The nutrition label lists the ingredients based on volume per package. Items appearing first on the ingredients list are most abundant in each serving. So if you’re looking for cereal that’s low in sugar, then you’ll want to make sure that sugar is low on the ingredient list or that it doesn’t appear at all.

This is where the nutrition label is like SEO copywriting. The keywords on which you’re optimizing your page should be the first few keywords in the meta title and description, as well as in alt image tags and on-page body copy… think up and to the left. This helps search engines determine relevancy of the search query to your web page. (There’s more to relevance than SEO copywriting, but it’s a necessary part of SEO.)

Take a step back, look at your copywriting and ask yourself the following questions:

• For what 3-5 keywords are you optimizing the page?
• Are those keywords located up and to the left on the page?
• Are those keywords located in a headline or subhead?
• Are some of those keywords in a hyperlink?
• Do your images have keyword-rich captions?

Your SEO copywriting is like the cereal box.  Think of the ingredients list as the meta data, which tells search engines what to look for. Make sure that your “ingredients” include the top 3-5 keywords on which you’re optimizing the page. The on-page content is like the front and back of the cereal box; make sure the on-page copy includes those same keywords in the places noted above.

Like a nutrition label, which tells you the percentage of fat and other things you probably shouldn’t have, keyword density tells you the percentage of copy that your keywords should comprise.  It basically lets search engines know that you’re actually writing real thoughts in sentences and not simply stuffing a bunch of keywords on a page to trick the search engine into thinking your content is relevant.

You can use tools such as keyworddensity.com and googlerankings.com, which scan your
page content and assign a density number. Most search marketers recommend a density of 3%-5% and some as high as 7% on a page of about 300-500 words.

When it comes to SEO copywriting, your on-page copywriting should connect with the meta data.  You don’t want to be the box of cereal that boasts low sugar when it’s the first ingredient on the nutrition label.