SEO Copywriting: The Ultimate Guide to Clickable Copy

SEO Copywriting is all about producing quality writing that ranks, generates clicks, drives traffic, ad converts readers into revenue.

Writing well is a great skill to have. Getting search engines like Google to notice your writing is an entirely different skill set.

Most web content writers specialize in one of two things

Copywriting: short-form, keyword-optimized written copy that drives clicks, sales, and customer action.
Content writing: SEO-conscious writing that gets websites ranking on search engines and pulls in search traffic.

If you’ve mastered one of these skills, you’re valuable.

If you master both, you’re a force of nature in today’s job market.

Businesses (and your future clients) need traffic and sales to succeed.

It’s no secret that good SEO copywriting and content writing are essential for ranking high in Google search results, but it can be challenging to know where to start.

This guide will show you everything you need to know about SEO copywriting, from the basics of keyword research, the customer or client journey, content optimization, SEO basics, keyword research, and writing tools that make it all possible.

What is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting is the art and science of writing web content that is compelling, engaging, and optimized to get picked up by search engines.

It combines two things: SEO (search engine optimization) and keyword-optimized copywriting.

The goal of SEO copywriting is to write web content that:

Ranks high in Google search results
Pulls organic traffic to your website.
Pushes your target audience to take action.

Why is SEO Copywriting Important?

As I mentioned, one crucial aspect of SEO copywriting is that it helps you rank higher in Google search results, driving more relevant traffic, leads, and customers to your or your client’s site.

Organic traffic is great because it’s “earned traffic” –– not paid for. You don’t pay for each time your organic link is clicked on a search engine like you pay-per-click for running paid ads.

Big data has consistently shown that search users are far more likely to click on organic links (SEO copywriting headlines) vs. paid ads.

Some studies have shown that organic links are 8.5x more likely to get clicks vs. paid ads.
According to SEOmoz, organic traffic converts at a rate of 14.6%, while paid traffic converts at a rate of 2.7%.

Bottom-Line: Users trust solid SEO copywriting, content, and organic links more than advertisers. They know those organic links didn’t pay to get to the top of a search engine results page (SERP). They earned it through solid copywriting, SEO, and quality content.

Why Every Business Needs SEO Copywriting

SEO copywriting is vital for every business because it helps you rank higher in Google search results.

The higher you rank, the more organic traffic you’ll get and the more customers you’ll get. SEO copywriting leads to:

More traffic
Better quality traffic
More conversions
Higher conversion rates
More leads, clients, business, and $$$

Start with SEO. Then Write Your Copy.

After you have defined your audience, the next piece is keyword research. SEO copywriting is all about identifying the keywords and phrases your target market is using to find you, your business, your products, or services on search engines.

How to Find the Right Keywords for Your Content and Your Clients

1. SEO Copywriting Starts with Doing Your Research

I like to start keyword research with an excellent brain dump, asking myself, “if I were my (or my client’s) ideal customer, what would I be punching into Google?

Open up a word document or spreadsheet and write down as many keywords, questions, combinations, and search phrases as possible.

SEO Copywriting Starts with Doing Your Research

Example: Say your client runs a local lawn care service in your area. The first keywords I would take down in my notes are:

Lawn care near me
Lawn care service near me
Lawn care service in (my neighborhood, city, county, area)
Best lawn care service in (my neighborhood, city, county, my area)
Top lawn care service in (my neighborhood, city, county, my area)

These are what we refer to as high commercial intent search terms.

For example, search users who use “near me” and “in my area” type searches are looking to get lawn care service soon or immediately. Much more so than users who would search users searching for:

Is my grass too long?
Do I have a weed problem in my garden?
How often should I mulch my yard?

These types of phrases are innately more research-oriented –– conveying that the buyer may be just starting to wonder “should I get help with my lawn care?”

Realistically, you want to be targeting a combination of high purchase intent and more research-oriented search phrases. More on that below.

2. Use Keyword Tools to Help you Find the Right Keywords

So now you know SEO copywriting is all about identifying keywords and phrases your target market is using to find answers, businesses, products, services, and solutions on Google.

Now what?

Thankfully, we have a lot of great SEO, SEO copywriting, and keyword tools to help you find the right keywords for your SEO copywriting. Most of them will either 100% guide you through the keyword research and decision-making process or do the work for you.

