Including keywords in your web copy can be a delicate balancing act: too few and you’re invisible to search engines, too many and you get thrown straight in the spam bin. Add to this the fact that with any given website there are hundreds of keyword possibilities, and it’s no wonder you want to reach for the headache tablets!

Start with the message you want your web copy to convey.  Which words and phrases immediately spring to mind? Remember to keep your audience in mind: how would they describe your products and services?

Once you have your list, you need to check which keywords people are looking for. Google has a fantastic tool, free to use, which gives up-to-date search statistics. Often small changes in keywords can make a huge difference – ‘child’ vs ‘children’, for example. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring localities: many people run localised searches, e.g. “children’s nursery Ipswich”, and it’s the websites that have included local place names in their copy that are going to be displayed in these search results.

If you have website analytics, these will also help you identify which keywords are working for you. Although they won’t help you develop new ones, knowing what has worked previously can help you move forward and build on your existing success.

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How can you successfully communicate your brand’s message to your website’s visitors? Here are 8 ways:

1)    Your web writing needs to spell out why people should buy from you and not your competitors: we live in a world of similar businesses with similar prices targeting similar customers. Tell people why they should bother to buy from you.

2)    Highlight all the customer benefits of what’s on offer as well as a clear explanation of the product or service. Don’t go overboard on technicalities: you only need to tell people enough to get them interested and motivate them to take action; you don’t need to educate them about every single detail straightaway.

3)    Weave your keywords into the text (and especially into your headings) to improve your chances of a good search engine ranking.

4)    Structure your text so the main points are put across even to people who initially scan your website copy, rather than read it in detail. Use headings and formatting with this in mind.

5)    Write to your customers, not just about the product or service.

6)    Put your message forward in clear, concise English – no jargon or corporate-speak.

7)    Drop ‘teasers’, ‘tasters’ and ‘soundbites’ into your web writing to stir up the desire in your visitors to know more about what you can do for them.

8)    Make sure your copywriting is crafted in keeping with the graphic design and layout of your website.

PPC management agencies have gone back to the drawing board when it comes to keyword analysis. They are noticing a shift in the keywords that are driving consumer online spending habits.

Siddharth Shah of Efficient Frontier, for example, has noticed that loans and lending related keywords are not performing very well in the current economic climate, even though keywords such as “credit,” “lending” and “mortgage” have seen a huge jump in impression volume.

More searches and more traffic does not necessarily lead to more sales, of course – as we’re always telling our own clients! In fact, a large number of impressions and clicks without the subsequent conversions spell very bad news for organisations relying on PPC to drive enquiries and sales, because every ad that a user clicks on costs the organisation money. More consumers may be searching for financial information simply because the topic is high profile, rather than because they are interested – or qualified – to purchase a financial product.

So, which popular keywords are resulting in sales? According to Shah, the travel industry has seen a spike in search volumes for “cheap” and “discount” related keywords – these are increasing their impression volume and monetizing well. Keywords associated with more luxurious travel (e.g. “cruise” and “hotel”) are producing a lower conversion rate than they were last year. Furthermore, the “hotel” searches included several thousand combinations of hotel with location names and hotel brand names. Shah told Search Engine Land: “This indicates a shift in consumer thought patterns. People are less brand focused, and more value conscious. Clearly frugality is in.”