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A 3-Step SEO Copywriting Confession

December 8, 2010 By Kelly Watson
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Confession: I have inserted misspellings into my own writing.
 
I have rejected really good headlines and great lede sentences for mediocre ones that start with a keyword or phrase.
 
I have stifled the urge to delete redundancies. I've even added redundancies to get one more keyword into my writing.
 
For a former journalist, this is painful to admit. But for an SEO copywriter, it's all in a day's work.
 
Welcome To My Life
As an SEO copywriter, I often get lumped in with keyword spammers, blog content aggregators and overseas article writers. Even my husband hates the fact that I'm an SEO copywriter. Just yesterday he emailed me an accusatory note with a link to an irrelevant, ad-filled search result:
 
"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS CRAP?"
 
To which I wrote, "SEO, as a result of top Web marketing companies, is said answer. So how we do achieve this goal? No. 1 Google search result to find more."
 
1. The Secret To Good SEO Copywriting
I'm one of the good guys. Unlike overseas content farms that start with a topic and surround it with as many words as possible, I start with my target audience. I research who they are, what interests them and what's causing them pain. Only when I understand this—when I understand THEM—do I start writing.
 
Sure, I inject keywords and phrases here and there. I make sure they appear in the headline, at the start of the first sentence, in subheads and scattered throughout the text. I also make sure those keywords appear in bold at least once, and in a link description or an image ALT tag.
 
SEO is the easy part. The hard part is capturing readers' attention with writing they actually want to read. In a medium that's notorious for being skimmed, I have to somehow hold that attention long enough to make a compelling pitch.
 
2. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Joseph Sugarman, in "The Adweek Copywriting Handbook," calls this the slippery slide: "Every element must be so compelling that you find yourself falling down a slippery slide, unable to stop [reading] until you reach the end," he writes. "The sole purpose of the first sentence is to get prospects to read the second sentence, and the sole purpose of the second sentence is to get them to read the third and then the fourth—all while you are building a selling environment for the sale of your product." 
 

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FROM THE BOOKSTORE

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“Blanchard is demanding. He won’t allow you to flip through this book, nod your head, and leave. If you’re in, you’re going to have to invest to get your rewards.”
--Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works

“Social media isn’t inexpensive; it’s different expensive. The human effort required to do


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COMMENTS

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Most Recent Comments:
Cindy Neky - Posted on December 08, 2010
Kelly, Love your sprinkling of keywords like Google, Lady Gaga, etc. Hilarious.

It gets tougher and tougher to do the right thing with online copywriting. Glad to see someone else sometimes finds it hard.
Amy Teeple - Posted on December 08, 2010
Thanks for this article Kelly!

I feel like I have to constantly explain why my rate (much more than a few dollars an article/page) is actually a cost savings/money maker compared to those "cheap SEO copywriters" - thought I'd throw you another keyword. ;-)

I agree with Heather, I do not like to include misspellings. However, if my client's name is something that is often spelled incorrectly (i.e. people search for Dr. Thom Smyth as "Dr. Tom Smith"), I might make a note somewhere - maybe lower on the sidebar - of the common name misspellings. I won't, however, purposely spell something incorrectly in the main text. That might just look sloppy.

Thanks again for a great article.
Heather Lloyd-Martin - Posted on December 08, 2010
Kelly, hi!

This is a great article. And you are SO right - SEO is really the easy part. The hard part is writing really good copy that converts. Thanks for writing it.

I did cringe a little bit when I read that you've "inserted misspellings" and "included redundancies just to get one more keyword into your writing."

I know what you mean - but there are others who may think, "Aha, I knew that SEO copy was just a bunch of misspelled keywords strung together." I just hope those folks read your great post a little further to really understand what SEO copywriting brings to the table.

(And I hope that your husband learns to love your SEO copywriting profession! :)

Pam Foster - Posted on December 08, 2010
Hi Kelly,
Thanks so much for explaining how SEO Copywriting is a masterful balance of keyword best practices and clear, customer-focused sales copy that triggers action. So few website owners value this balance until they see the results! As a Certified SEO Copywriter, I enjoy the fun mission of bringing clients around to that AHA! moment when it all comes together. To paraphrase a line from Eddie and The Cruisers: "We need each other man... keywords and sales copy."

Pam Foster www.ContentClear.com
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Cindy Neky - Posted on December 08, 2010
Kelly, Love your sprinkling of keywords like Google, Lady Gaga, etc. Hilarious.

It gets tougher and tougher to do the right thing with online copywriting. Glad to see someone else sometimes finds it hard.
Amy Teeple - Posted on December 08, 2010
Thanks for this article Kelly!

I feel like I have to constantly explain why my rate (much more than a few dollars an article/page) is actually a cost savings/money maker compared to those "cheap SEO copywriters" - thought I'd throw you another keyword. ;-)

I agree with Heather, I do not like to include misspellings. However, if my client's name is something that is often spelled incorrectly (i.e. people search for Dr. Thom Smyth as "Dr. Tom Smith"), I might make a note somewhere - maybe lower on the sidebar - of the common name misspellings. I won't, however, purposely spell something incorrectly in the main text. That might just look sloppy.

Thanks again for a great article.
Heather Lloyd-Martin - Posted on December 08, 2010
Kelly, hi!

This is a great article. And you are SO right - SEO is really the easy part. The hard part is writing really good copy that converts. Thanks for writing it.

I did cringe a little bit when I read that you've "inserted misspellings" and "included redundancies just to get one more keyword into your writing."

I know what you mean - but there are others who may think, "Aha, I knew that SEO copy was just a bunch of misspelled keywords strung together." I just hope those folks read your great post a little further to really understand what SEO copywriting brings to the table.

(And I hope that your husband learns to love your SEO copywriting profession! :)

Pam Foster - Posted on December 08, 2010
Hi Kelly,
Thanks so much for explaining how SEO Copywriting is a masterful balance of keyword best practices and clear, customer-focused sales copy that triggers action. So few website owners value this balance until they see the results! As a Certified SEO Copywriter, I enjoy the fun mission of bringing clients around to that AHA! moment when it all comes together. To paraphrase a line from Eddie and The Cruisers: "We need each other man... keywords and sales copy."

Pam Foster www.ContentClear.com