Copywriting is not only confined to advertising agencies. In the quickly expanding world of SEO and content marketing, copywriting methods are being used to make web content more engaging, original and relevant while optimizing the web page to improve search engine rankings. This is known as SEO copywriting. Conventional copywriting and SEO copywriting are vastly different. SEO copywriting ensures that the web copy has relevant keywords that could improve web rankings but this doesn’t mean that the web copy is stuffed with keywords. SEO copywriters make the inclusion of keywords seem natural, so that the web page that has the content does not get penalized.
SEO community’s reaction to copywriting
The SEO community took no time to realize the benefits that copywriting can bring to the world of SEO. This led to the emergence of the SEO copywriter who is able to use both SEO and copywriting techniques to enhance brand visibility, improve search engine ranking and develop customer engagement. Most often, excellent web content or copy created by conventional copywriters gets no visibility as the content is not optimized for search engines. People are not able to find the content online, which counteracts the whole point of having a copywriter write the content.
In SEO copywriting, the copywriter knows exactly where and how many times relevant keywords need to be used. This ensures that keywords are placed not only in the content but in the headline, subheadings, anchor tags, alt tags, title tags, etc. of the web copy. What’s more – an SEO copywriter can also create great, eye-catching headlines and body content to improve link building and excellent calls to action to improve conversions and lead generation. All this without being too promotional! The content is not only of the highest quality but is also search engine optimized – this is a win-win situation from all angles.
Negative aspects of copywriting in SEO
Of course, the field of copywriting for SEO purposes is not always rosy. Most often, people overdo optimization and end up entering the keyword stuffing territory. Google does not mandate that copywriters use exact keywords and phrases as the search engine is now smart enough to detect synonyms and individual words from keyword phrases allowing SEO to be more natural in web copies.
However, amateurish SEO copywriting has allowed many web pages to look spammy as the content is stuffed with exact keywords and phrases that is hard to read and off-putting. This has attracted a lot of negative attention from the SEO community towards copywriting. Also, many SEO copywriters claim to improve web ranking in a matter of days. This is nearly impossible and building brand visibility takes time. Such false promises have also made people wary of SEO copywriters. Good SEO copywriters must be able to keep abreast of search engine algorithm changes and industry trends and incorporate them with traditional copywriting methods to create great SEO content.
SEO copywriting is not easy
SEO copywriting is not as easy as people think it is and it is not always about keyword density. In fact it is not about keyword density at all. It is about creating high quality content that will get as many eyeballs as possible. So the job of an SEO copywriter is to not only be a good writer/journalist but to also be good with web technology and SEO techniques.
About the author : Jessica Davis is a Content Strategy Specialist with Godot Media. She has years of experience in working closely with online businesses, helping them refine their marketing strategy through optimum use of content. Her other interests, besides online content strategy, internet marketing and search engine optimization, are technology, sports and even fashion.
