SEO for Tech Dummies: The Third Pillar of Business Copy with my In-House Copywriter

It’s the final day of a little mini-series I’ve been doing with my in-house copywriter, Rachel.

For the past month, I’ve been asking Rachel to share her insight into the three pillars of business copywriting. And here they are!

Good business copywriting should…

Today, Rachel’s going to focus on #3, how to speak Google!

Now, neither Rachel nor I is a Google or SEO genius from a tech perspective, but there are a few things everyone needs to know about how to optimize SEO when you’re writing your own business, even if you’re not a professional writer!

So let’s get into it!

Take it away, Rachel!

Hey, everyone! Rachel here.

SEO can seem super intimidating and best left to the tech geniuses, which I am not! If you want to understand how to optimize the back-end of your website for SEO, check out A Winning Website, ‘cause Jess managed to create a course with a whole chapter on SEO that even I understand.

Thankfully, from a writer’s perspective, SEO can be simplified. Basically, when you’re writing about your business on your website, your blog, or even your Pinterest, SEO is the way your website communicates to Google what type of content is in your copy and who they should show it to.

If you want the content you create to get seen on the internet, two things need to happen.

You need to create the content
Your ideal customer needs to find the content

This seems simple, and it is!

But the tough truth is, it doesn’t matter how much content you’re putting out or how great that content is if no one can find it.

To make sure your content can be found by your ideal clients, you need to speak their language.

This means getting outside your own head, which is filled with industry-specific jargon. Instead, you need to think about the language your clients would use to search for the kind of content you’re creating.

For example, if you’re a floral designer, maybe you’ve written a blog featuring your five favorite ceremony installations of all time. You know it’s a great way to show off past work, it’s totally pin-able, and it’s even in list-form, which is always a win!

But guess what?

Most brides don’t know that large-scale design elements are called installations. That’s an industry term. So you’ve created great content that is incredibly helpful for brides, but the keywords you’re using to describe your content aren’t helping you!

Your job is to figure out what words non-experts would use to describe those installations.

Large arrangements?

Bouquets?

Statement Pieces?

You don’t have to guess. A great way to find a jackpot keyword is to go to a search engine like Google or Pinterest and type in a word or phrase you think would be a fitting keyword. See what search results come up! If they seem aligned with the content you’re creating, you’ve found a good keyword!

Now it’s your job to work that word or phrase into your title, your headings, and/or the body of your copy.

Keywords are like hashtags for Google. On Instagram or Pinterest, you can search a specific hashtag to see content specific to that hashtag, right?

On your website or your blog, you won’t have hashtags, but you will use keywords that alerts google to the type of content you’re producing. Google will then know when to include your website or blog as a search result, leading to more ideal clients finding your page.

A technical understanding of how to use your website features to hack SEO can be incredibly helpful, but from a writer’s point of view…

Here’s a summary of what you need to do to get Google to see your stuff:

Get yourself into the headspace of your ideal client.
Make sure to include a few keywords (basically Google’s version of hashtags) in everything you write so Google knows what you’re writing and who to show it to.
Keep creating content! The more keyword-rich content you have, the better your chances of connecting with dream clients.