April 18th, 2007 - SEO Copywriting: Does Search Friendly Mean Human Readable?
(This is an article that ran some time ago on marketingprofs.com. It has since been moved to their members only section, so only the abstract is available for free. Here’s the original draft.)
The aggressive drive to be the number one search result in Google continues to change the nature of communication. No one is feeling that more than today’s copywriters. In less than a decade, many copywriters have fundamentally changed, or felt pressured to change, the approach to their craft. They have learned that some traditional communications tactics don’t register well with a greasy machine named Googlebot.
Here’s a scenario that illustrates a painful growth curve experienced in many marketing departments.
Meet Paul, a top-notch copywriter with an advertising background who found his way to the marketing department of a 400-employee factory automation company. When they created the company’s site in 1998, search relevance wasn’t a factor. Paul wrote in whatever fashion suited the brand, often pasting copy from print materials onto Web pages with no regard for what actual terms customers might use to search for their services on the Web. No one found the material through search, but what few visitors the site received were greeted with copy that was on-brand and generally well-written.
The years roll by. The site grows, becomes more web-friendly, introduces some Flash animation highlighting product features, and has gained substantial recognition as a core part of the marketing communications arsenal.
Then one day a new online marketing manager is hired. He arrives armed with spreadsheets full of keyword research data. He explains to Paul that last month 735 people searched for “factory automation software” on Yahoo but didn’t find the company’s site (years ago Paul’s manager decided that any website reference to “automation software” should be replaced with “the Synentex Auto-3000” to build product recognition). His list of keywords includes dozens of other, more obscure phrases that Paul can’t imagine including in a well-written paragraph.
Paul sticks to his guns, citing the importance of brand messaging and effective communication that is unbridled by statistical measures of relevance. So the marketing manager boldly takes a crack at it. The result: what was once a well-structured, compelling business argument now reads like a thesaurus entry full of awkward keyword phrases that do little to enhance the selling proposition. After hearing Paul’s concerns, the marketing manager has a curt reply: “But it will rank well on the search engines.”
In this scenario, no one wins. It illustrates a common quandary: do you sacrifice brand experience and copy quality in order to gain some traffic, or vice versa? Thankfully, there is a middle ground in which you can produce good copy that is a pleasure to read (and prompts the desired response at a high rate) and also indexes well with the search engines. The middle ground is based on some simple SEO best practices, applied through the skills and talents of a good copywriter.
Here are some guidelines that may help:
Know the Numbers: While there will be many judgment calls regarding keyword phrases and the prominence with which they are used, in our search-driven online marketplace there are no good excuses for ignorance. It’s critical to understand what search terms could help potential customers find your site, the frequency with which those search phrases are used, and the number of competing sites that are part of the search results. A well thought keyword-strategy is table-stakes.
Strike a Balance: While there may be several attractive phrases to target for search engine optimization, you’ll get best results if you target one or two keyword phrases per page.
Link keywords into phrases: If “factory automation” and “automation software” are potential search phrases, you can combine these into a phrase “factory automation software”. Using this phrase with consistency will build relevance for both search phrases and helps to reduce keyword clutter.
Direct your link text: If you have any control over the links that point to your site (through directory listings, channel partners, etc.), and with the internal links on your site, craft link text that integrates your chosen keywords. Search engines look at the words in the links pointing to your pages to determine the relevance of those pages. So instead of having others link to “Synentex”, have them link to “Synentex Factory Automation Software”. What does this have to do with copywriting? Well, if the relevancy of your page is driven by the link text of the pages pointing to it, you’ll need to worry less about using those keywords on the body copy of the page, giving you more creative reign.
Link keywords with a colon: The page title and description, while not always read by human visitors, are a great place to use your keywords prominently. Use a colon to separate the company name and the main keyword. This ensures that your keyword has high prominence (closeness to the beginning of the text sentence), an important factor for search relevance. For example, as a title: “Synentex: Factory Automation Software and factory automation installation”. For the description, try “Factory Automation Software from Synentex, a provider of …”
Choose few targets, Aim well: Not every page of a site needs to be rigorously optimized. Have a clear understanding of where you can get the best benefit. For pages that are not likely to receive search traffic, you have more liberty to write the perfect copy that builds a great experience and sells the brand.
Finding a person who can deliver great copy is a challenge. But finding a good copywriter who can deliver great search-friendly copy is extremely rare. But with the right approach you can bridge worlds to create compelling copy that gets found by those searching for your products or services.
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:36 am
Dan, i think you raised a particularly good point here. Who’s responsibility is it really to creat well written, search engine friendly content for your site? The tack that many marketers seem to take now, is to supply the keyword data list directly to the copywriter and request taht these be used within articles. It’s not ideal, but many copywriters just don’t understand basic SEO.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Never heard of using the colon to link keywords.. I will have to try that out.. Thanks for the great info.
February 26th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I can only agree with some of the other comments her. I have more time on my hands than I need and have returned to my favourite past-time, writing. i`ve also spent some time buying and reading everything I can to understand SEO for my sites. Whether to write freely or to write for the search engines…AAArgh. Best piece of advise I`ve come accross yet. Optimise for one word. Simple. Write as you will. Thankyou. I`ll be able to rest easier at night now.
March 8th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I would add that actively linking other articles of your website inside an article is also an effective strategy a copywriter should think about when writing for the web.
March 17th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Hi -
In your example regarding the “colon”: Don’t you think it’s better put Synentex at the end of the title ?
The left part it’s more important. Is it something you are trying to optimize ?
Regards
Enric
March 18th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Enric, you’re right. A more aggressive strategy would be to include the company name after the other keywords, which is done in many cases. There are a pretty consistent set of Title syntaxes to choose from, ranging from least to most aggressive. The trade-off to consider is the prevalence of the company and brand, which is typically of less significance in titles as in other areas such as Description.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article , but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.