SEO Checklist: How to Write Compelling Landing Page Copy
Writing SEO content is both time-consuming and research-intensive, and it requires a knack for communication if it’s to be reader-friendly for both Google’s bots and your target audience.
The thing is, you can’t just write whatever comes to mind—there are rules you need to follow if you want your text to climb the search engines’ organic rankings.
If you've never written an SEO text before, this is the place to start. I've compiled all the guidelines and tools I use myself into this SEO checklist.
This checklist focuses solely on the actual writing process. If you’d like more tips on effective digital writing, I recommend checking out these two blog posts (once you’re done with this one):
→ 15 Practical Tips for Writing a (Good) Landing Page
→ 5 Pitfalls to Avoid as a Copywriter
Buckle up—here comes the checklist! I recommend reading the whole thing, but if you're looking for answers to specific questions, there are shortcuts to the different sections here.
- Last updated:
My SEO Checklist for High-Conversion Landing Pages
1. Do you have your keyword under control?
Each landing page should have a keywordthat helps Google determine what the content is about. It’s up to you to choose the keyword, but you need to be consistent once you’ve chosen it.
The keyword must be strategically incorporated into the structure of the text on each individual landing page:
→ In the URL
→ In H1
→ In H2 (at least one)
→ In the first paragraph (and preferably the first line)
→ In the body of the text (you can use too much or too little of it)
Your keyword is the angle of your content, and depending on your keyword and content strategy (in terms of, for example, search volume and competition), it can be formulated broadly or narrowly.
Example
- Rye bread → broad keyword
- Gluten-free rye bread → narrow keyword (long-tail)
But how do you actually use the keyword in practice when you need to use it strategically on a landing page? Let’s revisit the example of gluten-free rye bread:
→ URL:www.rugbroedsopskrifter.dk/glutenfrit-rugbroed*
→ H1: Recipe for Delicious,Gluten-Free Rye Bread
→ H2: That's WhyGluten-Free Rye BreadIs Good
→ In the first paragraph: Use the keyword as early as possible in the text, preferably in the first line.
→ In the body text: The optimal frequency of the keyword depends on the length of the text. Use the keyword two to three times per H2 heading, or use tools like Yoast for guidance.
* Remember not to use æ, ø, or å in the URL—it’s frowned upon.
2. Did you remember the H's?
Headings and subheadings on your page must be properly tagged as H1 and H2—it’snotenough to simply style* them. I can’t stress this enough.
Each landing page has only one H1—that is, the headline. In news media, this is called a headline, and Google gets confused about the page’s message if there is more than one H1. For logical reasons, your H1 should also be at the top of the landing page.
H2s can be thought of as subheadings (or intermediate headings, if you’re familiar with media jargon).A landing page can certainly have multiple H2s.
On each individual landing page, the H1 and H2 tags must not be the same—and in fact, you should avoid using the same main and subheadings across the entire site if at all possible.Most importantly, however, you must not duplicate H1 tags.
* Formatting text can involve making itbold,italic, underlined, large, or small. When you create a headline, it’s not enough to choose font size 38 and make the text bold (visually, that is—not figuratively). A headlineMUSTbe tagged as an H1; otherwise, Google won’t know it’s a headline.
SEE ALSO:Our Complete SEO Guide
3. Have you answered the most common questions?
We search on Google to find answers—butdo you know what search combinations people use with your chosen keyword?
It’s important for you to know this. You’re more likely to write a comprehensive and relevant text if you include the answers to the most obvious questions.
A great (and free) tool that I use all the time is Answer the Public. Here, you can enter your search term (remember to select your country and language before searching) and get a series of visualizations showing the long-tail search queries people use. It might look something like this:
Here you can see that people often search for terms like “with/without seeds,” “yeast,” or “sourdough,” so it makes sense to include these in your text. This could be in the form of recipes, recommendations, or personal experiences with one, two, or all three.
It also makes sense to use this insight to pose a question in an H2 heading, which is then answered in the text.
Example
H2: Is yeast or sourdough best for gluten-free rye bread? → The main text in this section should answer the question posed in H2.
4. Is the text long enough?
When Google crawls your text, it looks at several factors, including its length: whether it is long enough to provide in-depth knowledge on a topic.
A rule of thumb in SEO circles is a minimum of 300 words, and many would consider a landing page text of that length to be on the very short side.
However, I’d like to challenge that dogma, because it’s not just very long and thoroughly comprehensive landing pages that end up ranking number one in search engines.
If your text ends up being longer than 600–700 words (or more), that's perfectly fine as long as you stick to a single angle.
If you’re covering too many topics, it’s better to create several different landing pages with a more focused angle—that way, there’s also a better chance that the right people will end up on your site.
5. Is the readability top-notch?
The layout of the text on a landing page is anything but unimportant. Readability is what ensures a natural flow and that the text is read all the way through.
But how do you make a digital text easy to read?
In short: With a sense of space and eye-catching elements.
Air is vital because no one can make sense of what is known in English as a “wall of text”: a wall of dense and overwhelming information that never ends. You want to avoid that at all costs, because it causes the reader to give up.
