First things first: SEO, or search engine optimization is a specialized skill. Companies looking for an SEO copywriter often are conflating two roles into one. Dig into the job description, and you may have a bit more clarity on what they want. But, often, you may be asking clarifying questions to the hiring manager as to what, specifically, they want this role to tackle.
There’s a lot of debate about if copywriting and content writing are two separate things. And, the answer is very much yes. (You can read more about the differences here >>)
Here’s the thing: there are some people who will continue to conflate the two—to their own detriment. This could be business owners who don’t understand the goals of copy vs. content. Or this could be content writers who apply for copywriting jobs and are surprised why they’re not getting calls back.
Copywriters are writing to persuade. To get people to take action. These are your billboards, emails, banner ads, sales pages, and more.
Content writers are writing to inform, entertain, or inspire. Sure, there can be calls to action within content. But it’s supporting the purchase process; it’s not a direct link to a purchase. These are your blog posts and ebooks.
With that foundation, let’s dig into what people are really asking for when they’re wanting an “SEO copywriter.”
What is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is taking all the principles of copywriting (features versus benefits; clear call to action; writing to a brand’s voice; speaking to the target audience) and adding a layer of SEO keyword research.
But, if you read our intro, you know it’s a bit of a misnomer.
Think of SEO as the alternative to paid ads. If you can rank in the top 3 results for a given search term on Google, then people are going to click that page. It will build trust and authority in your brand because you’re ranking high on Google, so more people are clicking on it. And more people consuming it makes the algorithm think it’s more valuable than less-clicked content. (There are, of course, a lot of other factors that go into the algorithm. Google isn’t sharing how it algorithm works!)
Keywords are just one piece of SEO (more on that to come). Keywords are one small piece of a blog post or specific web page ranking higher than others that feature similar keywords.
So, for example, let’s say you’re writing a blog post about glow in the dark dog collars. Your keyword may be “glow in the dark dog collars.” You’re naturally, going to work that language into the post; you can’t talk about glow in the dark dog collars without saying “glow in the dark dog collars!”
Outdated tactics like keyword stuffing (again, more on that to come), don’t work anymore. Search engines are much savvier at detecting what is helpful content versus what content is trying to game the algorithm by packing in a ton of the keyword. For example, if you have a 400-word post, and you use “glow in the dark dog collar” 20 times, it’s going to sound unnatural.
As a copywriter, you’re going to be using your creative brief to guide your word choices and the information you’re including in a given project. If you’re writing a homepage for a plumber in Boston, for example, you’re naturally going to be including the words “plumber” and “Boston” throughout in a compelling way that doesn’t feel forced.
Read more about the truth behind SEO “copywriting” or watch more below!
5 Things to Know About SEO Copywriting
As noted earlier, many clients may know know what their expectations are when it comes to an SEO copywriter. They know they need to “do SEO,” but don’t actually know about SEO beyond keywords. And, again, keywords are just one small part of SEO. You may be educating your clients.
Here are some key things to know.
1. Many Elements of SEO Have Nothing to Do With Writing
Too many people—many copywriters and even some of your clients!—make the mistake of thinking SEO is 100% about keywords and words on the page in general.
But savvy marketers know that this is just one piece of the SEO puzzle. Think of SEO in two parts: on-page SEO (sometimes called content SEO) and technical SEO.
The elements of technical SEO include:
Ensuring the sitemap for your client’s website is submitted to Google
This is how Google understands your website and all the pages that make it up. If you don’t submit a sitemap, Google may not find all the pages of the site and may only return some of them in search results some of the time—if at all.
Improving a website’s speed
Google doesn’t like website that load slowly! There’s a lot that goes into the speed of a site. For example, are images super high resolution or set to condense? Is the page set to lazy load? Is there extra code on the website that doesn’t need to be there? These are all elements that can impact SEO, but that will be handled by a developer versus a copywriter.
