As a copywriter, you should strive to write content that not only pleases robots but also people. Read on to learn more about how you can strike that perfect balance between SEO and your readers.

We have all heard self-professed content marketing gurus say that you should write only for your readers and pay no heed to the search engines. We have also heard the opposite to be true: You must write primarily for the search engines; your readers will eventually get it.

Not unsurprisingly, these are two dangerous ends of the writing spectrum. When you have too much of one or the other, it greatly affects the overall success of your content. Consequently, you should strive to be a middle of the road writer: some for the search engines and some for your readers.

Understand the need.

A unique and engaging copy will help your content marketing campaign by maximizing the odds of your website ranking well in search results. After all, search engine algorithms favor quality copy with high readability over anything else. On the other hand, if your content is well-executed but the keyword placement is below par, it won’t do well with your readers as it may never reach them.

Here’s how you can juggle between search engine needs and user readability for maximum commercial gain.

Define the purpose of your webpage.

One of the first things you need to understand when writing a quality SEO copy is the why and wherefore of your webpage. Make sure you understand what it aims to add to the overall user experience. Ideally, your webpage should be able to offer value to the user, be unique and most importantly, direct the user towards a single goal. Pages that offer nothing of value, are cryptic and unoriginal aren’t going to convert well.

Write a clear and concise copy.

Unless you’re expecting your customers to have a dictionary handy when reading your copy or be confused about what you’re actually trying to say, your copy needs to be extremely clear and clear-cut, where no solution you offer seems ambiguous and vague. This is an excellent way to unite both SEO and content readability.

Research is key.

As a writer, if you spend your time researching before putting anything into writing, it’s time well spent. Not only will it help you decipher what your audience is actually looking for, but also give you inspiration on what subjects and issues to touch on in your content.

Keyword optimization.

Always use your keyword phrase in a way that reads naturally.

Gone are the days when SEO content was plagued with incorrect grammar and awkward phrases throughout, simply for the purpose of ranking high in search engines. Today, you need to work in your keywords in a way that they read as naturally as possible and blend seamlessly in your content. This will make your content more engaging to your readers and search engine algorithms won’t penalize you for spamming.

Avoid keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing is an unsavory SEO tactic that some content marketers try to use to make a specific page the most relevant page for the search term. Keyword stuffing happens when targeted keywords or phrases are unnecessarily repeated in the content in a way that it affects readability and just doesn’t look right. Keyword stuffing will create an awful reader experience and will likely drive them away from your page.

You can avoid this by trying to stick to a rule of ‘once-per-100-words’ for usage of your keyword phrase. Another option is to use an SEO tool to give you the percentage of keywords used in the body of your content so that you know you’re not above or below where you should be.

Don’t forget to proofread

Now that you have created a content piece that’s not only SEO-optimized but also engages the readers, you need to take the time to look over it again to make sure you’re not missing any errors. Thoroughly scan every word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph to detect misspelled words or grammatical mistakes.

The Takeaway

When it comes down to it, you should go all out to connect your audience with your brand, not obsess over keywords and search engine bots. That being said, keeping the copy SEO-optimized is what will get your webpage more hits and increase your conversions.

What we mean to say is that, while content writing, you should never give up your creativity in favor of plodding SEO copy, but you shouldn’t completely ignore the SEO part either.