Web copywriting: think for search

When you’re writing for the Web, think and write as if you were searching for the information. You want to include the keywords that apply to your product or service.

This includes your headline, headings, sub-headings, key points and the body of your information.

You should also link for search. I like to put it this way:

“Think, and link, for search.”

What I mean is: in your writing, instead of adding a hyperlink to a company name, instead hyperlink to the type of service the company provides.

For instance, I could post an article on NewsCactus (my company’s online newsroom solution). In the article, instead of consistently linking to NewsCactus (which of course you would do at least once), I would also link keywords like online newsroom or social media press release to NewsCactus.com.

Using links in this way increases effectiveness. Chances are your site already ranks high for search placement for your company or product name. But how about within the context of searches? Are you coming up in search results pages for the city in which you do business, or your specific industry?

Using keywords like your industry, product, personnel or city to hyperlink to your site helps because they’re broader, more competitive search terms.

As an example: would you search for “The Cheesecake Factory,” or “best cheesecake in Las Vegas?” If you already knew about The Cheesecake Factory, you probably wouldn’t need to do the search because, if you’re like me, that’s where you’d go. But if you didn’t, if I were The Cheesecake Factory, I’d want my site to come up in the top of that search (and in Google, it does!).