The eye-catcher should pique the reader’s curiosity and give the eye a break from the text, which can quickly become tedious to look at. As a reader, you should be lured along with tempting breadcrumbs, just like in *Hansel and Gretel*, until you reach the end of the text.
“Could you maybe give some examples of what you mean?” you might be thinking. And yes—of course!
Tips for creating more space and visual interest, listed in no particular order:
→ Use double line breaks to break your text down into small, bite-sized pieces of information. You can always take one more bite (both figuratively and when you’re enjoying a delicious meal). Munch, munch, munch.
→ Keep it short and to the point. The longer a sentence is, the harder it is to read. So be careful with embedded clauses and convoluted explanations. A good rule of thumb is that a sentence should ideally be less than 20 words.
→ Never settle for H2s! Use your subheadings to ask questions or make a point that will be elaborated on in the section. When skimming a text, readers use the highlighted text and headings to find the relevant information.
→ Keep paragraphs short. A paragraph is the text that goes with an H2 heading. Keep it to the point and provide the reader with answers or information. A paragraph should not be longer than 150 words.
→ Make use of videos, images, and graphics—they drive engagement and break up the text visually. They also provide an opportunity to add an extra layer of information that might be complicated or tedious to explain in writing. Furthermore, images and videos are factors that Google considers in its rankings, so they’re a low-hanging fruit in every sense.
→ Lists (!!!) are a brilliant technique. They’re a more organized way to present information, and they catch the eye. Plus, search engines like lists, too. Win-win-win.
→ Use formatting to highlight key points. As I mentioned earlier, you should never use formatting to create headings (because Google’s bots can’t read it—they look for H1 and H2 tags instead). But feel free to go all out in your body text, since formatting catches the eye and emphasizes important information.
→ Remember to check the mobile view before publishing. Text is much easier to read on a computer screen than on a mobile device. That’s why you mustn’t commit mortal sin #1 by forgetting to check how your text layout looks on mobile. Create a preview and make sure your landing page is also easy to read on small screens.
TIP ↓
Of course, you shouldn't manually count the words in sentences and paragraphs. Work smarter, not harder, and use software tools to help you get a better grasp of the text.
For example, I use Yoast myself. It checks the text and offers recommendations for improvements (or gives the green light when everything is in order).
6. Have you written to people or robots?
There was a time when you could hardly use your keyword enough, but fortunately, Google understands more now. Today, you need to remember to use synonyms and related words in your text. This is also known as semantic SEO.
The latest BERT update allows the search engine to better understand the language behind a search, so fortunately, those odd, staccato-style headlines are on their way out.
If you run a driving school in Copenhagen, in the “old days” you would have given it a title identical to the keyword phrase—for example, “driving school Copenhagen.”
But that's a strange headline! You wouldn't shout that out the window at passersby to draw attention to your business, would you?
A better headline for your landing page could be: “Copenhagen’s Best Driving School.” It’s a complete sentence, and even though people might be confused that you’re shouting it out the window, they’ll have no doubt about the message.
In short: Write proper sentences and avoid overusing your keyword. Your text is for people, and the robots understand that just fine.
7) Did you remember the details?
As we all know, the devil is in the details, and failing to fill out your meta description, meta title, and set up internal linking can affect your organic ranking.
Your meta title and meta description are what appear in Google when your landing page shows up in a search result.
It's also called a SERP snippet (which stands for Search Engine Results Page), and if you don't fill it in yourself, Google will do it automatically by pulling text from the landing page.
The automatically generated text doesn't always provide the best overview (or capture the reader's attention).
If you fill it out yourself, you can make your meta title and description stand out by using active verbs, the imperative mood, and a call to action (CTA). I personally use Storybase to help me ensure that I write content that’s engaging and clickable.
The tool awards points based on how good the text is. I’ve used it myself for this blog post (and, of course, I didn’t stop until I had a catchy SERP snippet and a score of 100).
Internal link building is most often done using anchor text or as references outside the body text.
Anchor text is a link that is “invisibly” embedded in a word or phrase. That way, you don’t see the long, boring URL. Usually, the text is given a different color or style than the rest, so the reader is aware that there is a link.
Internal link building helps users stay on your website, and it also shows Google how much relevant and related content you have on your site. It’s both good customer service and good SEO.
Don't lose heart—just go for it!
As you can see, there are really (pronounced “ræddi” on Funen, where I’m from) a lot of things to keep in mind when writing SEO- and reader-friendly text.
If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed and think that getting started with SEO right now is completely out of the question, keep this in mind:
- Rules are meant to be broken. No one knows with 100 percent certainty what Google uses to rank landing pages. There are hundreds of metrics we know they measure—but never trust anyone who claims to have found the holy grail.
- The great thing about SEO is that your work is never done and there’s always room for improvement. You can experiment and tweak the text, headings, formatting, and layout until you get it just right.
- If writing content and search engine optimization don't come naturally to you, in most cases your time and money are better spent if you leave it to someone else (someone like me, who does this professionally).
I hope you can use this checklist to write better, more SEO-friendly landing pages.
Learn Even More
Whether you're a generalist or a specialist in marketing, our experts have put together a number of helpful tips for you on our blog.
