short blips underKinyon, further proving that search engine
each section of the page, we were able to includecopywriting can be helpful to real people, too.
enough text to support the chosen keyphrases. At