SEO copywriting as perceived when it began is not what SEO copywriting is perceived as today.

During the virtual dinosaur age, SEO copywriting meant writing keyword rich content that helped the website rank high on search engines.

This was soon seen as a drawback as unscrupulous copywriters began to churn out pages after pages of content directed mainly at impressing the search engines.

For eg., if the primary keyword was “seo copywriter” then the content, especially the first paragraph, read:

“Seo copywriter in India offering SEO copywriting services to global clients who need the services of SEO copywriters. Our SEO copywriters have great experience in SEO copywriting for global audiences”

Of course, the search engines would be very much impressed but imagine the frustration a reader would go through. Especially if the reader is a potential customer. By the time they complete the first paragraph they’d have pulled half their hair.

SEO copywriters were doing a cardinal marketing sin: writing for machines and not for humans!

Yes, you’re right, this was during the time when meta tags had higher importance in search engine algorithms.

With the advent of social media and related tools like blogging, digging, stumbling etc the face of SEO copywriting changed for good. Bursting through this cacophony of incredulous bulls*** came the proponents of the current SEO copywriting.

That cleared a lot of air.

The current crop of quality and reliable search engine optimization copywriters do not write for search engines. Yes, it is quite paradoxical, I know, thank you very much.

The present crop of SEO copywriters write for (drum rolls please) human beings!

The reasoning is two-fold:

1. Search Engines have stopped looking for keyword stuffing and rely more on humans to “recommend” good content and websites to the search engines. Users achieve this through numerous ways: digg, SU, del.icio.us, sphinn, twitter and so on
2. Most importantly, content has to be written for human beings. You see, search engine spiders don’t buy your stuff, search engine spiders don’t subscribe to your newsletters, and search engine spiders don’t spend their money on you. Humans do. So it was basic common sense that you have to write for humans.

So what does today’s SEO copywriter do?

Simple. Create compelling content that other users can recommend to the friends and search engines.

That is what you, as an SEO copywriter, need to do and that is what you, as a client looking to hire an SEO copywriter need to ask for in the candidate.

The titles, opening, synonyms, bullet points, call-to-action, conclusion – everything – needs to be written first for humans and then for search engines.

As you now realize, a search engine optimization copywriter must also have the working knowledge of sales writing and buying behaviour of human beings. The reasoning is simple: if one knows how to motivate a person to buy a product then she will also know how to make people bookmark and recommend any content.

The conclusion: SEO copywriting, my friend, is now not limited to keywords only!

Contact Vishal Nayak to discuss your copywriting and marketing needs!