Tips from Peter Schaible at the Mequoda Summit in Napa Valley
Mequoda’s Chief Copywriter Peter Schaible hosted a session on SEO Copywriting on the Thursday of the Mequoda Summit.
The session involved 9 simple steps on SEO copywriting and ended with the true workshop concept of lending suggestions to our attendees on landing page copy they submitted prior to the Summit.
3 steps in SEO copywriting that are often misunderstood
I don’t have the extensive practice Peter has when it comes to the world of SEO copywriting. When I began doing this task, the three steps that I had the most problems with involved internet coding lingo. I briefly discuss these three commonly misunderstood aspects below.
- Meta Title – The meta title needs to focus on the product name to be successful. The meta title is often times the same as the headline.
- Meta Description – The meta description needs to focus on the product offer and name. The meta description is often times the same as the subtitle.
- Meta Keywords and Meta Tags – For these, start with the cluster topic names and continue to add phrases from the title, and words that are present in the body copy. Also target any other phrases that would be relevant from your GVR.
These seem like easy enough concepts, but for some reason I have been thrown off in the past. The word “meta” may be ultimately the issue with me. It seems to be a bit confusing; maybe because I’m not a web designer I may not be fully comfortable with the terminology.
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SEO Copywriting Tips
One of Peter’s suggestions is to “write as naturally as you know how.”
Don’t begin with sitting at your desk and trying to write SEO’d content. Tell your story first, and then work on doing the SEO work. Engaging the reader into your copy is key.
Another great tip involves the length of your copy. Peter discussed how Google bots index content based on the first 500 words of your articles. After creating your content, work to sufficiently SEO the first 500 words of your articles.
In need of SEO inspiration?
Peter concluded his session by discussing ways of clearing an “SEO copywriting logjam”.
Two of my favorite suggestions Peter gave are listed below.
SEO copywriting logjam clearing tip #1 – Search other uses of your keywords in Google (with quotation marks around them) and Amazon. This way you can see what your competition is, and witness some examples of what they’re doing. Searching your phrase in Amazon will allow you to see what published books may include the phrases as well.
SEO copywriting logjam clearing tip #2 – Start a conversation on the subject. By doing so you can get an idea how other people use the words you’re focusing on. This may allow for some inspiration, and a different approach to creating content.
For more on SEO Copywriting, check out of free report SEO Copywriting Secrets: Five Creative Copywriting Tips for Attracting, Engaging and Monetizing Customers.
