Do you write your website content to rank on page 1 of Google or do you write it to drive sales from your visitors? Don’t worry. I’m here to tell you that you can have your cake, and get your fork, because you can eat it too.

It is absolutely possible to write website content that ranks well in search engines and sells like a dream. The key is planning and achieving a perfect balance between the two objectives.

Let’s start with how to write for search engines.

If you’ve done any research into SEO, you’ve learned that in order to rank high in Google, you need good content. But what does that mean? It means volume, quality and lots of juicy keywords.

Start at the Beginning: Listing Your Keywords

Before you do anything else, create your list of keywords. A “keyword” is a word or term that customers are likely to use in a search when looking for your business. Don’t go crazy. Choose your “Big 5”, the top five terms you’d love to rank for.

For example, I want Amalgam Design’s Search Engine Optimization landing page to rank when business owners are looking to optimize their company websites. The keywords I want to rank for might be: Search Engine Optimization Toronto, SEO company, SEO firm, Search Engine Optimization agency Canada, and Google ranking.

Don’t forget to include location keywords (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, etc.) because customers search on location. If I’m looking for a plumber, if I don’t put “Toronto” in my search terms, the #1 result could be from Texas. Google has recently updated its search to always provide location based results (it knows where you live), but users still put cities and countries in their search terms so you should include them in your content.

When I’m writing content for a website, I put my keywords in a list and keep them at the top of my draft as I’m writing. This reminds me of what terms to lace into the copy. I write as naturally as possible, writing what I want to say about the product or service and I periodically reread my keyword terms. Where possible, I’ll use a full keyword phrase in the copy, and if I can’t do that, I’ll add an extra word into the content to achieve better ranking.

For example, if I’ve written the sentence, “Amalgam Design offers SEO as part of our web design services,” I might edit it to say, “Amalgam Design offers search engine optimization for Google as part of our SEO web design services.” In this case, it didn’t break the flow of the sentence too much and I was able to insert 2 more keywords into my copy.

Try to keep keyword terms together whenever possible but consider splitting them into single words where you can because Google looks at your entire page of content. That is, if I can’t fit “Toronto SEO company” naturally into my copy, it’s okay to just say “Toronto” as long as “SEO” and “company” are also somewhere else on the page.

Don’t forget that questions can be keywords. Many users treat Google like an oracle and may enter “How do I make my website rank in Google?” as their search terms. Consider making questions part of your content but remember that questions don’t communicate the solution which is what you are trying to sell, so use them sparingly.

Where to Use Your Keywords

Google puts more emphasis on headings and links than on body text. Consider working your keywords into your headings and menu links where you can as well as your meta titles. I don’t just say “Services” when I can say “SEO Services”.

Don’t bother filling your keywords meta tags with your favourites because all major search engines ignore this meta tag as a result of abuse. Similarly, search engines don’t care what you put in your meta description but users sure do (this is the blurb that shows up in your Google listing) so make it as sales driven as possible! The only meta tag that Google cares about is the meta title (the title that shows up at the top of your browser window).

Don’t Stuff It, Sell It

Yes, you are writing your content with search engines in mind, but you must always write your content for users, not for bots. Why? Because you could drive an army of users to your site through SEO but you’ve accomplished nothing if they don’t buy anything.

This is why you should never use keyword stuffing to rank. Keyword stuffing is a popular SEO tactic where you use as many of your keywords as many times as possible in a paragraph. This copy is clearly not written for users and can be confusing to potential customers.

Using our Toronto SEO company example, here’s what bad keyword stuffed content reads like: Toronto SEO company, Amalgam Design is an affordable Toronto SEO (search engine optimization) company that will get your website ranking in Google and other major search engines. A Toronto SEO company since 1999, Amalgam Design makes your website search engine optimized.

This kind of keyword spamming (or stuffing) works sometimes to achieve rank but certainly doesn’t sell anything to anybody and leaves your visitors wondering why you’re talking to them like they are an idiot.

Writing To Sell

Identifying your unique selling point is Marketing 101. So when you are writing sales copy for a website, you must keep that in the forefront.

With our Amalgam Design SEO company example, our unique selling point is that we are marketers, and can write killer sales copy and create beautiful designs that achieve awesome ranking in Google. So that has to drive my message.

Here is a rewrite of the previous example, this time using sales driven good keyword content: Amalgam Design is a Toronto based company that loves ethical SEO. We create stunning search engine optimized designs and use proven sales driven content to get you ranking in Google and other major search engines.

While, technically, the first example uses the keywords more often, Google finds keyword stuffing fishy and my primary goal is to convince potential customers that they should hire us.

Know Where To Draw the Line

Customers always win. If it becomes clear that I have to choose between writing for a customer and writing for Google, I’ll always err on the side of sales. I’ll choose a pithy heading over a keyword laden one any day. Why? Because clients like it. There are many marketing channels driving users to our website. While search may be the biggest, it hurts our overall revenue if in the end we’re nothing more than Google groupies.

Search engines update themselves all the time, changing what they look for in a good site. If you create your site for users, you’ll never be left holding a bag of useless, outdated tricks.

