Author: Joe Sanfilippo
Writing SEO copy is not easy but it doesn’t have to be hard! When it comes to writing a copy there is a basic formula that I use that I think works very well for me and can work for you too. I’ve learned some of these techniques from college literature teachers and the rest I learned in my 7-year career here at Today’s Business constantly analyzing top-ranking articles, reading about SEO, interviewing SEO experts, and then writing copy myself.
What are the best tactics for writing E Commerce Content?
#1 Define Your Goal
Before you do anything you should always ask yourself “What am I trying to achieve here?”. Let’s use this article as an example. My primary goal was to create a simple guide to writing content that I can share with our interns here at Today’s Business so I can teach my copywriting tactics at scale. My secondary goal is to write a piece of content that can possibly rank on Google and drive more traffic and leads to our website (if you stumbled across this article from Google it looks like I’ve done my job well 🙂).
#2 Start with Keyword Research
If your goal is to create a piece of content that ranks on Google then you absolutely need to do a fair share of keyword research. And because this article is about writing ecommerce content you definitely want to rank on Google so you can drive traffic and acquire new customers.
To properly do keyword research you are going to want to invest in a tool like SEMrush. SEMrush is an a amazing tool for keyword research and so much more. If you have SEMrush then start off by going to the Keyword Magic Tool and input the product or topic that you want to write about. For this article I started with the keyword “how to write content”.
Once you’ve entered your keyword into the Keyword Magic Tool it is going to populate thousands of different keyword variations. The next step is to find a keyword that is relevant to your product/service, has a low keyword difficulty, and high volume. I typically sort the results by keyword difficulty, low to high, and then scan for the best keyword to write about from there.
As you can see in the screenshot above, I selected the keyword “how to write e commerce content” for this article because it has a low keyword difficulty (14) yet still gets 90 searches per month. User intent is also important to keep in mind when looking for keywords. Although 90 searches per month isn’t a super large volume, this keyword is super relevant for our website as we provide digital marketing solutions for e-commerce businesses. Therefore, while the volume is low the quality of traffic is great because the people searching for this keyword may likely need to utilize our e-commerce marketing services and could be quality leads.
#3 Research the topic
Now that you know what keyword you want to try to rank for it’s important to do your research on the topic. You can start by taking a look at some of the other websites that are ranking for this keyword and see what they have written. You can also look at alternative keywords and dive into the topic as a whole. If possible, it’s best to work with an expert on the topic. So if you are writing content for an e-commerce website you may want to interview the company owner or somebody who deals with the manufacturing of the products so that you can create the most thorough and accurate content possible.
#4 Create an Outline
Having an outline is key to success. When creating an outline you don’t need to overthink it as it can always be revised later but it’s important to have a rough idea of how the content will be structured. In some instances, the outline will be more detailed but in most cases, you simply need a page title, header 2 sections, header 3 sections, and a closing paragraph.
#5 Do NOT Plagiarise
This part is very important. NEVER copy and paste from another website or source of information. This is called plagiarism and is illegal. Not only is it illegal but it creates duplicate content which can actually prevent you from ranking as Google isn’t interested in displaying duplicate or plagiarised content. Use the information you’ve gathered from research but make sure your content is unique and original. In the next section, I’ll explain how I do this.
#6 Just Write! Don’t Think!
Now that you’ve done your research and have an outline, simply just write the copy for each section. What I do is simply just put my head down and write everything that comes to mind as fast as I can. I type as fast as I can and try to fill the page with a lot of copy. I don’t overthink anything, I don’t worry about spelling or grammar, I don’t get overly concerned about organization or keyword usage, and I simply just write as much as possible.
#7 Revise
Once you’ve got the page filled with the copy now you can go back and revise everything. Start by reading the copy and trying to organize ideas to fit in the appropriate sections. Fix any grammar and spelling mistakes. If you don’t have Grammarly you absolutely need to add that Google Chrome extension immediately. It’s a game-changer. Also, you can utilize Google search to find synonyms for words that you are overusing and feel redundant.
#8 Optimize
This part is pretty important as well. If you aren’t familiar with SEO fundamentals then do some research on things like header structure, URL slug, meta description, internal linking, and alt text. I’ve linked to some of the top-ranking articles about each of those topics so I recommend reading those. Also, while reading those articles, notice how they structure their content and how they write their copy. If you need further explanation or have questions reach out to our SEO experts.
Always try to add images, videos, and other interactive content where possible (if you use images you have to add alt text to them). Google wants your content to be user-friendly so these things will help make the content more engaging.
Finally, make sure sentences are concise and easy to read. Again, user-friendly content always wins.
#9 Get a 2nd Opinion
Finally, have someone else read your content before you publish it. You can easily get fatigued after working on content and might miss some common mistakes or get caught in a fog. If you have someone that can proofread your content that is always a winning approach as well.
Need E-Commerce SEO Services?
Creating content is only one part of the SEO puzzle. If you are struggling with writing good SEO copy for your e-commerce website then you likely are lacking in other areas of SEO too. Today’s Business has been doing SEO for over a decade and has a proven track record of improving organic search results for e-commerce businesses. Contact us today to chat with an SEO copywriting expert!