How Does a Copywriter Get Pages to Rank Higher in SERPs? 

I often see business owners and CEOs writing their own website copy, especially during the startup era. After all, experienced writers are expensive, and most companies are self-funded or rely on limited capital to get off the ground.

At this stage, copywriting and content marketing are usually a struggle. 

Later in the game, as a business matures and more tasks are outsourced, company leaders bring on marketing copywriters.

From here, website landing pages and blog posts tend to start ranking right away (with seemingly little effort, of course — it’s almost unfair). 

So, do you have to wait until your business generates millions in ARR before you can rely less on paid ads and hire an expert to write SEO content?

Or, can you learn the fundamental skills that a marketing copywriter leverages to get your pages to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), starting today?

Let’s find out. 

Here’s what’s in store: 

• What is a Marketing Copywriter?
• What Does a Marketing Copywriter Do to Make Their Content Rank?
• How to Level Up Your Search Visibility Like a Professional Marketing Copywriter
  • 1. Hone Your Copywriting Skills
    • Learn the AIDA Approach
    • Hit Harder With The 4 Ps of Copywriting
  • 2. Learn to Use Targeted, Relevant Keywords
  • 3. Optimize Your Page & Post Titles
  • 4. Get Your Meta Descriptions in Check
  • 5. Only Publish Content That is Truly Helpful & Informative
    • Should You Use AI for Copywriting?
    • What Makes Content Truly Valuable?
  • 6. Speak to One Person: Your Target Customer or Client
    • How to Leverage Buyer Personas
  • 7. Learn to Properly Structure Your Content
  • 8. Don’t Forget the ALT Text
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Takeaway

Now, let’s get the ball rolling! 

What is a Marketing Copywriter? 

Marketing copywriters are professionals who write marketing materials like ads, brochures, and website content. They’re in it to craft a message that persuades the target audience to take a specific action: i.e. purchase a product, visit a web page, follow a social media account, or click a button. 

Above all, marketing copywriters need excellent writing skills. They need to craft compelling, persuasive messages, tailored to the needs and interests of their target audience. And, of course, they must have a grasp of marketing principles to analyze data and research to inform their writing. 

The core skills of a marketing copywriter include research, writing, persuasion, editing, communication, and creativity. Notwithstanding, they need the ability to adapt their writing style to meet the needs of different audiences, and across various platforms. 

While this skill set isn’t necessarily rare, it’s in high demand. According to Zippia’s freelance writer demographics report, there are only about 4.5K freelance copywriters in the U.S. While, according to records from Sitefly, there are over 133 million websites in the country. So, that means there’s about one freelance copywriter in America for every 30K websites. 

Of course, not every website has the expertise of a professional copywriter behind it. But, those that do tend to rank higher in SERPs and convert more website visitors. So, let’s find out what, exactly, makes professional copy more “rankable” so you can optimize your writing and stop getting left in the dust.     

What Does a Marketing Copywriter Do to Make Their Content Rank? 

For the purpose of this post, we’re talking about website copywriter skills, not necessarily ad or brochure writing (though, most of these actions should apply across all content distribution platforms) — And, there are more than a handful of facets of a writer’s job that go beyond proper grammar. 

In a nutshell, this is what a marketing copywriter does to make content rank in SERPs: 

• Targets the most relevant keywords
• Speaks to the right audience at the right time
• Writes high-quality, informative content
• Uses compelling language to guide readers  
• Leverages structured data appropriately
• Optimizes internal and external linking

A marketing copywriter who creates content with search marketing intent must combine their research and creative skills with SEO knowledge to fully optimize their work. 

Marketing copywriters, however, are not typically involved in the technical side of backlink building, which is often another crucial element of fully-optimized SEO efforts. That does not mean that a one-man band can’t get content to rank. In fact, I’ve written plenty of articles that ranked on page one within weeks, and without any backlinks at all. 

How to Level Up Your Search Visibility Like a Professional Marketing Copywriter

Below, let’s study the actions you can take to get your landing pages and blog posts on the map. By the time you’re done here, the idea is that you’ll be able to get your own website pages to rank so that you can generate unlimited leads and sell more of your products and services. 

1. Hone Your Copywriting Skills

Copywriting is an art, and you’ll need this skill above all others. We’ve touched on the six core copywriting skills, but let’s explore them a bit further. After that, we’ll find out how to put these skills into a marketing framework. 

