The 10 SEO habits of highly effective copywriters

In a previous article, 24 content marketing FAQs that will help you get lift off, I made the bold claim that copywriters don’t need a complex SEO strategy to get going with content marketing – or website copy, to extrapolate.

For context, it wasn’t until Google’s 2018 E-A-T guidelines (see below) that I became an SEO fangirl, even though I’ve worked with it since 2007. Yes, I trust SEO and I believe that a solid strategy from a visionary specialist is a thing of lethal beauty. Like a cat. Or a T-Rex. And yet, SMEs have to prioritise their marketing goals (and budgets) or nothing of any substance gets done.

My point is: quality content is the highest SEO ranking factor, so don’t let the absence of an SEO strategy get in the way of your website copy. Copywriters, get stuck in.

The 10 SEO habits of highly effective copywriters*

I’m going to unpack useful things your copywriter can do to keep your site as clean, free-flowing and compliant as possible, in the absence of an SEO strategy. It’s not a solution in itself. 

The full caboodle is a specialist area and not something your digital copywriter should be concerned with**. The points below, however, are well within their remit. It also gives you insight into why you should enlist the services of a professional digital copywriter, if you haven’t already.

1. Optimised headlines

You’ll need some keywords for your website copy. Semrush has published a guide to free keyword tools and here’s a free SEO competitive analysis tool from Moz. Choose between one and four keywords to target per article. Your most important keyword for an article should go in the headline (for my article right here, it’s ‘copywriter’ and I used Google Ads Keyword Planner).

2. Subheading structure

Subheadings in all your website copy should be formatted as H Tags. This starts with Heading 1 for the article title, moving through Heading 2, Heading 3, and so on. 

H Tags can be formatted to look good on the page (as defined in the website’s style sheet) but their purpose is to show search engines the organised structure of the article. Organisation is clarity, and search engines value clarity because their objective is to serve users what they want.The structure of your article / page might be an easy H1, H2, H3, H4. It might be more complex. For example, if you have subtopics within topics, your final H Tag lineup might be H1, H2, H3, H2, H3, and so on.

3. Keyword repetition

The frequency of keywords in a 1,000 article / page should be around 10 to 20 per keyword. This equates to a keyword density of 1-2%. I think the full 20 might start to jar with readers (as your style becomes less natural), but it depends on context – use your judgement. Keywords in headlines and subheadings count.

4. Bold text

This is so easy – too easy. Copywriters, be wise with your choices. Bolding website copy shows Google that you’re making an important point. In other words, bolding key phrases on your page is good for SEO. It’s also effective for your readers’ understanding. Don’t bold up too much because it will eventually cross an unspecified event horizon and lose impact and value.

Sadly, pull-quotes, one of my favourite ways of creating space in website copy and spotlighting key points, don’t appear to have an SEO impact in and of themselves. However, layout that creates white space, makes reading fun and easy, and helps to organise a page, is a ranking bonus. 

Sadly, pull-quotes, one of my favourite ways of creating space in website copy and spotlighting key points, don’t appear to have an SEO impact in and of themselves. However, layout that creates white space, makes reading fun and easy, and helps to organise a page, is a ranking bonus. 

5. Internal linking

Most digital copywriters know that you can use keywords to link to other pages within your website. It’s both a cakewalk and dangerously full of pitfalls, so I’m here to remind you to keep it simple. Let an SEO worry about complexity. You don’t want to be flirting with a spam ban.

Around 5 links per 1,000 words is a good rule of thumb – make it feel natural. The pages you link to most will be important – for example, a services page or product category, though blogs are contextually relevant too. The majority of your links will link upwards (within your site hierarchy) to these important pages.

This internal linking within website copy means your readers can discover more of your content on that topic. So, it’s good for reducing bounce rates as well as nurturing engagement and conversions.

Internal linking also educates search engine bots about your site’s structure and depth, plus which pages are important. Ergo, they’re an SEO ranking factor. Importantly, copywriters are suited to extending the value of external links using creativity. Rather than using a keyword as anchor text, bear in mind that search engines like descriptive phrases used in lieu of keywords too. This practice will help you step clear of pitfalls. 

