For instance, many absolutely swear that the copy has to be as high up on the page as possible for the search engines to find it. Not true. The spiders will find the text regardless of where it is on your page. Others say all your text has to be in one block. Also not true. The spiders will find the text regardless of where it is on your page.

Other statements I’ve heard regarding text placement include:

• Your headline must appear at the very top of the page.

• Copy placed inside tables throws the search engines off.

• Copy must be positioned above the fold to be found by the spiders.

None of these are true. The spiders will find the text regardless of where it is on your page. (Or did I already say that… twice?) This is true in 99.9% of the cases, with only some very rare exceptions.

So where is the best place to put SEO copy on your Web page? Wherever it makes sense to the site visitor!

Spiders will find your text regardless of where it falls on the page. Want proof? Here’s a test. Go to Google and type in any working URL. When the result comes up for that site, click on: “Show Google’s Cache of…” In the box that appears at the top of the next page, click on this option: “This cached page may reference images which are no longer available. Click here for the cached text only.” What do you see?

You see exactly what the search engine sees. If the text appears in this text-only cache, that means Google’s spider can read it and index it.

Put Copy Where It Is Most Beneficial to Your Visitors

Since the engines will find your text regardless of where it falls on the page, your focus should be placed on the site visitor. This is where your focus should always be. The people who have the money come first; the search engines come second.

If it makes sense for your visitors to see your headline as the first thing on the page, then put it first. If a graphic design element makes more sense, then put that first. If you use photos or other images, include captions so your visitors understand what these photos mean and how they relate to the sales message.

If you have an ecommerce site, create pages for each category of products you offer in order to help guide the visitors’ steps. Then add short copy segments that quickly describe what is offered for each specific product. Even though the copy is scattered all about the page, the engines WILL find it.

When it comes to copy placement on your Web pages, don’t agonize over what the engines want you to do. Give 100% of your consideration to what would be most useful for your visitors and place your copy in those areas. The spiders will find it with no trouble at all.

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Before I do, however, I want to make a couple of things very clear. The outcome of this experiment will not be the same for every keyphrase on every page of every site. There are too many unknown factors at play in the overall SEO equation. Not to mention, all keyphrases are not the same, and all sites are not the same. In addition, this experiment takes no account of link popularity, which is a huge factor in achieving high rankings. With that said, let me show you how I took the home page of one of my sites – that didn’t even rank in the top 50 – and caused it to rank in the top 10.

First of all, I’m not a big fan of checking rankings on a regular basis. I don’t run ranking reports for all my sites to be sure they are all in the positions I want them in for every given keyphrase. I’ll do it from time to time just to satisfy my own occasional curiosity. This experiment began when I noticed the home page of one of my sites was ranking highly for a keyphrase that didn’t seem to appear anywhere in the text. Upon further investigation, I saw that the keyphrase was included in the ALT tags (a.k.a. image attribute tags) and that it was also included in the title tag.

I knew ALT tags previously carried a lot of weight with the engines, but had been downgraded in importance because site owners had badly abused the tag. Had ALT tags been reinstated in their level of importance? I decided to find out.

Keyword #1 was currently in the ALT tags and the title tag, so I decided to eliminate the keyword in the title tag. This would let me see if the ALT tags alone could hold the position in the search engine results pages (SERPs). To make things more interesting, I also decided to research and find a keyword that was a little more competitive and insert it into the title tag. On the same day I removed Keyword #1 from the title tag, I inserted Keyword #2. My home page was not ranked in the top 50 at that time for Keyword #2.

A few days later, the Googlebot came by and boosted my home page to position #18 for Keyword #2. Not bad! The page fell one spot (from #17 to #18) for Keyword #1 since the removal of the phrase from the title tag.

Keep in mind, these are not the most competitive keywords ever known. They each got between 100 to 200 searches a day. Also, the home page of this particular site had been (and still is) well ranked for years for other keyphrases and had a positive legacy with Google.

Five days later, Keyword #2 was moved up three notches to a ranking of #14 while Keyword #1 stayed the same. Things remained in their status quo for roughly 10 days and then began to shift again. Keyword #1, the original that was previously in both the ALT tags and the title tag, vanished completely. It was not found in the top 50. Keyword #2, that was only found in the title tag and nowhere else, dropped to position #25.

Four days later, Keyword #2 was back up in the rankings and was now at #16. To see if I could improve rankings further, I began to make small tweaks to the page attributes. I added Keyword #2 to the ALT tags (taking the places where Keyword #1 had once been), and I also added Keyword #2 to the body copy. The keyphrase was added to one, bold sub-headline and at three places within the body copy: none of which were above the fold. It was not added to any primary headlines that used tags, and no keyword density formula was followed for the body copy. No other pages on my site used this term as anchor text in links pointing to the home page. That gave the page keyword placement in the:

• Title tag

• ALT tags

• Body copy

Seven days later, the home page hit the top 10 for Keyword #2!

So, what does all this mean? Simple. There is no single primary factor in search engine rankings. It takes balance, testing and tracking to find out what works for your particular pages. Your best bet is to do exactly what I did… begin one step at a time and track your progress. Did something cause a positive movement? Keep it. If something causes a negative shift, take it out.

