Walking the Fine Line of SEO Copywriting

There are countless opinions out there about the "right” way to approach SEO copywriting. Some would say that playing to the desires of the search engines is most critical, while others would argue that making your Website content readable and user-friendly should be the priority. So who's right? Well like the title says—it's truly a fine line.

So much has changed about SEO and the way we approach it in recent years that it would be foolish to say that any one person's opinion on the matter it totally correct. From the advent and extraordinary evolution of social media to evolving, ever-changing search engine algorithms, trying to keep up with what the consensus is on SEO copywriting "best practices” is sometimes enough to make copywriters like myself dizzy. Now, who's reading you, linking to you and writing about you is just as relevant a concern as how "well optimized” your site content may be.  

One thing is for certain though—organic search engine optimization is no cut and dry science by any stretch of the imagination. What some once considered to be as easy a task as simply stuffing a bunch of related keywords into a body of text is now far more complicated and many would argue increasingly ambiguous. While having well-optimized copy that is written to appeal to search engines is extremely important, is having copy that people actually want to read and find intriguing any less so? Not in my opinion.

As an SEO copywriter I'm frequently faced with the dilemma of quantity of keywords verses quality of content, and finding the happy medium between the two.  If there's a certain word or phrase that you know should ideally be in a certain page of copy, but just doesn't seem to logically fit or make sense from a visitor's perspective, do you force it in or leave it out? Obviously this is something to be dealt with on a case by case basis; but in every case, finding that cohesive balance is always vital.  

Good SEO copywriting is about far more than just throwing some keywords on a page and hoping that does the trick. That's only half the battle. It's about not only doing your research and choosing the right words, but also finding the right way to connect with your audience, draw them in and make them instantly believe that your site is exactly what they are looking for. No one wants to painstakingly rummage through an unorganized, poorly written mass of copy to try and find what it is they first came to the search engine to find in the first place. 

Regardless of how well your site may presently rank for a given keyphrase, if visitors find the page cluttered and unappealing, they may not even take the time to see if your site does indeed offer the product, service or other information they are looking for. 

After all, you can have the most meticulously optimized site in your industry, and it may rank well—for the short term least. If, however, your target audience doesn't find the content on your site captivating and it doesn't fulfill their individual needs, they aren't going to stay long—and eventually "they” will stop showing up altogether.