Websites can be beautiful but the user experience – optimised for conversions – wins any design argument over an aesthetic affectation. A link should look like a link – with the traditional underline. Links should be visible at all times, not just in hover-state. This is especially important for the mobile experience, where the hover-state doesn’t exist.

Finally, don’t use ‘click here’ as anchor text – it’s got no value. Moz has published a good anchor text guide and they think the occasional ‘click here’ is okay. I think pro writers are better than that.

6. External links

Your website is part of an information community. Search engines want you to build this community and define its interesting, niche corners. External links are where you demonstrate what a good neighbour and host you are. Also, they might lead to backlinks – reciprocal external linking – and these have value for your domain authority.

Choose respectable domains to link to. Always set an external link to open in a new tab, so your visitor can continue reading your website copy even if they go off down a research rabbithole. Use appropriate anchor text  – be descriptive.

7. Meta descriptions

Though Google might rewrite your meta description (or even serve up some website copy off your page), this isn’t a wasted exercise, even if it feels like box-ticking. While it’s not a direct ranking factor, it is good practice. Meta descriptions should be between 120 (mobile view) and 155 (desktop view) characters in length. Make it as interesting and relevant as possible – it is, in essence, advertising copy and could be displayed as a snippet or excerpt, for example in social channels. Include your keyword.

Make sure the article / page you’ve written delivers, in spades, what your headline has promised.

8. Relevancy

This is woven into the quality of your website copy – which is Google’s biggest ranking factor. Make sure the article / page you’ve written delivers, in spades, what your headline has promised. Same goes for your meta description and excerpt. If your article / page isn’t meeting the reader’s expectation, they’ll bounce off your website and this will impact your SEO. Not only that, search engines read your website copy and they know who’s naughty and nice.

9. Formatting

Your website copy must be easy to read and well organised. Remember that reading pixels is a different experience than print. 

Create white space using subheadings, pull-quotes, lists and paragraphs. This is especially important if your article is very long – it shouldn’t seem to the reader like it’s very long. Shorter sentences are also a good call. While formatting is not an SEO gold star, unless you’re using schema markup, bounce rate is a ranking factor. Your bounce rate is a metric showing how many visitors leave your site after viewing only one page.

For some copywriters, layout doesn’t come naturally. It’s the happy marriage of creativity and structure, of matter and antimatter… maybe study pages by competitors that you like, and go from there, or ask a UX designer.

10. Image alt text

The task of uploading is often left to copywriters and, anyway, you should be the one to do the words that accompany the images. 

First, image sizes (in Mb) should be small without compromising quality. This way, they load quicker (your SEO bonus). You can do this manually using photo editing software. For speed and great results, I use a website that compresses images for free.

Your second housekeeping task is to make sure you write alt text for the image. If this is new to you, you can find the relevant field in the media library, alongside caption and description. This alt text (also known as alt tag) provides accessibility (an SEO win) to people who use screen readers. You can use it for images on your social channels too.

The alt text needs to be fairly brief – a sentence or two. You should describe what’s in the image, what it shows, without saying it’s an image. You only need alt text for relevant images, like products or news images; those that are purely decorative don’t need them as they add unnecessary distraction. Keep it tight. This Semrush blog on alt text has some great examples to ponder.

Quality content is the highest SEO ranking factor, so don’t let the absence of an SEO strategy get in the way of your website copy. Copywriters, get stuck in.

And finally… E-A-T (now E-E-A-T)

In 2018, Google updated its search rater guidelines with a more holistic approach to quality that valued website copy.

• E = Experience (added in 2022)
• E = Expertise
• A = Authoritativeness
• T = Trustworthiness

Your site needs to demonstrate these to get a leg-up on search results. It’s much more comprehensive than publishing fabulous website copy – but that’s an article for another day.

* Yes, I’m currently reading Stephen Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’

** If your copywriter is spending too much time in Semrush, Ahrefs or GA4, they’re not writing website copy. Bad for productivity! Bad for their creative satisfaction! Unless they’re secretly, deep-down, not actually a copywriter. It’s more common than you might think for juicy keyword data to become so addictive that it flips a promising scribe into an SEO manager. Proceed with caution.