Who Are You Writing Your Website Copy For?

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Hello.

Hello, and welcome to the Get Fully Booked podcast.

I'm your host, Sarah Orchard.

Today I'm here with a solo episode, and I'm diving into something that I know from working with my club members and clients that so many of you hosts struggle with.

That's the tug of war between writing your website copy for Google or writing it for your ideal guest.

Because, let's face it, you want to show up in the search results and you want to sound like a real human who your dream guests want to stay with.

But how do you strike the balance?

So in today's episode, we're going to look at why writing only for SEO leads to dry, robotic website copy, and why writing only for your ideal guest can mean that you're missing out on Google traffic and how to write content that works for both.

And I know that sounds a bit like the Holy Grail, but I'm going to share with you some ways to achieve that for your business.

So let's get started.

So, first of all, let's talk about the SEO first trap.

So that's if you're only writing for Google.

If you've ever thought I need to make sure I mention luxury glamping pod with hot tub in the lake district at least 10 times, then you've fallen into that trap, and it's easy to do.

SEO feels like a formula.

If I put the right keywords in, I will rank higher.

But the reality is that if you stuff the keywords into your copy, it becomes clunky, it sounds robotic, and worst of all, it doesn't connect emotionally on any level with your ideal guest.

Your dream guest isn't looking for a keyword salad from you.

They're looking for the vibe, an experience, a feeling they want to ease, a pain point that they're experiencing.

They want to imagine themselves sitting in that hot tub under the stars with a glass of wine, not reading search terms.

So SEO is important, but it's not the whole marketing strategy.

So I've got a little interesting thought for you.

Here's a fun way to think about it.

So Google is simply your signpost, but your guest is your ultimate destination.

So SEO helps the guests find you, but once they land on your website, it's the storytelling, the copy, the professional images that showcase your experience.

The that's what actually convinces them to book.

And I always say real people make the bookings, not Google.

Google doesn't spend any money with you, but it is really strong and vital to get people to your door.

So use the SEO to get those guests to your door, which is your website.

Then let your guest centric copy invite them in and reassure them that they have found their perfect place.

But let's flip it.

So sometimes hosts get this part really right.

So they're writing for their ideal guest.

They write expressive personality filled copy that totally nails their brand voice, but they completely forget to then include any keywords.

There's no mention of where the accommodation actually is, what kind of stay it offers, key things that people are searching for.

Like does it have a hot tub or a sauna?

Is it dog friendly, family friendly, A romantic couple's weekend located next to an amazing beach, Got surfing on the doorstep.

You get my gist.

It doesn't actually help you be found by the people that are searching.

So guess what?

Google has no idea what your business and your website is all about.

So that means that your dream guests will never actually find you.

You're almost invisible online.

It's like throwing the world's best dinner party and forgetting to tell anyone where you live and how to find you.

It's not going to be very successful.

So you've got to help Google understand your content so it can show it to the right people.

At the end of the day, people get very concerned about search engine optimization and SEO.

Lots of people try and make it a bit of a D art and over complicate it.

But as I said, it is just a signpost that is telling Google what direction to head in and that you are the right place to send people and for them to head.

So with some smart keyword placement using things like your headings and your meta page titles and meta descriptions, that's where that all comes in to actually help Google understand your content and then it can bring the right people to your door.

So, all right, I would like to get into some juicy stuff now.

Give you a little bit of a framework of how you can write your website copy that both ranks in terms of Google search, but also resonates with your ideal guest.

So you are writing for both.

And that is, like I said, it's a little bit of a tug of war, it's a little bit of a challenge.

And I won't lie, it's something that I often find Difficult.

And I know when.

I've worked with a couple of associates who have been specialists around search engine optimization, SEO and we've sometimes had some head to head battles about, you know, what a headline should be on the page.

And they they're approaching it very much from the Google search point of view.

And I was approaching it more from the brand messaging and connecting with that ideal guest or client customer that I had in my head.

So it is a challenge.

But as I said, you always have to remember that it's the people that actually pay you money and make the booking and not Google.

So.

All right, let's get started.

I think the first thing is always to start with your guest first.

So before you write a word or any marketing, you get clear on who you're writing for.

What do they care about, you know, what are their pain points?

I have talked a lot about why messaging doesn't work and check out some of my previous episodes where I talk about sort of pain points.

It's really important to understand what their motives are and how do they want to feel during their stay.

So you write with this in mind.

Try and use a natural conversational style and language.

I don't use jargon.

Try and feel like you're talking to that person and you've got a picture of them in your head.

You have to paint a picture of your guest experience, tell a story, make them feel it, but you also have to be you.

So don't like I said, otherwise your copy can end up sounding quite robotic.

But it's important to actually sprinkle in.

My second point is sprinkle in some SEO elements.

So once you've been guest focused with your first draft of your content for your website and your copy, go back and add in one to two relevant keywords per page.

But try and add them in naturally so that they flow in the copy.

But the best place for your SEO keywords, your search terms, is to put them into some of the hidden fields on your website that your website visitor will not see.

And these are your page titles and your meta descriptions, but also your H1 and H2 headings.

Now if you don't know where these are, I actually have a an SEO training that masterclass that you would find quite helpful to have a look at that's available on my website if you go to my Everything page.

Alternatively, have a chat with your website developer and ask them to talk to you about where to add those.

