SEO copywriting and why you need it

Your website is not a fashion accessory – it’s a marketing tool.  And it must deliver a return on investment.

Sadly, there are more poorly performing websites than there are effective ones.  And the bottom line is … if your site isn’t optimised, it won’t work.

If you’re not convinced, think about your car.  If you don’t fill it with petrol, you can’t go anywhere in it.  Your website is the same.  Instead of petrol, a website needs ‘Google juice’ to get it started and keep it running.  And like a tank of petrol, SEO doesn’t last forever.  You have to keep your tank topped up.

Copywriting and its role in SEO

Copywriting plays a vital role in your website’s optimisation.  Make no mistake – SEO copywriting is a highly skilled job and one best left to the experts.

A good SEO copywriter understands what keywords are, how and where they should be used, and the impact they can have on your website.

We often ask the question: “Who is the most important visitor to your website – the search engines or human visitors?”  The answer is predictable: the search engines. Wrong answer.  I’ve yet to meet anyone who has sold their products or services to Google’s robots.

This means to work properly, your copy has to be written for your human audience and to satisfy the search engines.  This takes skill and experience. We regularly see websites which have been ‘optimised’ by unskilled writers.  Instead of being a powerful message which is easy to read and understand, it becomes a jumble of keywords which make no sense to the human reader.

Keeping your SEO tank topped up

As I said above, your SEO doesn’t last forever.  While your site might perform well today, if you don’t keep it updated with fresh keyword-rich content, you’ll find it drops down the rankings tomorrow.

Choosing an SEO copywriter

So how do you go about finding a good SEO copywriter?  Most copywriters will profess to be experts in the field.

1. Speak to the copywriter.  Have a conversation about SEO and listen carefully to what they say.  Do they sound informed and give you specific advice or are they waffling?
2. Ask for examples of their work.  Look for ‘keywords’ in the headings.  For example: if a heading on an accountant’s website says something like ‘tax advice for the self-employed’, keywords have been used.  If the heading says ‘Our services’, they haven’t.
3. Ask if they write metadata and again, ask to see examples.  Each page should have its own individual metadata.  For example: check the length of the page description.  If there are consistently more than 150 characters in the descriptions (including spaces), be wary.
4. Ask for links to sites they have worked on recently.  Then do a Google search.  Are they near the top or several pages down?  You need to remember, there are other factors which affect a site’s ranking, of course.  But a well written site will perform better than others.
5. Finally, ask for references.  Look at the copywriter’s own website. If they can’t optimise their own site, what hope is there for yours?

Invest in your SEO copywriting

If you want your website to work, it is important to invest in professional copywriting.  Remember your car – if you want to drive it – you must fill it with fuel.  Do the same with your website and see where it takes you.

 

 

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