Roy Hunter

September 11, 2009

MyMarketingCompany.com

There are some pretty vast differences between writing copy for print articles and writing copy for the Internet. When writing copy for magazines, newspapers, etc., you focus on conveying compelling information to the reader through the introduction of an idea and a follow through of support. When writing copy for the Internet, you have two “viewers” you need to consider, the person who will be reading your website, and the robot that has been sent by the search engines.

Writing copy for your Internet searchers is all well and good if they can find the information you are publishing. If you do not consider how that information is found, your website and its information will be lost somewhere in the Internet abyss never to be seem by anyone.

There are two very distinct styles of writing between print media and website. Think of a pyramid, print copywriting begins at the top of the pyramid. An idea is conveyed and as you progress through the article more substance supporting the idea is revealed and ends with a summary.

Internet copywriting is completely opposite. Invert the pyramid. Cover the most important information first and work your way down to a basic subject. Website readers form an opinion of your website is a matter of seconds, if you can not grasp their attention immediately with the information that is relevant to their search, they will navigate away for your page and find one that will.

Search robots “read” the information the same way. The subject of your website is mined in the first few lines of text in your HTML code. If you do not effectively describe the content of your website in the first few lines, your website will not be indexed the way you hope it is.

HTML copywriting structure follows this hierarchy:

  • The page title: This is the information described between the <title> </title> tags found between the <head></head> section of your website. It is also the first line of the search results. You have a limit of 80 characters, including spaces, for your title. You need to include the most important keywords that describe your website content as well as a location if your services are limited to a certain city or state. For example here is the title of the homepage for our company website:  <title>Sarasota and Tampa Florida Business Advertising and Internet Marketing Services</title>
  • The page description: This is the information contained in the meta description tag of the <head></head> section of your website. You have 160 characters and spaces to give a little more of a broad keyword phrase description of the content of your page. Here is the meta description for my website: <meta content=”Our company based in Sarasota and Tampa can help your business maximize its marketing efforts through a professional partnership of marketing consultants ” />.
  • The heading tag or “headline”: This is typically the first text your viewer will see on your web page and it begins in the <body></body> section of your website. Here is our company headline tag: <h1> Advertising and Internet Marketing Services for Sarasota and Tampa Florida Businesses</h1>.
  • Paragraphs: <p>The first paragraph plays a critical role in the optimization of your website. <b>The keyword phrase content, and elements used to display the text are essential</b> to optimizing your copy for the search engines. The first 160 characters of the first paragraph are the most important real-estate on your website and I will often use the same text that is in my “Meta Description” as the beginning sentence of my first paragraph</p>.

If you properly imbed the most relevant keyword terms of your website within those four sections, you will begin to ensure your website will be indexed properly for the terms most relevant to the content of your site. These four sections will be the make or break difference of you being found in search results by people most interested in the information on your page.

In part two of this Internet copywriting series I will discuss keyword optimization and proper placement of keywords throughout your website.

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