1. Research – When it comes to writing great copy, you have to remember that you can’t just do a Google search, get an answer, and reword it to get your page ranked. You have to dig deep. Don’t be afraid to go the extra mile to get answers to your readers’ questions. Send emails, pick up the phone, attend workshops, and read in-depth reports. If you have insider info or exclusive data, look for ways to leverage it in a way that could be helpful to your readers. 
2. Writing – Most of us learned the basics of writing when we were in school. But, we weren’t necessarily writing for website landing pages and blog posts. So, you need to read other websites and blog posts often to truly hone your skills for digital platforms. And, be sure to get feedback on your work — make sure you ask people who aren’t going to lie just to make you feel good. The more you write, the better your writing will become. 
3. Persuasion – The ability to persuade can be sharpened over time. For starters, get familiar with a marketing framework (the next two sections will help). And, when it comes time to entice readers to take action, use action-oriented language like “buy,” “order,” “sign up,” and “download.”  
4. Editing – Every single piece of copy ever written has been revised at least once. Before you publish, read your work aloud. How does it sound? Verify any facts for accuracy. Make sure your language, style, and tone are consistent. You might end up cutting out 20% or more of your original content and that’s normal. Whether your writing skills are prolific or horrific, you can probably benefit from a grammar tool like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor (really, try them out — they’re invaluable).
5. Communication – Just because you’re writing doesn’t mean you’re effectively communicating. These two skill sets are complementary, not equal. Communication involves planning. Write with a goal in mind. Use a clear and concise style, but have fun experimenting. 
6. Creativity – Learn how to *competently* use metaphors, similes, and other figurative language. You might want to try writing prompts to get the creative juices flowing. Follow interesting copywriters on social media and subscribe to their newsletters for juicy tidbits, but don’t try to imitate them. Sometimes learning the most simple concept can have a major impact on your creativity.  

If you nurture yourself a bit in each of the above areas, you’ll be ready to move on to marketing concepts as they apply to copywriting. First, we’ll look at the classic AIDA formula. Then, we’ll learn the 4 Ps structure.   

Learn the AIDA Approach

AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It’s a traditional (though still relevant) marketing model that describes the steps a company or organization takes to engage and persuade a potential customer. 

The goal of AIDA, in this order, is to get the attention of the target audience, create interest in the product or service being offered, generate desire for the product or service, then encourage the viewer to take action. This system is often used in advertising like sales letters, email campaigns, and online advertising. The goal is to create a sense of urgency and convince the audience that a product or service being offered will meet their needs or satisfy their wishes. 

In most cases, the action in the AIDA framework represents a sales conversion. But, where website copywriting is concerned, this is often an action earlier in the funnel like signing up for a newsletter, clicking through a link, or following a social media account. 

Hit Harder With The 4 Ps of Copywriting

The 4 Ps are Promise, Picture, Proof, and Push. In copywriting, these elements build upon the AIDA framework to provide more expansive elements.   

• The Promise is the benefit that the product or service being offered will provide to the customer. It’s what the customer will gain by taking action. What assurance or guarantee can you make to your readers? 

If you hire me to write for you, I’ll buy you a beer sometime. 

• The Picture is the visualization of the product or service being used and the benefits it provides. It’s the mental image that the customer will have of using the product or service. What positive outcomes (not product features) will your readers envision as they read your copy?

Just imagine the sensation of the cold liquid sliding down your throat, and the refreshing flavor of hops and malt. 

• The Proof is the evidence that supports the claims being made about the product or service. This can include testimonials from satisfied customers, data and statistics, and any awards or certifications the product or service has received. How will you back up your claims? 

Last week, I sent my remote client a gift card to the best-rated brewery in his neighborhood. Now, he can either use it as an excuse to take a break next week or re-gift it when he forgets his brother-in-law’s birthday in March. 

• The Push is the call to action, or the instruction to the customer to take a specific action, such as clicking a link or filling out a form. How will you clearly and concisely lead the reader to the next step in your sales funnel? 

Request a quote today, and find out what it’s like to have expert, optimized content written for you… and beer.

Together, these elements aim to persuade the reader to take action toward the next stage in the sales funnel. 

2. Learn to Use Targeted, Relevant Keywords

Most professional copywriters use a keyword research tool to help them discover the most relevant keywords to use on a landing page or piece of content. Once the appropriate keywords are determined, the phrases need to be incorporated into the website’s content in a natural way that flows — when read aloud, it still needs to sound like a human is speaking. 

Large-budget content marketing campaigns can include keywords with higher competition while smaller marketing budgets usually involve keywords with lower competition. 

