A big part of optimizing websites for the search engines involves content. Not only does keyword-rich content attract the attention of search engines, online readers and shoppers seek informative resources to aid in their purchasing decisions.
Therefore, online content is an invaluable part of both marketing online and search engine optimization. So what’s the difference between writing standard sales letters, essays and other items versus writing online?
First is the mindset – online readers skim pages looking for the information they need. Hard copy readers are generally more leisure in their reading, spending more time on each page. In a fundamental way, each type of reader interacts with the piece in much different ways.
Remember receiving direct mail pieces in your snail mail box? What the envelope said and who it was from was a big factor in determining whether you opened it up and read it.
Online copy on the other hand has other factors at work – like the title. First, readers look at a title and if it entices them enough, they’ll continue reading. Next, Google focuses on the first 65 characters looking for keywords. Therefore, online copy has to have both a title that draws a reader’s interest and contains keywords for Google to index.
Continuing into the body, online copywriters have to consider different elements than traditional sales letters and other hard copy mediums don’t. Keyword density and calls to action are just a couple. Also, online writers should consider shorter paragraphs, bullet points and other ways to format the document’s layout to make reading easy, especially for blogs.
And online copy is generally much shorter – a typical article is around 600-800 words, typical blog posts range anywhere from 200 to 500 words. So, a call to action including keywords (not too many keywords though as this is a red flag to search engines and readers) has to be done in a much smaller space.
Keep these things in mind when writing for online mediums…and remember it’s much different than hard copy mediums. Articles, blogs and even press releases have to factor in these kinds of issues in order for them to achieve maximum success.