In 2005, the perceived value of professional website content
writing, which should be on the rise as more and more businesses
go online, has in the last few years been devalued by the advent
of SEO and the search engines' relentless focus on
keyword-enhanced content.

That has resulted in many SEO firms and their clients shopping
around for the cheapest search engine copywriters they can find,
believing that the craft is simply a matter of tucking a bunch
of keyword phrases into some copy and Voila! a recipe for higher
rankings and more traffic.

Budgeting For Content

An SEO company wanted to subcontract their client's search engine
copywriting work to me. The client had just spent $3000 on an
optimized web design, but only budgeted $600 for the copywriting...
1/5 of the total budget!

This would be just dandy if he didn't hope to generate income
from his online business. But he did. And simply failed to
realize that it's the words that do the selling. Not the design.
Not the shiny new e-store. Not even the search engine
optimization tricks he paid so dearly for.

What Is Search Engine Copywriting, Really?

Many SEOs are contributing to the confusion by selling
optimization packages that don't place enough importance on
quality search engine copywriting - by which I mean copywriting
that not only includes a healthy search term ratio but also uses
proper sales writing techniques that help ensure visitors are hit
with a message that:

-gets and keeps their attention
-engages them in a personal, meaningful way
-persuades them to browse the product/service line
-motivates them to buy or make contact
-convinces them of the company's credibility and reputation

Cheap SEO copywriting simply cannot deliver all that. What it most
often delivers is spammy, keyword-stuffed copy that teeters on
the brink of readability.

And sadly, this seems to be okay with a surprising number of
website owners who just want to rank more highly in the search
engines, assuming that conversions will come along for the ride.
So they hand over their site to the SEO company believing that
rankings is the magic bullet that will make it all happen.

Two Types of Copywriting Clients

Here's another tale from the SEO copywriting trenches. As a
website content writer and search engine copywriter, I have
identified two very different types of clients. Those who come
to me wanting professional copy to sell their products and
improve their brand awareness. And those who want optimized
content for better rankings. Period.

I ask all of them to answer some questions about their target
audience, their unique selling proposition, their competitors,
etc.

The first group of clients eagerly tackle their homework and
usually put some thought into it, recognizing it's important
stuff that deserves their attention because it will ultimately
contribute to their goal of a more effective and profitable
website.

The second group, the "optimize-me-in-a-hurry" ones, tend to
rattle off a few pat answers or just don't respond. I can only
assume that for them, website content is solely a tool to
appease the search engines, no more important than monthly search
engine submissions and meta tags.

Bargain Basement Mentality

This is a frustrating time for web copywriters in the evolution
of search. We want to be able to give the full monty (quality
sales writing that's optimized well) but a large segment of the
SEO marketplace seems to be demanding bargain-basement copy
slapped together with a maximum of keywords and a minimum of
thought.

Personally I foresee a day, hopefully not too far down the line,
when things begin to swing back around to a time when search
engine optimization was A factor in online success, not THE
factor.

When the power and relevance of the message mattered more than
keyword saturation.

When copywriters were judged on their ability to write gripping
and persuasive content, not on the speed with which they can churn
out drivel in the name of SEO.

Can Google and the other engines create an algorithm clever
enough to rank a site based on the quality of its writing and
the relevance of its message WITHOUT counting keywords?

It can't happen soon enough.

(You can respond to this article here:
http://thewritecontent.blogspot.com )


Suspect your web copy isn't working hard enough for you? Get a
FREE website content analysis on your site, with tips to make
your content more compelling and search engine friendly. Visit
TheWriteContent.com for details:
http://www.thewritecontent.com/freereport.html