And there are two reasons why highly competitive keywords typically require more investment:  

1. The content itself must outshine the competition
2. Difficult keywords will require a backlink-building strategy

There are a ton of authorities out there teaching SEO strategies, including keyword research. I recommend one of the following (all of which offer free and paid tools you can use to get the job done). 

• Ahrefs blog
• Moz blog
• SEMRush blog 

For beginners, I recommend Google’s Keyword planner. This tool is designed for Google Ads but has been trusted by content creators for a decade (it first launched in 2013).

With Keyword Planner, you can either enter some general terms about your business or product offer or search for new keywords based on your website’s URL. 

Look for the most relevant keyword search phrases with the highest search volume and the lowest competition. 

For an intermediate or advanced strategy that requires more detailed research, I recommend Ahrefs’ SEO tools. Their lowest tier monthly plan is $99 — this might seem steep, but it is worth the price tag if you make use of the platform features. 

With Ahrefs, you can get more comprehensive data about search phrases than Keyword Planner delivers: a more precise amount of monthly searches per month, the number of backlinks you are likely to need in order to rank, and related phrases to target (among other data). 

Pro Tip: It’s best if you actually read all of the existing content that’s already ranking for a specific search phrase, and make sure you can write something way better before you proceed. 

3. Optimize Your Page & Post Titles

After you have your target keyword selected, you’ll need a title. Keep in mind that page titles show in search snippets, so they should be a certain length to be optimized. 

Google snippets cut-off titles at around 60 characters. So, any titles between 50 and 60 characters will be in full view. 

The above example from Moz is actually 55 characters in length, with room for their brand name at the end of the title. 

With that said, this isn’t a hard, black-and-white rule.  you can write longer titles. And, sometimes an abrupt cutoff leaves readers wanting to learn more — it’s basic psychology. 

In the below example, the title is cut off but might leave searchers wondering ‘how to keep your inventory levels what?’ thereby (hopefully) increasing the click-through rate. 

Now, in the case that you use this tactic, be sure to front-load your target keywords. If you publish a page or post with a title of 65+ characters, make sure your target search phrase is included within the first 60 characters. In the image above, the target phrase was “Shopify purchase orders,” and I placed these words at the very beginning of the headline. 

Keywords, title length, and front-loading aren’t the only elements that help optimize a headline. You also need emotional value, a mix of common and unusual words, relevance, and clarity.  

I’ve found that by using content tools frequently, I learn and integrate new concepts into my writing to improve it over time. 

There are a ton of topic generators and headline optimization tools that might help you craft the perfect title. Without going too deep into them, I’ll share a short list of my favorites. 

• Hubspot’s Blog Ideas Generator
• Portent’s Content Idea Generator
• Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer 
• AM Institute’s Emotional Value Calculator

I recommend that you try these out and search for new tools to find out which one(s) you find most useful. Different strokes for different folks, you know? 

4. Get Your Meta Descriptions in Check

Meta descriptions are often used by search engines as text snippets that appear in search results. A marketing copywriter will craft compelling descriptions with the goal of getting them to click through the title and read the content. 

Meta descriptions should be between 150-160 characters, and they should leave the reader wanting to learn more. 

Here are some general rules of thumb for meta descriptions: 

• Write a unique meta description for each page of your website
• Include information that is relevant to the content
• Use actionable language when relevant and helpful 
• Speak to the reader (use “you” in place of “they,” “people,” etc.) when it fits
• Incorporate your focus keyword(s) only once 

Google recommends that you “programmatically” generate meta descriptions. In this case, they are speaking to large websites with database-driven content as opposed to handwritten content. If you’re going to aggregate content, then you can set meta description generation on autopilot with a system that pulls from a certain area of your content. 

Otherwise, a simple sentence describing the content is easy, and handwritten meta descriptions are recommended.    

Now, if you do not write meta descriptions for every page of your website, Google will pull from the area of your page or post that they think is most relevant. And, they’re pretty good at this. In some cases, Google will even override a handwritten meta description in place of a more relevant excerpt from the page. 

In short, meta descriptions give you an opportunity to try to show search traffic exactly what you want them to see, and you should take advantage of it. 

5. Only Publish Content That is Truly Helpful & Informative

Google and other search engines want to provide their users with the most relevant and helpful results. A marketing copywriter can help create content that is informative, well-written, and valuable to the reader.

In some cases, top search results show web pages that are less than helpful, but rest assured that Google and other search engines will always be on the lookout for new content that provides more value. So, if you are able to rank a low-quality page or post, it won’t be long until someone else comes along and claims your place in SERPs. 

Should You Use AI for Copywriting?

