What is SEO copywriting? Is it worth the effort? What are the pros and cons? In this blog post, I am going to give a mild introduction to SEO copywriting or search engine optimization copywriting. This topic — which involves both art and science — is also referred to as search engine copywriting.

What is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting is the technique to writing website copy in such a way that it serves its purpose for human visitors or surfers and search engine spiders.

The purpose of writing for the search engines is of course, to rank highly in the search engine result pages for the targeted search terms. At the same time, the page has to be interesting for surfer to click, proceed to visit and read the web page, and take action based on the response the web publisher wants.

Why SEO Copywriting Instead of Other Techniques?

The next question is why search engine copywriting? Why should we use it instead of other techniques to rank on search engines?

The answer is simple. The idea behind this concept is that search engines want real content pages, not cloaked or supplemental pages like doorway pages. Instead of “cheating” the search engines into thinking that a page is relevant to a keyword or keyword phrase, search engines want real pages and based on the algorithms, rank those pages accordingly.

The problem is, search engine algorithms are programs — although they involve human editor in part of the process. They can’t rate relevance like human being, although they are getting better over the years. For now, there are things web publishers could do to improve the chance that search engine rate the page as relevant.

We are not talking about the off-page and off-site factors, but more about in-page content that we should have control in.

The Benefits of SEO Copywriting

Done right, SEO copywriting could be of benefits to web publishers. Not only do they get higher rankings in search engine result pages for the key terms they target, but also make the surfers feel the information in the page is relevant.

Search engine optimization copywriting is a science because although we can’t guarantee what search engines want, at least there are proven places where we could insert keywords or keyphrases that make search engine spiders aware of what the page is about.

It is also an art because we have be careful not to do it excessively that it triggers a warning to search engines. Writing to human beings is also a different skill. The combination of both world is what makes it an art.

Different target market talks differently, the purpose of the web page is also to communicate in a way that establish trust and relationship with its surfers.

SEO Copywriting Weaknesses

Nowadays, we can’t really depend on on-page factors to rank highly on search engines, especially on competitive keywords.

There are a few weaknesses that SEO copywriting can’t cover:

• It’s not suitable for all sites. Sites with very minimal copy could possibly use it, but care should be taken not to spoil the design and main purpose of the site.
• Cost and other resource barriers. To write for the benefits of both world is not an easy task, not to mention that copywriter is not cheap.
• It’s not a one time effort. Search engine algorithms change, to get the most out of copywriting, you have to continually make adjustment. At the very least, you should add more relevant pages to support the entire site.
• No guarantee at all. There is no guarantee that your rank will improve, even by hiring professional SEO copywriter.
• Varied in difficulties. Depends on how competitive the keywords are, SEO copywriting may get you a better ranking immediately or not at all. For highly competitive terms, full SEO campaigns cannot be overlooked if you want to rank on the first page.

Conclusion

I couldn’t say if SEO copywriting is worthwhile or not. It truly depends on you, your time, budget, and strategies.

If you are to target organic search traffic and are willing to spend time tweaking copy, or if you are in a very competitive market where every little thing you do matters and contributes to the whole strategy, then by all means use it to your benefit.

In other cases, your time and money may be better spent on other strategies.

For small and independent web publishers, my recommendation is at least you should learn how to satisfy search engines but write with human visitors in mind. This way, usually the flow of content will be natural for surfers, with the keywords still in key places.