And there's a really if you've got a WordPress website, there's a really handy plugin that's free called Yoast SEO and that helps you not with your H1 and H2 headings, but it helps you with your page titles and your meta descriptions and also the alt tags of your actual alt text of your actual images is also important from a keyword point of view, but they're all things that are hidden.

So really good for Google because it's giving it the signpost that it desperately needs to send it in the right direction, but it doesn't interfere with the readability of your website and connecting with the real person who's visiting the site.

Make sure you include a location because guests do search basically based on location.

Try not to keep that location too big.

So if you're for example in Florida, you might want to narrow it down to Venice beach or Miami.

Or if you're in Cornwall in the uk, you know, don't just put Cornwall, try and put where you're close to or especially if you've got some tourist attractions, some honey, what I call like honey pot things that your visitors always go and do when they're staying with you, that can be really helpful.

There are very few short term rentals that are destinations in their own right.

Probably the exception would be something like our tree house, which people actually don't.

We're in the Wye Valley in Gloucestershire in the UK where, where England meets Wales.

But actually very few people know where the Wye Valley is and a lot of people come to our tree house because they want to come to the tree house as an actual destination.

So they're not.

I don't tend to focus too much on the location because that's because I understand my ideal guest and their, and their motives for, for coming here.

But if you're thinking along the lines of things like a romantic log cabin with a hot tub in Cornwall or a family pod glamping in the Lake District or maybe even a beachfront condo in Venice Beach, Florida.

That could be the expressions that people are searching for and it's really important to get those into those meta fields within your website.

So like I said, if you don't know how to do that, check out the free plugin for WordPress websites called Yoast SEO.

That's one of my top tips.

Or have a chat with your web developer and they can help you with that.

But really, really important to get those search terms and you can see from those ones that I've just said to you, like romantic log cabin with hot tub in Cornwall, that's a search term.

But actually that would look quite clunky if that was on a headline.

If that was a headline on your homepage of your website.

That's not going to get me very excited about the stay, but it's obviously it's a good signpost to Google.

So I would encourage you to put that in your metadata and not have that as your first big headline on your hero or wow image on your homepage.

Definitely not really right for that.

My third tip is to use the right structure.

So search engines, like humans do love structure because structure helps us to digest information and to read things.

So on your website, think about using headings and subheads to break things up.

That's where your H1, H2, H3, they're quite technical terms, but they're just basically the style sheet that controls how your website looks.

But they control Google looks at those and knows what prioritises them.

That an H1 is more important than an H2, but you can use it for different sizes of headings.

On your actual page, think about using bullet points or icons for features and your amenities so that you're not writing paragraphs and paragraphs of text.

Keep your paragraph short.

We don't want any walls of text.

Plenty of white space for readability for the actual reader.

Anything that's like in massive chunks, people don't want to read.

Think about internal links between your pages.

So from your homepage, for example, you might want to have an internal link to maybe your about page or your things to do page.

You're really, again, just signposting people to the content.

And Google will also follow these links and look at the additional information on the other pages.

And Google reads all of your web pages.

Probably unlike a visitor, they actually do scan and index all of your copy and your content.

So it's important not to neglect any of the pages.

And that's why I said it's also really important not to neglect, for example, your alt text, which is what you use on your images to tell Google what the images are all about.

Because Google is an algorithm.

It cannot see, so it cannot see at the moment those pictures and know exactly what they are.

So you have to give it a descriptor.

And if you can get your keywords in there as well, that's really, really helpful.

And again, that doesn't impact on your visitor, your human website visitors.

So remember, great copy is clear, never clever, because clarity wins every time.

So I just wanted to wrap up and give you maybe a little bit of homework in terms of your next steps.

Have a look at your website and think about don't write only for Google.

Think about your ideal guest.

But also don't write only for your ideal guest and ignore Google.

The sweet spot is where you show up in the search and you speak directly to the real person who's reading.

So remember, real people book, not Google.

So if I had to lean one way or the other, I would lean a bit more towards writing for your ideal guests.

But when you write for both, that's when your website starts to do the heavy lifting for you.

It's helping you to get more bookings on autopilot while you sleep.

And I don't know about you, but that's the best form of marketing in my book.

Now if you need a little bit of help with your website, maybe you're struggling with it and you just can't see the wood for the trees because you've looked at it too many times and you don't really know where to go next.

Do reach out to me.

Drop me a DM on Instagram.

I also offer a website audit service.

So I'm happy to take a look at your website and give you a constructive audit and feedback on how it's looking, both from a visitor usability and experience point of view, but also from a Google SEO perspective as well.

So I hope you found that useful.

I'd love to know if you reach out to me on Instagram, let me know what you think of my tips today.

Thank you for listening.

I will be back next week with another solo episode where I'm going to be exploring something that might be a little bit controversial.

I'm going to talk about social media vanity metrics.

So you know those are those huge numbers of followers or like real views that have gone like millions and millions and whether it actually really matters and does it actually turn into bookings.

So tune in for that interesting and maybe slightly controversial debate.

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

You know how much us hosts love those five star reviews.

I'll see you next time.

Thank you for listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.

If you want to see if you are ready to ditch the likes of Airbnb and grow your direct bookings.

Put your business to the test with my free direct booking Roadmap quiz.

Head to my website, get fully booked.com quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and more profit in your pocket.