English language elements
Choose the Apt words for copywriting/Editing
It is a fact that you undertake some research before you write about a topic, and there are exceptions on those who are experts on the subject. We may not be the first person to have a say about any issue. Many people may perhaps discussed and had written articles on the same subject but in different headlines and point of views. After reading numerous articles there are chances for you to get influenced and replicate the same and some of you seek help from thesaurus to find alternative words and phrases. Those who are good in writing could reproduce an article efficiently by adding some more points to make the outcome better. Inexpert will use synonyms which have similar meaning with respect to the word, but it may not always do justice to the context as a whole.
Looking up words in the thesaurus greatly enhances the formality of your writing provided you use the words correctly and suitably.
These are the common errors which people confuse always.
For E.g., She got good marks for the board exam. Instead of “got” we could use secured, obtained, received, achieved, attained etc , but the apt word matching the context will be ‘achieved” which gives importance to the context.
Choosing the right word to express the idea and also making it more interesting to the readers is vital. Words are used as verb and noun and at times people muddle up both.
For. E.g.
- Advice & Advise:
Advice is a noun, something that you give. Say, “Please give me some advice.”
Advise is a verb, something that you do. It is some action. Say, “Please advise me.”
- Affect and Effect:
Both are used as Nouns and Verbs
As nouns, they possess different meaning. Affect is affection, related to emotion. Effect is the result.
As verbs, they change. To affect some thing is to have some influence upon it. To effect some action is to cause it to happen.
- Fewer and Less:
The traditional rule is to use “fewer” with things that can be counted and “less” for measuring. ”
E.g,
There is less cheese on this plate.
There are fewer pieces of cheese on this plate
- “Because of” and “Due To”
Another mistake we tend to make is the usage of “Because of” and “Due to” thinking that both of the pairs refer to the same thing, and that they can be used as synonyms. This is an absolute misconception according to English grammar rules but in modern English both can be used interchangeably.
“Due to” is an adjective, so it can only modify nouns and pronouns according to the English grammar rules.
“Because of” is an adverb, which can only modify verbs, adjectives and clauses.
It is generally advised and considered wrong by experts to use “Due to” in the beginning of the sentence whereas “Because of” can be used.
E.g, Because you helped me, I am going to repay you.
Because I love you, I shall do that for you.
The essentials of Good Writing
An SEO Copywriter has to impress both the reader as well as the search engines. You may generate wonderful content, but it may not hit your target unless you use apt words and phrases that are relevant and attractive to your users or potential customers.
One should always give importance to the language elements while preparing content. Colloquialism has invaded English language. It is advisable not to use colloquial terms in SEO copywriting.
- Word choice is very important, For e.g. In informal writing we use words such as “kid”, ‘how come”, ‘quote’ etc meanwhile in formal writing we use ‘child’, ‘why’ and ‘quotations’ respectively. An informal style may make listeners feel more comfortable when you are speaking, but a formal writing style can make a good impression. Please pay attention in selecting words to convey your message. For e.g. use ‘adorable’ instead of ‘cute’, ‘film’ (movie), pretty (fair).
- It is also very important to avoid contractions in formal writing, for eg Use ‘Cannot’ instead of can’t.
- In formal writing, the pronoun “I” is replaced by the pronoun “We” and this is known as the royal we or editorial we. The pronoun “You” is generally avoided in formal writing when it refers to people in general.
Eg; You should sleep eight hours each night. (Informal)
One should sleep eight hours each night. (Formal)
- Avoid starting a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. In the written language, coordinating conjunctions such as “and,” “but,” “so,” or “or” are meant to join words, phrases, and clauses. Develop short, choppy sentences into longer, more graceful sentences with conjunctions. Formal writing generally uses longer sentences, which add variety to your writing and can be effective when paired with short sentences; the contrast grabs the readers’ attention.
How to write headlines that work well
In copywriting, headline is the first and perhaps only impression you make on a prospective reader. Without the interesting title it will not turn the browser in to reader. Headlines are the key to everything pretty much, getting and grabbing the reader’s attention. Headlines are very important as well when coming down to Google Adwords and creating the customers interest to click and read more.
Things to be considered while developing headlines-
- Decide on the tone you will use in your article and the same should reflect in your headline.
- Develop the headline based on your article i.e. if the article is technical then develop more structured headline.
- Headline that you develop should offer the overview of the article which means it should offer good idea of what the article contains to the readers and make them to read the rest of article.
- Make sure headline is not too long. It should be short and simple.
- Headline should always be easily understandable.
Copywriting headlines can be of any of the following type according to the necessity-
- Direct headlines are very straight forward. They tell what the article is all about.
- Indirect headlines take a very indirect approach. They develop curiosity in the readers mind to know what the content is all about. These types of headlines are more useful in online as they produce double meaning.
- A news headline is self explanatory. A product announcement or an improved version is the basis of a compelling news headline.
- Question headline is nothing but simply asking a question. This type of headline again develops curiosity among the reader to know the answer of the question.