I got no love for Yellow Pages. Anyone who knows me knows not to get me started. The Yellow Pages print book serves its purpose, on some level or another, or at least my dad likes it. I must admit, even I crack it open once every year or two but that’s only because so many of my local businesses haven’t clued into how awesome Google Maps is and have yet to list themselves on it.

The noise in the other room

The noise in the other room is the sound of print dying. Don’t mind him. He’s been dying for years. We all saw it coming but he wouldn’t listen. He kept insisting he was still relevant while we warned him to devise a back up plan. And now he’s in his final death rattle and when he comes a-callin’ asking for my advertising money, I always ask him the same question, “What have you got for me online?”

Too many print organizations are trying to transfer their print business models to the web and are dismayed when they don’t succeed. Yellowpages.ca is guilty of this in 3 major ways.

1. One year contract? Exsqueeze me? It’s not permanently “out there” the way the print book is. If your online service is any good, prove it by letting me try it for 3-6 months before I commit.
2. Showing my print ad as my online listing. Online is not print. A print ad scanned and put on a web page is illegible and uncrawlable to search engines.
3. Charging me by location. They over complicate their model and their rates are anything but competitive when I need to pay separately for each neighbourhood I want to be listed in.

My bone to pick

Most of our clients find the Internet a little bit overwhelming and all its opportunities more than a little confusing. As a result, I feel that the people who work in the industry have an obligation to be as clear and up front about their offering as possible. My contention with YellowPages.ca is that they obfuscate the facts, taking advantage of the lay person. I realize that’s a bold thing to say, but as I mentioned, I got no love.

Of all the things on the Internet, nothing seems to confuse people more than SEO (search engine optimization). It’s a magic word. If you use it, you can convince people of anything because they know they want it but aren’t entirely sure how to get it. So when Yellowpages.ca claims to be partners with Google and says that paying for a listing with their online directory increases your SEO, it seems like a win-win.

Organizations claiming to be “partners” with Google make my head blow up

When the sales package I was faxed (yes, FAXED) from Yellowpages.ca had a Google logo in it and claimed they were partners, I asked the sales representative to clarify.

He stuttered a little and when I followed up by asking if I would see the Yellow Pages logo on a Google.ca page he flat out didn’t know what to say. That’s because web stuff can be confusing. And he didn’t know his own product because the people in charge had made it more confusing than it needed to be.

The vague wording in the sales package implied that Yellow Pages had a special relationship with Google which enabled your Yellow Pages ad to be advertised in Google’s sponsored listings for a small additional fee. On top of that, your Yellow Pages ad would rank organically better in Google.

Sigh.

How Yellow Pages uses Google’s sponsored listings

Here’s a quote from Google’s Philosophy page on the Google website: Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a “Sponsored Link,” so it does not compromise the integrity of our search results. We never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our search results and no one can buy better PageRank.

The truth is, if you pay them extra, Yellow Pages will run a sponsored listings campaign in Google on your behalf driving traffic to your Yellow Pages ad.

The Pros: If you don’t have the first clue how to run a sponsored listings campaign and can’t afford someone who can, this is a great way to get presence in Google’s Adwords for a reasonable amount of money.

The Cons: Yellow Pages is using your money to advertise themselves. Notice how they aren’t driving traffic to your website, but to their ad? What’s more, if you haven’t paid for a live link to your website, your advertising money is flapping in the wind. And the part that really cheeses me, if Google users are interested in your ad and click on the sponsored listing, you still pay for the click but it’s Yellow Pages’ page ranking which increases.

How your Yellow Pages listing impacts your page ranking

Does listing in Yellowpages.ca improve your SEO? Yes. But so does listing in Canpages.ca and Toronto.com and any other high ranking business directory. Google collects information about your website from everywhere. The more times it sees your business listed the more credibility you have. Especially if your listing is surrounded by lots of juicy keywords. In other words, directories where you get to submit a description of your business and your website link are ideal.

The Pros: Yellowpages.ca has a good page rank so being listed with them is one more notch in your SEO belt.

The Cons: The link to your website is indirect so it doesn’t count as one of your high ranking backlinks (which is kind of the point). Yellowpages.ca shows the image of your ad online (if you bought one) which is useless to search engines. All those relevant keywords are no where to be found and the only thing Google learns from Yellowpages.ca about your business is your address. This would explain why the SEO for yellowpages.ca itself sucks. Type any business category into Google (example “accountant Toronto”) and see if yellowpages.ca shows up on the first page. It doesn’t because the Yellow Pages site contains no relevant content.

My advice on choosing a directory

Most industries have online directories specific to them that rank well in organic searches. Try anything once. Track your results. Review your analytics (your web traffic sources) and make sure to always ask how customers heard about you. Pay close attention to your traffic on the day a print ad runs and assume any increase is from that.

For every marketing channel, take the number of click throughs and divide it by the money you spent on the channel. If a product is good, it delivers good results: solid traffic for a reasonable cost. What’s a reasonable cost? We like anything around $2 per click but it differs from business to business. If the click is highly targeted and likely to convert (result in a sale), you can pay significantly more. If you are in the double digits (or, God help you, triple digits) for a channel, you can certainly do better.