Last updated on July 6th, 2009
During the AWAI conference, I had the good fortune to see my absolutely most favorite master copywriter present several sessions. When I visited his blog, though, I was a little taken aback by one of his recent posts… although I could see where he was coming from. Read for yourself what he said and my response below:
Why I Don’t Believe in SEO Copywriting
Bob Bly
“SEO (Search Engine Optmization) copywriting requires that the copywriter concern himself with strategic placement of key words within his Web copy to optimize search engine rankings of the pages he writes.
The problem is that to create really powerful copy, you have to have a single core audience in mind … and concentrate all your effort on writing to that one audience.
When I write copy, that audience is the prospect … the potential buyer of the product I am selling.
But with SEO copywriting, you are pandering to another audience … the search engines … and not the reader.
And by creating copy thats optimal for attracting search engines, you are, to some degree, weakening that copys power to sell … diluting its strength … because you are worrying about two audiences: the reader and the search engines … instead of focusing every word on the customer.
And thats not how to write copy that sells.
I think the best approach is:
1. Write the strongest selling copy you can aimed at the human reader … and forget the search engines.
2. Once that copy is finished, go back and check to make sure key words are appropriately placed, but….
3. Never change a word of strong selling copy if that change will make it even one iota weaker … even if SEO best practices would endorse that change.
In other words, write for the customer … and not SEO.
My small poll of top copywriters writers with a proven track record of writing winners agree.
“I’d rather invest my time and energy in [writing] interesting, informative, and fact-filled copy”, says Gary Bencivenga.
Parris Lampropoulos doesn’t even think about search engines when writing copy: “When I’m writing the copy, I’m working at one task and one task only: to get whoever is reading it to place the order.”
To which I add: Right on!”
Okay, Bob, although I think your writing is totally fantastic, you’re missing the boat on SEO copywriting. Here’s how I responded:
“Copywriters can easily write copy that appeals to search engines without sacrificing one word of the sales message. In fact, this is one area that traditional offline writers seem to be lagging in knowledge. The more knowledge you gain of search engines and online user behavior, the more its going to help your response rates.
Studies show that when the keywords used in a search by a customer appear on the page they click through to (especially in the headline) they are more likely to convert. A thorough keyword study can give you incredible insight into the words that your target audience is using, i.e., their motivations, fears, hopes, etc.
Proper SEO keyword research is a sadly underused part of research that can help any copywriter create more compelling online campaigns.
There is certainly much more that a copywriter needs to be aware of regarding search engines, but keep in mind that their goal is to show results that match what the customer is looking for. The closer that is to your site, the better your site will rank, and the more likely your site is to convert. So copy that supports a search engine strategy should be focused 100% on the customer – and if you’re not considering the search engines, then you’re not focusing on the end customer as much as you can.
P.S. I just wanted to clarify that my comments certainly weren’t meant to criticize Bob. I’m most likely one of his biggest fans! But I do think that when copywriters hear the phrase “Writing for the Search Engines” they too often hold a narrow view of what that entails…
I welcome your comments… And you can read his post and all the other comments here.