Creating an SEO-friendly site structure
How pages on a website relate is important to how Google crawls them and ranks them in search results. Websites should be, first and foremost, easy for a user to navigate. Users need to be able to find the information they’re looking for. So, if you have a blog post about glow in the dark dog collars, you may link off to a post about the safest dog collars for your pet. The topics are related and users may be curious about other collars to keep their dog safe.
Building a mobile-friendly website
Many websites are “responsive,” which simply means they adjust based on the user’s screen. So, if they’re using a large desktop monitor, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone, the content adjusts accordingly.
However, sometimes websites are built for desktop first and mobile gets left behind. Search engines penalize sites that are not mobile friendly. As the majority of Internet users are accessing content from mobile phones, more emphasis has been placed on making sure the user experience is just as good on mobile as it is on desktop.
Avoiding duplicate content issues
If a website has the same content on multiple different URLs, it’s going to prevent both of them from ranking. An SEO expert needs to determine if the pages should be consolidated and one redirected or decide if one page should be marked as canonical.
Depending on your client, these elements can have a much bigger impact on the page ranking than any on-page SEO.
Think of it like an old sports car. You can paint the sports car and make it look shiny and new, but if the engine is broken, the paint isn’t going to make that car run any faster (or run at all!). That’s what technical vs. on-page SEO is like. You can add subheadings and pick a keyword that you
2. SEO is More Content than Copywriting
The goal of copywriting, at least for the web, is typically to turn traffic to a website into leads and sales. But where does that traffic come in the first place? Content.
Search engine optimization is really about attracting more organic traffic to a business’s website.
And, when it comes to copywriting, you’re going to naturally be incorporating keywords into a webpage anyway! If you’re writing for a plumber in Boston, it’s likely “plumber in Boston” is going to work it’s way into some of your headings and subheads naturally.
Here are a few SEO writing tips to get you started >>
3. SEO is a Long Game
If you or your client are looking for fast results, SEO is not it. That doesn’t mean it’s not valuable; it certainly is!
But it can take months for you to see a page rank on Google. Of course, the algorithms are not transparent. And they’re changing. All. The. Time. So, even once you rank for something, it could change next week or even the next day. Rankings fluctuate often.
Blog posts are something you can continue to update over time and has a long lifespan—years! In fact, sometimes refreshing content can have a bigger impact on SEO than creating new content (though, ideally, businesses will be doing both).
4. You Need Some Technical Know-How If You Want to Track Results
If you’re not tracking results, it’s hard to know whether what you’re doing is effective. That goes for copywriting and content. The difference withe SEO is the timeline. Unlike an email where you can see the open and click through rates after you send it, you’re going to need to monitor your metrics over time.
Google Search Console is free to set up and your client should be able to grant you access that will allow you to see what pages and keywords they’re ranking for. This can help you pinpoint holes or gaps in content.
And you can compare rankings for pages and keywords over various periods. This allows you to see if your SEO efforts are having an impact.
Tools like Semrush give you even more insights, but are paid. If you’re offering content services for clients (and you’re earning money!), these tools are a worthwhile consideration. You can roll the cost of the tool into your rates and/or use it as a tax write off.
But if you’re not yet earning (and even if you are), these tools aren’t necessary. In fact, your client may already use one and be able to give you access to it.
5. Beware of Outdated Tactics
You’ll see a lot of things like “You must write between 2,500-3,000 words.” Or “you have to use your keyword 5 times (more on keyword stuffing below).”
The truth is, everyone wants an easy-button formula. But it doesn’t exist.
They key is to answer your audience’s question. If that takes 400 words, great. If that takes 1,500, great. you can always (and should!) update content as you gain more information or hear back from your audience on what would be helpful to answering their query.
A Note on Local and Off-Page SEO
There is also local SEO and off-page SEO. Local SEO is aimed at improving SEO results locally. So, back to that plumber in Boston. They’d want to focus on local SEO since finding an audience in California isn’t necessarily going to help them.
Off-page SEO are actions that someone takes offline. For example, a phone call. Or your client does an interview with a media outlet. The media outlet quotes your client and then links back to your clients’ site when they publish the piece.
