Meer woorden voor een betere landingspagina?
Over het schrijven van copy voor het web wordt een enorme hoeveelheid woorden gepubliceerd op het internet. Meestal een herhaling van zetten met vragen als; hoe moet je schrijven, wat moet je schrijven en waar moeten die zoekwoorden eigenlijk komen te staan en wat voor zoekwoorden moeten dat zijn? Onderstaande is een weergave van een artikel van RED-FERN, een online marketingspecialist uit de UK waar ik nog weleens rondstruin. Dit artikel gaat ook in op de vraag; hoeveel woorden moet je anno 2017 nu eigenlijk voor een goede landingspagina schrijven?
The role a digital copywriter plays in a successful content marketing strategy has never been more important. Digital copywriting has evolved exponentially over the last few years, shaped by Google algorithm updates. Launched in 2011, Google’s Panda update was the search engine’s first attempt to penalise websites riddled with duplicate, low quality content. That was five years ago. So, what do you need to know about the shape of digital copywriting today and tomorrow?
Write for People, Not Robots
Keyword stuffing has long been the bane of digital copywriters. A necessary evil to achieve a higher search engine ranking. In years gone by, Google recommended that effective online content keyword densities be anywhere between 2-5%. That percentage doesn’t sound too high, but it had a drastic impact on readability, especially copy with geographically-specific long tail keywords, as demonstrated below: Annoying, right? Well, today Google agrees and ranks unique content. Keywords and variations still have their place, especially in local searches, but the days of keyword saturation are gone.
However, long tail keywords are more relevant than ever. Why? There’s less competition for them. Choosing popular keywords means that you could be competing against every tom, dick and harry in your sector. Be clever, be specific. The amount of traffic to your site may decrease, but those visiting are much more targeted and will know what they want – and more likely to buy.
What About Proximity?
By using naturally occurring keywords, strategically placed in the body of the content, you will boost content search engine and browser relevance. Google, and other search engines, use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to match search results to the intentions of browsers searching for content. What does this mean? Digital copywriters must be savvy enough to weave keywords into the body of the content as naturally as possible. Google rewards keyword proximity and variations in their indexing.
The Longer, The Better
A typical blog on HubSpot clocks in at around a thousand words. Gone are the days when a blog length of around 300 words would do the trick. Users have grown wise to regurgitated, short content. They’ve seen it all before. And won’t read it. Moreover, there’s only so much that a copywriter can communicate with a restrictive article length – often only succeeding in whetting the appetite of browsers rather than giving them a reason to click through the whole site. This is more accurately demonstrated when considering niche or complicated topics, services or services. Think about it, would 300 words be sufficient when writing about an internal combustion engine, stem cell research, or how to make ourselves happy? In that context, 300 words sounds ludicrous.
Digital copy has evolved to become lengthier. For anyone thinking that blogs of 1000 words are too long, consider this: if the content adds value, consumers will want to finish reading. If that’s not enough to convince you, remember, that browsers have grown tired of reading stale content. Blogs and articles of the same length, same structure, same points – with only minor deviations, often a few adjectives changed here and there are an instant turn-off. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. The content has grown stale. Google loves UNIQUE content. That’s the bottom line.
Voor het gehele artikel, zie https://www.red-fern.co.uk/blog/insights/digital-copywriting-in-2017-what-you-need-to-know.html