The Do’s And Don’ts Of Copywriting For Google: Part 1

When writing content for the internet, you should always try to make the information appealing to the reader. With that in mind, there is another entity gleaming over everything you have to say, and it has a big impact on the amount of people that find your site at the end of the day. Who is this god-like being on the World Wide Web? Good old Google.

To make your writing as effective as possible, you need to understand how to write for search engines and regular readers at the same time. Here are the do’s and don’ts of copywriting for Google.

Do: Write High Quality Original Content

If all of your website content is stolen from other websites, Google is going to dock your search engine ranking. Google rewards site owners who put out their own read-worthy content from the start. It may take more effort to write really great information, but that work will pay off tremendously.

Having high-quality content will also ensure that your bounce rate stays low, which means that visitors will look at each page of your site for a long time. If they immediately leave after reading a page, Google will assume the information is bad and punish you accordingly.

Don’t: Confuse “High Quality” With “Long Winded”

A good web page doesn’t have to be 2,000 words long. While it is wise to have pages that are at least 400 words in length, you don’t necessarily have to use a lot of words to get a point across. If you write a big wall of text for someone to sift through, chances are they’re just going to move on. Again, Google will note this as an instant loss of interest and lower your search engine ranking as a result.

Do: Seek Out Target Keywords

Keyword research is a critical part of search engine optimization because it gives you a basic idea of what people are looking for online. You need to incorporate keywords into your web content in order for Google to find your pages and blog posts. Look for keywords that fit your business niche and target audience so you can include the right words at the right times. Note how high the competition is for each keyword as you research so you can go after ones that you can logically reach the top of.

Don’t: Stuff Keywords Unnaturally In Your Articles

There is a difference between incorporating keywords naturally and stuffing them into your articles. Keyword stuffing used to be a popular practice because most marketers assumed that more keywords led to a higher search engine ranking. What happened though was the quality of their content suffered, which actually hurt their sites in the long run. You can work in a keyword once every paragraph, but anything more than that tends to be too excessive.

For even more do’s and don’ts of copywriting for Google, check out Part 2 of our guide.