Use keyword tools and SEO tools for SEO copywriting

Some of the top on-site and off-site keyword and SEO tools and software include:

Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool
Google Trends
Ubersuggest
Yoast
Rankmath
All-In-One SEO
Ahrefs
SEMRush
Spyfu
Moz
WriterZen
Neural Text

But I won’t get too deep into that here. You can learn more about those in my post on SEO Writing 101: SEO Basics for Writers. These tips apply heavily to both SEO copywriting and content writing.

3. Target a Mix of Keyword Types

Told you we’d come back to this!

Like I said, great SEO copywriting is all about using a combination of keywords to reach your target audience at different stages of their buying journey.

In the marketing world, this is what we refer to as the marketing funnel.

What is Search Intent in SEO? And the 4 Different Types - Launch Site Boost

*From Launch Site Boost

This is critical to formulating your SEO copywriting, content writing, and overall keyword strategy.

Navigational high funnel searches are strongly research-oriented. They are used by people who aren’t ready to buy, but are starting to do their initial research.

Low funnel searches are highly transactional or purchase oriented. They are used by target audience members who are looking to buy soon-to-now.

SEO copywriting is incredibly versatile. It has high utility for high-funnel traffic, low-funnel prospects, and everything in between.

SEO copywriting targets a mix of keyword types and keyword intent

Quality SEO writers use their skills to target a mix of high, mid, and low funnel search terms to:

Maximize search visibility with their target audience at all levels of the funnel.
Stay in front of their target audience at each stage of their buyers’ journey.
Build trust, credibility, and acceptance from them throughout their journey.
Entice them to take critical actions like calling your client, submitting their email address, engaging a chatbot, or filling out a contact form.
Generate leads and new business.

4.Use Your Keywords to Write Copy and Headlines that Sell

Now that you’ve done your SEO due diligence and identified your keywords, it’s time to start incorporating them into your writing.

In SEO copywriting, the most important places you can use keywords in captivating copy are:

Title Tags
and Meta Descriptions

These are the things that search users see first when they run a search query on Google. If you don’t sell them on your SEO copywriting here, sorry. You aren’t going to get clicks or traffic.

Take the below example for a search I ran on “top copywriting books of all time”

SEO copywriting - Use Your Keywords to Write Copy and Headlines

Title Tag: “100 Best Copywriting Books of All Time” (that’s the blog title) – “Book Authority” (the website or brand name).
Meta Description: “The 100 best copywriting books recommended by Tim O’Reilly, Ryan Holiday, David Heinemeier Hansson, Douglas Burdett and Raul Pachecovega.”

Here are some tips for bringing good copywriting to your title tags and meta descriptions

Keep your keyword as close to the front of your meta title/title tag as possible.
Keep your title tag under the max character limit so it doesn’t cut off on SERPs.
Include your brand name or client’s brand name in the meta title.
Put your keyword as close to the beginning of your meta title as possible.
Make your title tag and meta description as interesting, captivating, irresistible, and click-worthy as possible.

If you want or need to become a super-copywriter in record time, be sure to check out my post on The Top 15 Copywriting Books for Every Writer. And if you want to write captivating, highly-clickable title tags and meta descriptions, see the resources at the end of this post.

5. Monitor Your Results and Make Changes as Needed

Tracking performance is critical when it comes to SEO copywriting. Some of the tools I mentioned above will help you track:

How and where your keywords and pages are ranking.
Which words are converting, performing, and selling best.
Which words, phrases, content, and pages get you the most visibility and highest quality traffic.

Peter Drucker said “What gets measured gets managed.” SEO copywriting is all about research, planning, execution, measuring your results, and modifying your strategy accordingly.

SEO copywriting: Additional Resources

If you’re interested in learning both copywriting and SEO, check out these posts:

These blogs alone are designed to mold you into an exceptional copywriter and SEO expert in just 3-4 months?

In Closing

SEO copywriting is a highly sought-after skill in today’s digital world.

As the internet and SEO landscape continues to evolve, SEO copywriting will continue to become increasingly more important for businesses to reach their target audiences and grow their revenue online.

Interested in finding out the highest-paying industries for SEO copywriters? Download my free ebook on the Top 20 Highest Paying Jobs for Freelance Writers.

Additional Resources