Creating stellar copy – whether it’s to persuade audiences, sell products directly or simply entertain – is a cornerstone of most brand marketing strategies. We think often about the effects that direct forms of marketing have on audiences, in the form of email marketing, social media marketing and paid search engine campaigns. However, each and every piece of content created is copy in itself, designed to persuade and inform in the most efficient way possible.

With that being said, improving your content’s visibility in search engine results should be a top priority for most blogs, brands and businesses. Today, let’s examine a few simple tips you can use to improve the quality of your organic copy and improve its rankings in SERPs.

Structure Your Content Based on Search Intent

Any brand that’s pinging search engines with content on a regular basis knows that users want content that is relevant to their needs. Unfortunately, all too many copywriters fall into the trap of creating content solely based on SERPs and keywords rather than search intent.

Broadly-speaking, content can be broken down into a few key types: content based on products, content based on topics and categories, content based on conversions/landing pages, and content intended to persuade without a direct marketing component.

When writing for specific keywords and niches, be aware of these content types and produce for the audience and intent. For instance, it makes no sense to write content aimed at SERPs where search intent is geared toward purchasing if the content in question isn’t designed to fulfill that intent.

Highlight Problems (and Solve Them)

Copywriting is simpler than many realize, but some over-complicate the process. In reality, one key method provides success across a wide variety of niches, search intents and audiences: highlight a problem, explain why it’s a problem, and show people how to fix that problem.

If you’ve ever wondered why “how-to” content is so popular, it is because of this fundamental need among audiences. Brands that can incorporate helpful content that identifies the problem, emphasizes its impact on people and offers a solution in the process are poised to improve their rankings in targeted SERPs.

Refine Your Titles and Headlines

Even if your rankings aren’t stellar right now, how users who do click on your content in SERPs respond to it can impact its future performance. Copywriting that focuses on the power of titles and headlines can dramatically improve performance in virtually any niche. Some common recommendations for improving headlines include utilizing action words that grab the reader’s attention and incorporating time-sensitive descriptors in the title (whether that be the current year or seasonal).

Embrace Calls to Action

Last but not least, the power that calls to action can have on reader engagement is immense. Not only can you incorporate basic CTAs into your titles and headlines, but integrating them fully into your copy will produce higher rates of engagement, more clicks and other metrics that can meaningfully indicate to search engines that your content deserves higher rankings. While landing pages are often used to encourage CTAs, many content types can be used to improve engagement.

Pinging search engines with successful copy that earns visibility and attention is a time-consuming process. Nobody should expect results overnight, but these 4 tips can help refine the basis of your copy into a format that search engines and users alike will more effectively appreciate.