As one of the resident copywriters at Page One, I spend many of my days developing fresh content. Blog posts and press releases are often more “fun” to write, but oft-overlooked landing pages are of paramount importance to a website's success, and therefore need love too. Until your website’s landing pages are bursting with high word counts, thoughtfully selected keywords and the all important tags that I will further delve into later, you are not getting the most from your writing efforts.
Step One: Research
When I start on a new project, the first step I take is to familiarize myself with the client’s industry. What are their high ranking competitors writing about? What are the customers like who will be reading my pages? This reconnaissance helps me hone how general or specific my pages will be, and the level of formality, technicality or friendliness in my tone of voice while writing. Above all though, the research allows me to note the industry standards, then write my own pages even better.
Step Two: More Research
Next I determine how many words I need to aim for on a page. Take the travel industry for instance. Writers will go on for 500+ words when it comes to destinations and attractions. A manufacturing website, meanwhile, might require a clear and concise summary of product specifications, without the pomp of flowery adjectives. Most of the pages I write keep to 250-300 words, but it is still important to note when more or less is industry standard.
Step Three: Still Researching, Sorry!
Keywords are arguably the most important aspect of writing a successfully optimized landing page. Without a keyword, search engine spiders crawl right past your page without a second glance. Choose a keyword that clearly defines the product on the page, but is also broadly searched. You’ll be shocked to discover the search volume difference between similar terms. For instance, “industrial adhesives” is searched almost three times as often as “industrial adhesive.”
Step Four: Write
Now that all of the pieces have been gathered, it’s time to combine them into a great landing page. Use the keyword in your title, and integrate variables of the keyword into h1 and h2 headers throughout the page. Focus on writing for the reader, not the search engines, and your page will turn out informative and valuable to your website’s standings in the SERPs.
Step Five: The Final Touches
So! I’ve written my 300 words, the tone is spot on, the keywords are artfully smattered throughout in a natural, non-spammy fashion, and my headers are even tagged properly. Now all that’s left is to wrap up the page with a catchy boilerplate that includes the company contact info. One or two internal links with keyword anchor text, images properly tagged with appropriate keywords, and keyword rich meta data are all that’s left!
Voila! Your landing page is poised to take over the SERPs! For more information about Page One Web Solutions' expert copywriting service, visit our website today!