Writing is a challenge
"For the brand to grow stronger, and for the customer to have a better life" – this is the motto on every salesperson's desk and every SEO specialist's desk, and the copywriter repeats it in their sleep before getting ready to work on a piece for a website, blog, website, portal, or anywhere else they can promote the best product or service under the sun. This is the "reality" the client expects, and therefore any flaw in this image is cause for dissatisfaction, complaints, and often unfair judgments, which view all agency work as worthless, based on weak texts that, at best, "were written by a third-grade elementary school graduate diagnosed with dysorthographia." Yes, you can hear it all. SEO copywriting is falling victim to a campaign of dissatisfied clients who want prose at least as good as Sienkiewicz, but instead receive the graphical displays of an amateur who knows nothing but speaks… Oh, that's what content authors get for writing for SEO , a specific form of content creation for Google search engine optimization.
Rigid framework for creation
SEO copywriting isn't easy. It's ploughing on a fallow field. The bumpy road of building content that's valuable to a bot and engaging to a real reader presents many challenges, including the requirement to use "crooked" phrases in the nominative case (including the service and city name, e.g., "paving stone cleaning Zielona Góra"), and to include 20 keywords in a 3500-character text. The guidelines also stipulate that specially constructed subheadings are necessary, and content on narrow topics must be "looong" and substantive. This is what content analysis tools (including Senuto) and SEO specialists, who use them to develop an action plan, say.
Technical aspects aren't everything. If the entire range of guidelines includes specialized website topics, and the client doesn't provide or doesn't have accessible materials, the copywriter faces a lot of hard work – research, preparing an outline, and finally, developing the right content. All of this requires time and the ability to search for factual and reliable information. Therefore, a sharp mind, vigilance, and a detective's inquisitiveness in searching for the necessary data will be essential. Of course, many topics are considered so-called "lighter caliber," but dangers can lurk here. What seems easy for one person is another's minefield. So how much truth is there in the common belief that a good copywriter can handle any topic and satisfy every client?
Who wrote that he didn't do a good job?
The copywriter's work results in text for a website, company blog, or thematic portal. The client's task now is to review the material and decide on publication. In the vast majority of cases, the resulting content is approved and implemented without reservations. We are then told that we did it, that we know our stuff, that our content is excellent, and that we will definitely receive further content requests.
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Some texts are returned to the agency with substantive comments or requests for a more or less formal style. Based on clear guidelines, we revise the material and send it back to the client. In this scenario, nearly 100% of the texts receive approval and are published on the website.
It's a completely different story when the material comes back (incidentally, after a very long review period) with a note that doesn't really tell us much. The most common comments include: "this is hopeless," "hard to read," "pointless," "weak," "who wrote this!!!?", and "a disaster." With 5 million characters passing through our hands each month, it's possible that a client might receive a text that's off-topic, lacks substance, lacks style, or is too similar in content to that of a competitor's website. We do everything we can to minimize the risk of this happening. But if it does happen, we could accept even the harshest criticism if, in addition to a terse comment, we received even one suggestion—highlighting incorrect information in the text or sections that don't fit the client's style. A link to a similar website or related materials would be helpful, for example.
Meanwhile, in these rare but memorable cases, instead of a chance for immediate improvement (we prioritize corrected orders), we receive, at best, a series of emails expressing blunt dissatisfaction with the collaboration, and in a slightly worse case scenario, we receive poor online recommendations or a termination notice. In extreme cases, the client uses this situation as an argument to terminate the contract early without honoring the termination terms. We're never entirely sure whether the reason for dissatisfaction is the supposedly poor quality of the texts or the alleged lack of progress in website optimization . As practice shows, if you don't know what's going on, it's about money... but that's a topic for another article.
SEO Copywriting – Two Birds with One Stone
Good content is the key to a website's success. Well-written content captures the attention of online searchers. However, content-rich websites don't reach the top search engine rankings by accident. Expert text construction, a well-chosen set of thematic keywords, and optimal text length are, alongside appropriate linking, among the most important factors for achieving high rankings in Google. This is the first step in the process. Once a website is ranked high enough, meaning on the first page of the search engine, the likelihood of clicking on a link is very high. If a user does so, and doesn't find the information they're interested in—i.e., valuable content—then conversion, i.e., a purchase or registration form, won't occur. SEO copywriters are responsible for ensuring that the website's content attracts attention, retains users, and encourages them to take action. In their work, they must construct the appropriate textual framework and fill it with engaging, relevant content.
You will know them by their fruits
The global web is full of words. Every day, hundreds of millions of characters of new publications enter this limitless space, a significant portion of which are texts of questionable quality and/or usefulness. When users search for information on a given topic, they are interested in specific products or services, and they want the ones that most closely match their expectations. Recent research leaves no doubt that the modern internet user doesn't read text on a page, but rather scans it. The average web user tends to focus on photos or moving images. At the same time, it's known that the most popular search engine requires content to provide criteria for recommendations. How does it select the optimal content from a vast mass of text? While Google doesn't disclose its search engine algorithm, it clearly defines the characteristics of good content that outclasses content available from competitors:
- the content of the website should respond to the user's query and/or constitute a response to his/her purchasing need,
- the content should have educational value,
- the text should be fluid, logical and easy to read,
- the most important information should be easy to identify and available at the initial stage.
A good SEO copywriter is one who, with a "good pen," can reconcile all of these qualities. They can combine the optimization aspect of content with the ease expected by the reader, meaning they demonstrate both technical knowledge and flair. However, it's important to remember that SEO content isn't usually written by specialists in every field. Most of them delve into the topic by working on it. Clients must realize that writing about difficult, often specialized topics in accessible language that the average user understands is a real art. In the vast majority of cases, it's the average user who lands on a page that's found in search engines.
To understand is to want more
A user who lands on a page with the information they're looking for, presented clearly and understandably, is likely to stay longer. Therefore, it's important to structure the content of individual subpages so that they're encouraged to move on and explore the rest. If an SEO copywriter is working in a field that doesn't require delving into the ins and outs of specialized terminology, the task is simpler. Clients typically don't object to even radical changes to the website's text. The situation is somewhat different when the author is faced with a complex topic, such as topics related to industries or specialized services. Typically, when the idea of adding a bit of depth to complex text arises, meaning translating it into less professional language and giving it a marketing touch, there's significant resistance from clients. Companies want to maintain the image of a competent, professional enterprise, even at the cost of reduced SEO effectiveness . According to those managing company websites, presenting an offer in less professional language can affect the perception of a company as a serious business partner or supplier of products or services. Meanwhile, our observations suggest that lightening the text on company websites, allowing for changes after negotiations, yields positive results. Customers notice that internet users who are spoken to in a more understandable language begin to trust them more and become interested in their offerings.
There's no SEO without good content. There's no good content without a skilled copywriter—one who's not only creative and fluent in Polish, but also experienced in the art of SEO content creation. Such a writer can write a sample copy that convinces difficult clients to allow them to change their website content in line with optimization principles. If, in addition, our copywriter can correctly interpret requests, search for information, and complete tasks on time, then we've landed a real gem.
We invite you to take advantage of our SEO Copywriting , Content Writing, and Webwriting services. We employ 80 authors who create 5 million characters of valuable content monthly.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- the most important issues in the field of SEO, SEM, web analytics and content marketing.