Here, we should probably take a look at the subject of AI. There are a ton of tools out there that tempt people to generate copy for their websites. In the past, I’ve seen renowned copywriters touting the benefits of certain copy and content generators. And, most recently, Chat GPT has been getting hammered by writers who might be fearful that clients are going to try to use it to replace them. 

I’ve seen reels that had writers asking the tool to make their copy funnier. It couldn’t do it. 

A few days ago, Ashley Kimler decided to ask Chat GPT what it thought about whether you should use AI to write your website copy. As she reported, straight from the horse’s mouth: No. You shouldn’t. 

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A post shared by Ashley Kimler | Copywriter (@ashley.jaray)

This isn’t to say that you should never use AI to help you brainstorm or come up with new ideas. In fact, if you find it helpful, you should. There are a ton of tools out there that can help you spark ideas and maybe even come up with a great slogan or tagline for your business. 

Hell, there are whole companies built on AI-generated business names and ideas — these tools are great. But, the information they deliver can be inaccurate, outdated, or inadvertently plagiarized. So, copywriting still requires a human touch (and, it probably always will). 

What Makes Content Truly Valuable?

I already mentioned that you need to go beyond Google searches to find your information. But, what does that mean, exactly? 

First, let’s say you’re writing a product review — this could be for anything from a household item to a piece of software. You can always browse the brand’s website and write about the features as they’re advertised. But, what good is that when your readers can do the same thing themselves? 

Instead of rehashing what’s already been written, and trying to say it in a new, flashy way, test out the experience yourself and share honest insights. 

Definitely read existing reviews to find out what others think, but find out if you agree before you commit to a thought. Purchase the product and take advantage of the free trial. Then, share your experience. 

Next, Statistics are a great way to help you prove a point. In fact, 83% of top-ranking content includes statistics. Okay, that’s a lie (I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself).

Honestly, you should use statistics in your content. But, don’t just share statistics with no insights. Instead, share your thoughts about the statistics you mention and explain what they mean to you. 

Finally, if you see that Google surfers are looking for an answer to a question that’s relevant to the topic you’re writing about (see the People also ask section on SERPs pages), and you can’t find the correct answer, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call or shoot an email over to someone who knows. Think more like a journalist. 

And, if your honest efforts fall short, consider telling your readers that you tried to find the answer they were looking for, but couldn’t get through to the right person. 

6. Speak to One Person: Your Target Customer or Client

When you write, write as if you’re speaking directly to your target customer or client, one-on-one to highlight the benefits of taking the next action in your funnel. 

To illustrate, let’s look at a statement that might be used on a website landing page with a free ebook download offer: 

• “Free ebook download: Effective writing for web content.” 

How would that statement sound coming out of your mouth if you were looking at the reader, face-to-face? Read it again if you have to. 

Sounds weird, right? 

So, write as if you were talking to one person, standing in a room with you (be sure to highlight the outcomes — not the features): 

• “Learn to write effective web content for a fair chance to rank in SERPs.”   

Here, you can see the monumental difference between talking about your offer and highlighting the outcomes and benefits. 

Of course, not everyone would benefit from an ebook about writing for the web. But, someone trying to figure out how to increase their search rankings might. Notice that the second example above offers a solution to that pain point — this poses a new question: 

How do you know what problems your target audience faces? The answer lies in the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal… 

How to Leverage Buyer Personas 

If you want to communicate effectively to your target audience, you need to first get to know them so that you can provide solutions to their problems. Since you can’t interview everyone in your target market, you need organized research to help you empathize with them. 

Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on market research and real data about a target market or existing customers. They can help you understand your customers better and make informed decisions about marketing (copywriting), product development, and sales efforts.

A buyer persona should include demographics, goals and motivations, pain points and challenges, factors that influence purchase decisions, a preferred method of communication, and objections to purchasing. 

Here’s an example of a buyer persona:

There are several ways to gather data to create detailed buyer personas:

1. Conduct market research – Data collection methods might include online surveys, focus groups, and interviews with potential customers to gather information about their needs, challenges, and goals.
2. Analyze your existing customer data – If you collect data about your customers, look at the information you have about demographics, purchasing behavior, and feedback to get a better understanding of your current customers.
3. Conduct customer interviews – One-on-one interviews with customers can be a great way to gather in-depth information about their needs and challenges. What’s awesome about this, is that you can get a feel for the actual language people use, and this can be invaluable when it comes time to write marketing materials. 
4. Take advantage of social media & online reviews – Monitor social media and review sites like Trustpilot and BBB to see what customers are saying about your business, competitors, and the industry as a whole.
5. Research your competitors – Look at what your competitors are doing and how they are positioning themselves in the market to get a better understanding of your target audience. What language do they seem to be using? Is it effective? And, have they shared any of their own customer insights you may be able to leverage? 
6. Request employee insights – Your employees may have valuable insights into your customers, based on their interactions with them. Consider gathering input from customer-facing teams. Sales and customer service teams can be a treasure trove of insights.

