At the heart of any business should be its customers. Providing an exceptional and elevated customer experience that increases brand loyalty and affection is paramount to the growth and success of a company.
In this digital age, customers have a wealth of information at their fingertips. When looking for a service, there is a vast online marketplace with many different stalls vying for their attention so they can sell their goods.
For a recruitment brand, their service pages allow them to display their offering effectively and show potential customers how their services will enhance their lives. So how can you ensure your businesses catch the eye of potential customers in a highly competitive market and encourage them to return to use your services time after time?
We have created a guide that dives deep into the science and methods of creating powerful, creative, and effective service pages that will educate your users, increase traffic, and drive conversion.
What is SEO Content Writing?
Traditionally, content writing refers to creating compelling and persuasive content for sales and marketing to attract and engage customers and convert sales.
SEO copywriting connects standard SEO practices, such as keyword research, with captivating words that persuade a reader to take a specific action, such as using a service or buying a product. SEO copywriting is used on websites, emails, social media, and various marketing materials.
Why is Content Writing Important?
- Builds brand awareness and visibility - Producing compelling and optimised content writing can help establish you as a thought leader in your industry and increase your brand's exposure to a larger audience.
- Helps you in building authority - Quality and informative content writing can help establish your business as a credible source of information, which can significantly increase your chances of ranking higher on search engines.
- Builds trust with your audience - Content can help you build a personal and trusting relationship with your audience. It allows you to create something of value without taking anything back in return, helping you build trust.
- Generate new leads and business - If the audience personally connects with the content you produce, they are more likely to use your services in the future. You can increase the chances of conversion by adding a call to action (CTA) alongside your well-crafted content. If the reader has enjoyed your content, they can click on your CTA to contact your team.
- Helps improve candidates and client retention - Creating consistent, valuable, engaging, and personalised content that resonates with your audience will increase their chances of repeatedly returning to your recruitment website and using your services.
The Importance of an Effective Keyword Strategy
Keywords are the foundation of all online searches, and correctly using targeted keywords can improve search engine rankings, increase traffic to your recruitment website, and drive conversion. Therefore, you must plan and implement an effective keyword strategy for all your content writing.
What is a keyword strategy?
Your keyword strategy is the plan for identifying and using keywords to optimise your online content for search engines. It is based on keyword research, which is conducted through platforms such as Semrush, Ahrefs, and Google Keyword Planner, and helps tailor the content you plan to write and how you will track the results on platforms such as Google Analytics.
Developing a well-researched keyword strategy involves understanding the needs and behaviours of your target audience and the language they use when searching for products or services.
Top tip: When identifying keywords, it is important to remember that they must be relevant to the subject of the service page and not just based on the volume it is being searched for.
What is the purpose of a keyword strategy?
There are several goals that the keyword strategy hopes to achieve, including:
- Increase your search engine visibility - Improve your website's visibility on a search engine's results pages and increase traffic to your website.
- Allows you to attract more relevant traffic - A keyword strategy ensures your recruitment website's content is targeted to the specific search queries of your target audience. More relevant traffic means the likelihood of conversion is increased.
- Improve search engine rankings - Targeted keywords in your content writing allow you to signal to search engines the relevance of your content to specific search queries and improve your search engine rankings for those keywords.
- Elevate the user experience - By optimising your content around targeted keywords, you can elevate the user experience by providing relevant and valuable content that meets their specific needs.
- Stand out from the competition - Your keyword strategy allows you to identify gaps in the market and opportunities to target keywords that your competitors are not using.
- Inspire future content - Keyword research can inspire topics for future blogs, guides, and insights as you get to the heart of what your audience is searching for and interested in.
Onpage and Technical SEO Best Practices for Service Pages
So, once you’ve done your keyword strategy, it is time to write your compelling and educational content. Next, you must apply a number of SEO best practices to ensure your content is educational, gains authority, and is visible to your target audience. Here are our top tips for SEO success:
1. The ideal word count is between 700-1000 - The word count allows you to provide adequate information, including keywords, to engage and inform readers. However, it's still short enough to get to the point and encourage users to do what's asked.
2. Conduct keyword research - Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush or Ahrefs to identify relevant keywords that people use to search for services similar to what you offer.
3. Refrain from keyword stuffing - All text should be written naturally, and as one would write to another person to explain the ins and outs of the product, Google sees the overuse of keywords and will rank these pages lower.
4. Use keywords in your titles and headings - Your main focus keyword or 'hero keyword' should be in your H1(page title). Keywords should also be present in your H2s and H3s. They should also be ideally placed towards the beginning of the opening paragraph and, if possible, at the end.
5. Create unique and valuable content - Service pages should contain information about the service you are offering that is unique and valuable. Try to describe the service, its benefits, how it works, and its features in as much detail as possible. It allows search engines to determine how to rank a page based on its content.
6. Optimise your meta title and meta description - Your meta title and meta descriptions for the service page play a key role in on-page optimisation. It is important to include the hero keyword in both the page title, meta title, and the description. This helps to make the page more relevant to search engine users.
7. Ensure the website is mobile-friendly - More and more people are accessing the internet through mobile devices, so a mobile-friendly website is essential. Your website should be responsive to be accessed on any device.
