Writing SEO-focused copy to improve your website’s search result ranking

April 24, 2023

The copy on your website is arguably the most important aspect of any website design. With content that is written well, your visitors will have a better user experience and search engines have more context to properly index your web pages so that your ideal users can find your website.

What are good key terms

Your ranking in the search results is dependent on the key terms users use in their search. If you are running a donut shop and your business is called “Donut King”, when someone searches for the key term “Donut King” your website should be one of the first organic results since the key term is your company name, likely in your domain name, and it should also be used many times throughout every page of your website.

Generally, users wouldn’t search for “Donut King” unless they already know about you so you need to also determine other key terms users would be searching for to find you and your competitors. The more generic the key term, the harder it is to rank for and the less likely a user is able to find you, so it’s important to find key terms that have a high search volume and low competition. A term like “donut” will have a high search volume, but will also have very high competition. You will be competing with all donut shops, including major global chains that may have more authority with Google than your website. Even though it is possible, the chances of getting your website to rank on the first page when someone searches for “Donut” will take some time, web development talent and luck.

If you focus on expanded, ‘long-tail’ key terms like “Best donuts in Toronto”, you are narrowing your competition to only donut shops in your target market. Another key term you could focus on is a specialty you offer that people are likely to seek out, like “Vegan donuts”.

How many words should exist on a webpage?

Even though we recommend a minimum of 200 words per page, there are various articles online that say there should be a minimum of 300 words, and others that say there should be a minimum of 400 words.

Yoast, a leader in the SEO space, says “if a page consists of few words, Google is more likely to think of it as thin content… Consequently, it will probably not rank very high”.

There is no real rule of thumb and we like to tell our clients to focus more on quality over quantity as website usability is the #1 ranking factor. With that in mind, we still do recommend that you add as much quality content as possible since it will likely give you a better chance at ranking higher in the search results.

Quality content is copywriting that tells both your visitors and search engines who you are and the value of what you do. Search engines look up ‘key terms’ that are commonly used in your content to understand what your webpage is about, so it’s important to add specific, contextual key terms throughout your webpage so that you can be found online.

How to find the best key terms

This might seem a bit overwhelming, but Google actually has a great tool to show you how competitive your key terms are and they will also help suggest terms that they think will work well for your company. Once you get into the habit of writing content with these practices in mind, it will become second nature to create website content geared towards both users and search engines. With time you’ll see the results that quality content can have on your organic SEO efforts.