What is an SEO copywriter?

Most businesses know that SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and Search Engine Land defines it as “…the process of getting traffic from the ‘free,’ ‘organic,’ ‘editorial’ or ‘natural’ search results on search engines.”

Taking that a little further, SEO copywriting is a specific form of content writing that works to rank online content higher in the search engines, and drives targeted traffic from the search engines to your website. SEO copywritten content contains keywords and phrases to allow the search engines to classify content and decide how relevant it is, in order to serve up the best results to their users.

Put simply, SEO copywriting is the ability to write excellent content that suits both the search engine bots and human readers. It shouldn’t sound like it’s been written around keywords, even though it has. Great SEO content should sound entirely natural, while still targeting the required keywords and phrases.

According to HubSpot, “61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority”, so SEO copywriting is a skill that’s worth developing.

You can read about SEO copywriting in more detail on our blog.

What is an SEO copywriter?

Someone with the skill to manage the finely balanced art of keeping both audience and search engines happy. Someone who can produce educational, entertaining, authentic and authoritative content for their readers, while seamlessly blending the right keywords and phrases into the copy that will get that content rocketing up the search engine results.

SEO copywriters are both experts in writing content and experts in search engine optimisation.

Some people still think that not caring about quality and stuffing a bunch of keywords into a blog post will fool Google and get their website found. While that might work for a little while, the second Google finds that sloppy, keyword-stuffed content is the second that business’s website disappears to the bottom depths of whatever passes for website hell, never to be seen again.

What does an SEO copywriter do all day?

Much like any other copywriter, they’ll have a variety of things to do that are nothing to do with writing: admin, sending out invoices and doing accounts, marketing their business, networking, taking client meetings, checking emails and project planning.

SEO copywriters often work with other professionals as part of a team to bring a project to a successful conclusion. They might work with web designers, content strategists, programmers, app builders and social media marketers.

And when they do get to the writing, just like any other writer, they could be creating anything from ebooks, blogs, sales copy, articles and web copy to social media posts.

The difference between an SEO copywriter and any other writer is that every brief is carefully researched to understand what keywords and phrases should be included to boost the content in the search engines (if the client hasn’t already supplied these). And an SEO copywriter knows how to smoothly and invisibly weave those keywords and phrases throughout the copy in a way that sounds completely natural and unforced.

What is an SEO copywriter That’s not to say that other writers ignore SEO and keywords, because they don’t, but SEO copywriters are specialists in this area.

It is the SEO copywriter who writes the type of content that will drive traffic, increase search engine rankings, grab the attention of the client’s audience and improve conversion rates.

Here’s an idea of the process an SEO copywriter goes through with a piece of content:

Note that none of that has anything to do with keyword stuffing. It’s not forcing or attempting to cheat their way to a better ranking. It’s simply writing the copy correctly for both the human audience and for the search engines.

“72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic.” – Ascend2 via HubSpot. Given that statistic, it’s highly unlikely that the job of SEO copywriter is going to disappear anytime soon.

If you’d like to learn how to make SEO copywriting your career, check out this helpful article from Heather Lloyd-Martin of SuccessWorks.

The benefits of hiring an SEO copywriter for your business

SEO copywriting, like any other copywriting, isn’t just about being found in the search engines. It’s about providing brilliant content that grabs your readers, builds trust, and engages them by being authentic and passionate about your topic.

“When trust sells, what’s the real message the consumer is trying to convey to marketers? Make it real, and we’ll stick around.” – Marketing Insider Group

Main image credit: SandCrestSEO

This content was originally published here.

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