I’m not finished with this page yet. I’ll keep trying different things from time to time just to see what happens. Maybe I’ll add anchor text links from the internal pages to the home page. I might try writing articles with keyword-rich anchor text links to help boost the rankings more. There are many acceptable practices I can implement for this page (or any page) that will allow me to observe the shifts in ranking. As the old saying goes, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” A diversified approach to SEO copywriting that includes tags, copy and links is always a wise start down the road to top 10 rankings.

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A copywriting course can be found in many different places and in many different instructional formats. Some courses can be found online whereas others may be taught from videos and personal one-on-one interactions.

If you decide to enroll in a copywriting course, consider what you want to write. Web copywriting aims more towards online advertising whereas SEO articles are designed for companies that rely on internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization or Optimized. They are articles that have keywords or phrases written into the article. If you were to search for the terms “red dog leash collars” it would turn up specific ads or articles that contained those exact words.

When you find the specific copywriting course that suits your needs, check the course work. It should include instructions on how to write persuasive copy. Copywriting is exactly that: writing meant to draw the reader or watcher’s attention to whatever the business or company is promoting. Copywriting courses can also teach the fine art of dissuading articles. An example of these would be the anti-smoking ads that we read about in magazines, watch on television and even receive mailers on in our mailbox.

A good copywriting course offers the student the ability to interact with the instructors. This is very important. If you purchased an eBook or program, there should be a way to email or otherwise contact the author of the course. Often there are questions that cannot be answered just by reading the material. The point is not memorization, but gaining knowledge from the coursework so that it benefits you in practical application.

Advertising copywriting or SEO copywriting are always looking for fresh talent and an influx of new writers. A copywriting course can help you on your way to a new career path or simply help you refine your skills in your old career. The possibilities are endless for good copywriters. Companies need writers that can bring in new customers as well as maintain existing customers.

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The Rewrite

I really felt for the users of these chairs. They had back problems and medical issues, trying desperately to find relief. I can only imagine how it must feel to sit in pain all day, every day. And, after seeing so many false claims for other chairs, I could understand how they might be skeptical. So, after reading the new home page copy, I wanted the site visitors to have confidence, to see the difference in the Kneelsit chair and to understand the benefits this chair would offer.

Of course, those in chronic pain were not the only visitors to the Kneelsit site. While they were the primary segment, the audience also consisted of those with mild back pain, those with inconsistent problems or simple fatigue, and those who simply wanted a comfortable chair that wouldn’t contribute to any future back problems. The copy also needed to meet their needs and provide the information they were seeking.

You can see the revised copy here: .copywritingcourse.com/kneelsit-home-new.pdf.

The Headline

The original headline did, in fact, list benefits. It stated:

Superb Comfort, Perfect Posture, Gentle Movement, Natural Balance

However, only one of those benefits spoke to audience members… Superb Comfort. While posture may have been a secondary thought, gentle movement and natural balance didn’t strike a chord simply because of a lack of knowledge. As it happens, these two benefits are important, but the general population doesn’t understand what they mean. It would require educating the site visitors about these two before they would grasp their full meaning. That education couldn’t take place within the headline (not enough room!), so those two benefits needed to be removed.

The headline needed to evoke feelings of trust for the skeptical and a sense of stability for the hesitant. It also needed to provide an obvious benefit – one that would catch the reader’s attention.

Also, because it made sense to do so, I included one keyphrase in the headline. The new headline read:

Ergonomic Chair Design Based On Years Of Research Lets You

Sit For Hours With No Back Pain

The Opening Paragraph

The original copy started out just fine by naming some important benefits, but it didn’t back them up. After pointing out the relief of stress and pain, it went directly into an explanation about the chair’s patent.

The new copy took a cleaner path. It started by pointing out that others (users and professionals) liked the chair, and then it proceeded (in the next section) to explain why.

The original copy tried to educate readers about the importance of continuous movement and natural balance. There is nothing wrong with educating your customers; however, you need to give ample space to do that. Because the visitors had limited information about these two benefits on the home page, they may have been confused or – at the least – unpersuaded.

The new copy held firm on one feature: the swivel axel mechanism. It explained how this helped with customization of settings to fit every body type and more. With minimal education needed, the customer was able to understand that this one, patented feature offered multiple benefits.

Rather than simply listing shipping details for the close of the copy, the new version of the home page pointed out some additional benefits pertaining to quality and stylishness.

As I wrote, I looked for places to use the keyphrases chosen for this page. This was absolutely not a numbers game. My goal was not to use the keyphrases as often as I possibly could. That approach is not SEO copywriting, in my book.

Basing your copywriting strategy simply on the sheer volume of times you can include keyphrases makes the copy sound forced and ridiculous. In fact, on this home page, the keyphrases were only used a total of four or five times. Yet, to the amazement of some, the home page ranks in the top 10 (and often top five) for its chosen key terms.

The Results

Did it work? Did the changes bring out the results we wanted? They sure did! When asked about improved conversions, the owner of Kneelsit.com had this to say, “Our conversion rate has definitely improved since the rewrite… probably by around 35-40%!”

Sometimes, even though you may have included important information in your copy, it just doesn’t do what you hoped it would. Take the time to explore, experiment and test. Replace a headline. Rephrase a paragraph. Subtle changes can often make noticeable improvements in conversions and other areas of business.

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