You probably have a whip hand if you used to be your target customer. Many successful founders are in their positions because they filled holes in everyday work processes or solved common problems in their industry. While this is helpful, don’t take for granted that everyone feels and thinks the same way you do.  

7. Learn to Properly Structure Your Content

Website structure might seem basic, but there are a handful of core ideas worth a mention.  

First, use header tags appropriately to help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy. 

• H1 tags should be used once, to highlight the main idea of a page or post. 
• H2 and H3 tags should be used to format subheadings throughout the content. 
• If you need further structure and hierarchy for content within your subheadings, use H4, H5, and H6 tags. 

Next, bulleted lists and numbers should be used to break apart content and structure it in a way that makes it easy to read and skim through. According to Optinmonster’s 2022 blogging statistics, 43% of website visitors scan rather than read pages and blog posts. 

You need to make sure your main points are highlighted to help visitors to stay on your pages long enough to actually learn something — Bulleted and numbered lists can help you achieve this. 

After that, use images. For one, blog posts with images are viewed 94% more than those without (also courtesy of Optinmonster). Second, images also serve to break apart content in areas where it may otherwise be too text-heavy — they’re a crucial element for content engagement. 

Then, consider other schema types. One of my favorites are FAQs, which help 1) serve the reader by making answers to common questions easily accessible, 2) enhance search snippets and, in turn, click-through rates (CTRs), by including some answers directly on SERPs, and 3) provide internal linking opportunities to other pages on your site that might provide more in-depth answers. 

To give individual questions and answers the chance to appear in search snippets, add FAQ schema markup where appropriate. 

Finally, when it would help you tell your story or make your point, you might embed multimedia content like videos, gifs, quizzes, tools, and social media posts. These elements can appear in search results, and they can make your content more fun to read. 

8. Don’t Forget the ALT Text 

ALT text describes the content of an image on a webpage — It is displayed in place of the image if the image can’t be displayed, such as if the user is using a screen reader, the image file can’t be found, or a browser is running with images disabled.

Using ALT text is especially helpful for people who are blind or have low vision because it allows them to understand the content of the page even if they can’t see the images. 

It is also useful for users who are on a slow internet connection and have images turned off in their browser, as it allows them to still wrap their heads around the basic content of the page.

In addition to providing a better user experience for people with disabilities, using ALT text can also help improve the search engine optimization (SEO) of your website. Search engines use the ALT text to understand the content of the images on your site, which can help improve the ranking of your pages in search results.

To use ALT text on a website, you need to add the alt attribute to an HTML image tag. The value of the alt attribute should be a short, descriptive text that describes the content of the image. For example:

<img src=”image.jpg” alt=”A beautiful landscape”>

In most content management systems, ALT text entry is built-in. To add, just add a description of your image in the space provided. In WordPress, you can find this in your media viewer as well as in the “block” tab of your editor when you highlight or click any image. 

ALT text should be relevant and descriptive. If you use related target search phrases when it makes sense, this can help improve your search rankings. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Final Takeaway

A marketing copywriter, in essence, writes promotional content for businesses. But, it’s not that simple. There’s a gamut of skills they need, when writing for the web, to make their content rank in SERPS. If you want your content to rank like a pro, there are some steps you’re gonna need to take. 

First, nurture your copywriting skills, use targeted and relevant keywords, optimize your page and post titles, and get your meta descriptions in order. These skills are technical but straightforward. 

Next, only publish content that is truly helpful and informative, and speak to your target customer or client using the info you gather from buyer personas and research. Keep in mind, proper content structure and the use of ALT text are crucial if you want your writing to get picked up by search engines. 

Finally, while it is possible to use AI for copywriting, it is ultimately the value and authenticity of the content that makes it truly engaging. So, please, use AI sparingly.

This is a summary of everything I would want to know if I were launching my first content campaign. So, if you’re going at it alone, start your journey by implementing the advice here and keep learning. 

If you’re ready to skip the part where you learn a whole new skill set, and instead work with a pro who already knows how to write content that can get your web pages ranked in SERPs, request a quote from Jensen Copy today.