- Command headline tells the prospect as what he is supposed to do.
- Last but not the least; testimonial headline is highly effective because it present proof that you offer great value. These entails taking what someone else has said about you, your product or service and use their actual words in the headline.
This is how your headline needs to be in order to attract the reader to read your article. And by this you will even increase traffic to your site that is again a vote to your site.
Learn to be a better Article Marketer
Solve a problem
If your headline tells a browsing reader that your article solves a problem for someone, they’ll be eager to read your article. Do what you say you’ll do by writing content that matches the headline.
Follow a pro
If you’re in the beginning stages of article marketing, find a guru to follow and mimic what they do. Don’t plagiarise, of course but look at their strategies and the way they write not just their headlines and copy but the way they summarise and how they outline their resources box or byline. If you don’t know how to find a guru, check out a site like ezinearticles.com and read lots of articles in your niche. When you find a style you like, read everything you can by that author and dissect their articles to find out why they’re compelling and how you can learn from the writing style.
The power of social marketing
Once the article is out there, use some social marketing tools to help it go viral. Ping it, blog about it, microblog about it, Digg it, Stumble it and see your sales soar.
Key Words In Searches
Keyword Density and Keyword Positioning
By repeating your important keyword, your increase the prominence of those words to the search engines. This will help the search engines to identify your target keyword and rank the web page accordingly.
However, there is a penalty if you keyword stuff or use the same keyword too many times in an unnatural way.
Instead, use words with similar meaning – just like when you write naturally. Search engines are smart enough to recognise words with similar meaning and variations such as man, men, male, boy, boys, masculine and etc.
In each page, focus on one or two keywords but not more than three keywords so that it is apparent to the search engine what your page is about.
Keyword Positioning
As much as possible, use the keyword or keyphrase in the heading of the page, in the first sentence of the first paragraph and near the bottom of the page.
As a rule of thumb, your most important keywords – the exact phrase should not be repeated for more than 2% of the total word count. If you have a 500 words page, keep the keywords count to less than 10 times.
Use Phrases and Be Specific when writing SEO copy
Make use of phrases
This advice goes especially for web writers, because there is much of competition for single keywords. If you are a product seller for “Mobiles” don’t just target “Mobiles” as your fundamental keyword. Go to major search engines and search for Mobiles, you will see that people are becoming more search-savvy and are search for specific strings. Today people know that by becoming more specific about what they are looking for can actually get them what they want. Know what is unique about your product, may be you are expert in selling second hand mobile phones then make “second hand mobile phones” as your primary keyword.
Don’t simply say “our mobiles”. Wherever you could usually say “our mobiles”, ask yourself if you could escape with saying “our cheap second hand mobiles” or “our cheap second hand cell phones”. If it would not affect your readability too poorly, may be it’s worth going for. It’s a great balance though. Keep in mind, your website imitates the excellence of your own service. If your website is unreadable, people would deduce a lot about your offered service.
Idea Keyword Density for Each 300-word Article
Put your important keyword in the title of the article. While it is not specific whether spiders begin scanning a page from top to end or vice versa, it is the title, which states what your piece of writing is all about. It is simply natural to put your chief keyword there.
If you arrange your article into three parts (introduction, body, end), put your keyword formerly in the first part, twice or thrice if likely in the body, and once in the last section.
Sometimes if you pursue the main keyword density percentage, your content might also look like a spam or sound too abnormal. Although a good SEO copywriter could efficiently incorporate such a number of keywords into the copy, there would forever be a boundary to the amount of originality that he could use.
Know your main keywords and make your article around it. Do not forget to generate a balance between the number of keywords and the wide-ranging readability (by humans) of your article.
Good grammar is essential when writing web copy
Most of the cases, writers use to come up with errors. In certain circumstances small errors are acceptable, but the whole article seems to be error then the content will be declined. It is the obligation of the SEO copywriter to correct the mistakes, grammatical errors, punctuation marks and standard and so on. Quality always matters and it enhances the reputation of writer among the user. Reliable information must be provided with good grammar.
Become Credible by offering good grammar
By using good grammar you can make your copy writing or any other kind of writing appealing to your reader, which is your ultimate goal. It would as well make the reader think that you know what you’re conveying about or at least more than if your writing is besieged with errors. You need to be alert on not making any grammar and spelling mistakes. Actually, you should know that making grammatical errors displays any one of these two things – Ignorance or laziness. If you think you are a good writer then neither should be the excuse for you. It becomes your duty to correct the errors available on your copy. And understand it is your job to proofread your written work.
Any language is more elegant, stunning, and readable when it moves by the rules of grammar, practice, and method. As each one of these is evenly important, ignorance of grammar makes it all useless. Proper grammar allows you to distribute content online or offline with great publishers. To sum up, grammar allows the reader know how determined you are about delivering your message via your writing. It tests your insistence and displays your motivation to work and study. The more grammatically sound your writing is, the more expert it would be.