What Every Online Journalist Should Know About SEO Copywriting and Achieving a High Ranking in Google

Choosing and using the “right” keyword phrases in the “right” densities is only the beginning of SEO copywriting

A fundamental principle of the Mequoda System is “organize around the customer.”

We all know that every business lives or dies with the customer, but not every online publishing business recognizes how SEO copywriting affects this outcome.

Choosing and using the “right” keyword phrases in the “right” densities is important and requires practice to acquire SEO copywriting competence. But it’s only the beginning of SEO copywriting and the process of achieving a high Google ranking.

Increasingly, a high SEO ranking is dependent on the number and quality of incoming links. That means SEO copywriters must create relevant, compelling content that users will not only download and read, but will also recommend to others.

Your content must be good enough to attract numerous good, natural incoming links or it doesn’t much matter how well optimized with relevant keyword phrases it is for search.

I’m willing to bet I could get a top 10 ranking with a free report on “buggy whips” and beat out nearly any competitor. But how many users are seeking information on buggy whips? (“Buggy whips” gets only about 19,000 annual searches and no one is offering a free report.)

Online searchers are motivated to find your editorial content. You only need to make it easy for them to locate, read and download. Do that with precision and they will reward you by recommending your content and website to others in their special interest group.

“If a tree falls in the forest…”

We used to say, if you publish editorial content on a website and Google doesn’t find and rank it, you’re not really in business.

[text_ad]

Today we can say confidently, if your editorial content isn’t keyword rich and isn’t of sufficient quality to be recommended by websites, bloggers and other members of your special interest group, you won’t be found, and you won’t achieve a high page ranking.

You might survive in business owing to your paid online advertising, but you won’t receive much web traffic from organic search.

So, this is how online publishers and smart SEO copywriters who organize around the customer achieve the highest Google rankings.

• First, they use the Google Keyword Tool to discover the specific keyword phrases that are most frequently used to find their content.

• Second, they repurpose their previously published content in a free downloadable report that specifically addresses the most frequent searches of their core audience.

That means speaking directly to their readers and potential customers in the language they understand. Their keyword-rich, free report is brimming with valuable content and “over-delivers” on its promise.

• Third, they title their free report using the most popular keyword phrases of their market niche.

• Fourth, they create a rapid conversion landing page that offers their free report using the same researched and targeted keyword phrases.

• Fifth, they publicize their free report using press releases and social media, providing keyword-rich hypertext links that other websites can easily copy for recommending the report to additional users.

This process can be immensely gratifying to SEO copywriters for several reasons.

First, because there is genuine satisfaction in bringing useful content to users, especially when they rely on you as a trusted, authoritative source.

Second, because a high Google ranking and the resulting page views can be counted, and provide a true measure of your SEO copywriting acumen.

We’ve executed this SEO copywriting process for more than 40 Mequoda gold service members (consulting clients) and helped them receive hundreds of page-one Google rankings for their targeted keyword phrases.

Believe me, it feels good to have your editorial content rank on page one with Google.

Comments

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts. They are certainly common among traditional journalists who can not imagine a world where they need to write for a system (Google) vs. writing for actual humans.

    But the reality is, in today’s world, humans very much use the “system” to find information and if journalists don’t tie into that system to give humans a better chance at finding their content, well, then, their work, no matter how accurate, factual and authentic, will continue to be invisible to the millions of people who use the system every day.

    Hope this helps clarify our position.

    Thanks again for reading and commenting.

    Kim

    Reply
    Journalist

    You’re not organizing around the customer, you’re organizing around a system that rewards pernicious feedback loops.

    So, if Google rewarded facts and authentication, might you emphasize Accuracy instead of Acumen? I’m sorry, but I just think you are whoring for a madam.

    Reply

Leave a Reply