You can also reach out to sites where you think it would be helpful for them to link back to your site.
How to Become an SEO Copywriter
The process of becoming an SEO copywriter looks the same as it does for any career change.
- Get training
- Get experience
- Get a job
Here’s the dirty secret: companies looking for an “SEO copywriter” often don’t know what they’re looking for.
They know SEO is important. And they want to “do SEO.” It’s a buzzword.
Maybe they think a writer can solve all the issues. Or maybe they know they need someone who can write and understands the principles of SEO that a writer does have some control over.
You want to look at the job description very carefully.
Key SEO Copywriting Tactics
As with any project, start with a creative brief!
Keyword Research
You’ll want to incorporate a relevant keyword into any piece of content. The good news is, you will likely do this automatically if you’re following best practices of summing up what your piece of content is all about.
There are tools to help you with keyword research, such as Ubersuggest (free option available) Google’s Keyword Planner (you’ll need a Google Ads account, though you don’t have to run ads). But you can also use related searches in Google or “people also ask.”
These tools can help you get a sense of keywords and related keywords, as well as how competitive they are. For example, while “glow in the dark dog collars” may have a ton of competition, something like “LED dog collar” or “lighted dog collar” may have more or less competition.
This is the difference between short and long-tail keywords. Short keywords are the most searched—which makes it harder (though not impossible) to rank for them. Long-tail keywords are typically between 3 and 5 words and let you hone in on a specific audience or niche.
Now, some teams you work with may have someone doing keyword research and suggesting a target keyword, and potentially even secondary and tertiary keywords, to consider including in your writing. Other teams looking for an “SEO copywriter” may expect you to do the keyword research.
Where to Use Keywords
As mentioned above, there’s no perfect number of times to use your keyword. You’ll naturally incorporate it as you’re writing based on the
You’ll also want to incorporate it in the meta description, page titles, and page URLs when possible. You can provide this in the copy doc, or, your client may give you access to their content management system (CMS) for you to input this information
(Pro tip: never write directly in an CMS. Technology fails all the time and there’s nothing worse than writing a piece of content … and having it go “poof.” Keep a Word or Google Doc and then copy/paste into the CMS.)
A Note on Keyword Stuffing
There are a lot of outdated SEO tactics, but you will still see people talking about getting a certain number of keywords into a post. Why? They haven’t kept up with the ever-changing marketing landscape.
This is going to hurt you significantly. Google even has rules about it .
Internal Links
As a copywriter, you’re likely already doing this. If you’re writing a homepage and you have a section that introduces the team and has a CTA to learn more that drives to the “About Us” page, then that’s your internal linking.
For content writers, there’s an opportunity to keep an eye out for what text you can link to other posts on the company’s website. This helps Google understand how pages are related on a website and it helps the user more easily find information they’re looking for.
You’ll want to keep an eye on the anchor text. Overusing keywords in the anchor text of the links you build can also hurt you.
SEO tool Yoast has helpful recommendations on anchor text >>
Valuable
Google’s “EEAT” guidelines are meant to help you create content that is most valuable for readers. EEAT stands for expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Together, these guidelines are intended to make sure that the content that ranks higher in search is going to answer reader’s queries from a source that knows what its talking about. Think about it: you wouldn’t want to take medical advice from a fifteen-year-old who hasn’t gone to medical school, right?
Original
In the age of AI, this is crucial. Businesses that get left behind will be the ones that use ChatGPT to regurgitate what already exists online. AI can’t create new content. It can only cobble together content from what already exists, fundamentally making it unoriginal (not to mention, many businesses have found it creates content that is just flat out wrong).
Depending on the topic, you want to interview subject matter experts for quotes that only they could provide from their specific experiences. You could even add your own insight from your expertise, depending on the topic and your experience with it.
Essentially: what value can you add that no one else can add? What can you add to or build on the conversation that is happening on the Internet?
Your Turn! What other questions do you have about SEO? Let us know in the comments!
Last Updated on September 3, 2024
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