SEO copywriting has a terrible reputation, and with good reason. About ten years ago, marketers got data on what their content should include in order to rank well in Google search results, and they exploited every last factor.
The result was that the web became bloated with spammy, repetitive and poor-quality content and a few companies dominated search results.
Google caught up with these tactics and did a pretty good job at getting rid of the crap with a series of updates… and there has been an ongoing battle ever since.
Spammy marketers on one side, big tech companies on the other.
Trapped in the middle, you will find the poor SEO copywriter, who knows that the value of content is in writing for humans and not machines, but who is faced with clients demanding certain keyword densities and highly specific anchor text.
Thankfully, Google gets ever the wiser and even keywords do not have the power they used to have. If you write about laptops, it knows you also mean notebooks. If you write about pens and pencils, it knows you also mean stationery.
This is called semantic search and it means that the search engines look at the meaning behind, and the context around, your writing. This means there is (mercifully) no longer any need to have one page on your website called ‘taxi services Bolton’ and another called ‘taxi cab Bolton’ and a third called ‘call a taxi Bolton’, each with different content and each targeting the very same search.
SEO copywriters were right all along (and we knew it): you write for people, not machines Click To TweetThis is great for your long-suffering SEO copywriter and, more importantly, it is particularly great for anybody doing a Google search who does not want to have to search for each of those three variations when looking for a taxi.
So what does this mean for you?
It means that my commercial clients no need to commission multiple versions of the same piece of writing, just with different keyword phrases and anchor text embedded. It means that I can write content for you based around a phrase and its synonyms, which will read more naturally.
SEO copywriters were right all along (and we knew it): you write for people, not machines. If you want your content to deliver SEO value, you keep it focused and have a goal in mind, but there is no need to write like a robot choked on a dictionary and spat it out.
So if you want to boost your search engine visibility and think content can help you to do that, get in touch. I’ll be happy to have a chat.
Recent work includes
- SEO website copy for a garden machinery seller
- Ten SEO-focused blog posts for a broadband company
- Four blog posts for an affiliate website
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Image credit: Merakist and Ian Schneider