8. Build internal links - Include internal links within your service pages to other relevant pages on your recruitment website. This helps establish a strong site structure, improving your website's overall search engine visibility.
Service Page Structure Ideas to Maximise SEO Performance
When writing service pages, you must remember that they need to serve a purpose for you and the audience. Therefore, when the content is being written, you should always aim to answer the following questions:
- What are the pain points we are responding to?
- What is the target audience?
- What are the key aims of the content?
- What results do we want from the content?
Top tip: Platforms such as SEMrush allow you to research not only keywords but the questions people are searching for around a particular subject. So, when conducting keyword research for your service page, pick out vital questions and answer them as part of your content.
Below, we have provided a number of ideas on how to structure your page for SEO performance and elevated user experience.
Overall introduction
Your introduction should explain who you are, the service provided, what it entails, and how it will support clients and candidates in their recruitment challenges.
Top tip: When writing this content, ensure you include the relevant keywords in your text (without overstuffing) and use this as an excellent opportunity to answer the questions about the service you have picked out as part of your keyword research.
Details of the service's user experience
The audience isn't just looking for what the service does; they want to know how it will solve their specific recruitment problem. An explainer as to how your service works and what users can expect. This means going into details, formalities, and step-by-step processes from signing up/requesting the service all the way to its delivery and final form.
What makes you different from other recruitment agencies?
A significant part of SEO strategy is building brand awareness, authority, and user experience. Recruitment is a competitive market, and the content needs to help the target audience understand why they should choose you over your competitors. Setting out a clear guide to why you are the best recruitment partner on the market will influence their decision.
Discuss points such as:
- Expertise
- Experience
- Commitment
- The markets you operate in
- Values
- Results
Frequently asked questions
Add an FAQ section detailing all considerations, cautions, and questions users may have.
- Do they need to prepare in any way before they use your recruitment services?
- Are there any documents or other things they need to have ready for when they start working with you?
- Should they bullet point what they expect from their future role or new staff?
This section will hopefully answer any nagging questions your users have. But, again, going back to the keyword research, ensure you include any of the vital questions your audience is searching for.
Of course, if the user requires more information regarding their question or has more questions they would like answered, it is always worth encouraging them to contact your team.
Highlight the industries you work in
This will allow the reader to understand the range of industries your recruitment consultants work with and encourage them to use the service if their industry of interest is listed. In addition, it is a good idea to provide a click-through button to the relevant industry page as it encourages the reader to stay on the site and allows them to gain more information about the sector, increasing user experience.
Case studies and testimonials
What better way to show your audience your value, expertise, and experience than by displaying examples of the businesses and candidates you've supported with your services?
Consider links to case studies that discuss how your service helped a specific candidate or client will enable your audience to read about real-life examples, helping them understand how this service could support them.
Additionally, a testimonial section effectively displays quotes from candidates and clients about their experiences and benefits of using the service, giving your target audience all the more reason to partner with you.
Top tip: While case studies and testimonials aren’t a major influence on SEO results, they will help build trust with your target audience and provide them with informative content. It will also provide opportunities to click through to other pages on your site.
Meet the team
The meet the team section not only allows the reader to make contact about the service, but the images of the consultant and short biography provide a more personal touch. It gives the reader confidence that the team they are contacting is friendly, experienced, and able to solve their problem. In addition, the consultant's profile picture enables them to put a face to the name.
Include a call-to-action
You've pitched the reader your services and how they would solve their problems, answered their questions, highlighted your specialist industries, and introduced the team. Following all this information, it would be remiss not to provide a call to action to encourage the reader to contact your team and use your services.
Provide a call to action, followed by a form they can fill out, and this will help increase your conversion rate of visitors to the page.
Importance of Establishing Your Tone of Voice
Tone of voice should form a vital part of your content strategy. When writing services pages, it is not just what you say that is important, it is how you say it.
It is how your company communicates and connects with your audience and how you want your brand message to be portrayed. Your message shows your company's values, mission, ambitions, and expertise.
Your tone of voice should be distinctive, unique, and recognisable. It will allow you to stand above your competition and make your brand attractive to potential customers.
So, when writing service pages, it is not just what you say that is important, it is HOW you say it.
If you need support establishing your tone of voice and making your service pages full of unique, distinctive, and compelling content, discover our guide, 'How to Create Tone of Voice Guidelines for your Brand'. As well as learning the importance of tone of voice and its benefits, we have provided a questionnaire to help you discover your brand's tone of voice. Download the guide today.
Top tip: Tone of voice should be used across all your content formats, from email marketing to blogs, not just your service pages. This ensures consistency across your recruitment website and means your audience keeps that personal connection.
Need Expert SEO Services for Your Brand's Content Writing?
At Venn, we are market leaders in website design for recruitment agencies and employer brands. With over a decade of expertise and experience in understanding the complex digital landscape, we are dedicated to making things simple for our clients and delivering quality and data-driven results for global recruitment brands.
Our passionate SEO services team is here to support you in producing effective SEO strategies and unique content to increase organic traffic, improve search engine visibility, elevate customer experience, and drive conversion.
Contact our team today if you want expert SEO services support for your business. We look forward to working with you.
