I had an interesting experience the other day while doing some online research. I ran across a website discussing why writers and content marketers hate SEO. As a writer myself, that was news to me. Hoping it was a lone opinion I did some searching. I discovered pages upon pages of discussions about how SEO forces writers to create bad content and punishes those who write well.
Now, I know I don’t hate SEO, so I asked our Senior Copywriter Nathan Williams, who leads content marketing initiatives for clients in a wide range of industries, for his feelings on the subject. Here’s what he had to say:
“It’s interesting that a copywriter would say they hate SEO, because the two work hand-in-hand, at least in my experience. From the copywriting perspective, SEO is the afterthought. If the SEO tactics are on the level, the copywriter just has to make sure the keywords won’t disrupt the flow or distract from the point.
It’s not fair to say that copywriters hate SEO, because that opinion is painting with a really wide brush. And there’s no need to feel that way. SEO provides actions, targets and priorities, and copywriters use that information to tailor the content. The two sides must work together, or both fail.”
What SEO Copywriting Isn’t
Nathan’s point really emphasizes what separates true SEO from the kind of black hat tactics that give websites a brief bump followed by a long, hard fall. There’s a mindset out there that search is a system to be gamed, and for some reason a terrifyingly large number of people in the SEO biz think that gaming that system is a better choice than working within it.
That’s why you’ll still find sites out there hiring bargain basement copywriters with no real skill or experience, and using spinning software to create meaningless, garbage content. Meanwhile behind-the-scenes they are buying links, hiding keywords in code, and participating in all sorts of unsavory practices meant to trick search engines and serve up content that does not answer the question posed in the search query.
The real irony in this is that they are likely putting more effort into those tactics than we on the white hat, ethical SEO side are by just following the rules and creating quality content.
It’s Not SEO’s Fault
Keyword stuffing and creating nothing content around random terms is not what we signed on for, and the results are not what clients sign on for, either. Any copywriter is going to be unhappy in a system like that.
But what Nathan talked about, and what the rest of us who work on the copywriting side here at SEO Advantage know, is that when your behind the scenes SEO and coding folks are doing their jobs well, all you really have to do is write relevant content with a few placement adjustments here or there. We probably spend less than 10% of our copywriting time thinking about keywords, because if what you are writing truly speaks to the question asked in the search query, the keywords don’t have to be stuffed. They flow organically.
If, as a copywriter, you find yourself at odds with SEO, then the problem likely isn’t with the system itself, but with the way you are being asked to manipulate it.