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10/19/2006: "SEO Copywriting Tip: It's All About Words, Not Phrases"

SEO copywriting is not like is used to be --- if indeed it existed at all. Trouble is, most copywriters write their copy the same way it was done in the beginning.

But alas, the way people search has changed. We're getting smarter as the search engines seem to get dumber. Well, actually it's another reason, which I'll get into shortly.

Many moons ago when a 2400 baud modem was all the rage and Google wasn't even born yet, we had only a few Web sites.

Really we had a few hundred and that went to a few thousand and sort of stayed that way for awhile. My copywriting site was one of the first ones. But before that I had another site, which I would be ashamed to even look at today. It was sooo early Internet.

But I digress. My Starbucks hasn't kicked in yet. So back to SEO (Search Engine Optimized) copywriting. Back in the olden days of which I speak, you could type in one word and the search engine of the day would pop out a listing of appropriate sites.

Since there weren't that many sites, it wasn't all that hard to do. If, for example, you wanted a copywriter, you typed in the word "copywriter" without the quotes. My site and a few more came up. How sweet it was!

Now, however, you type in "copywriter" and you get not only me and some of my copywriter friends and loved ones but you also get Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia giving the low down on what a copywriter is and Gapingvoid, a great blog but not much to do with copywriting. and some books on Amazon about copywriting and on and on.

So what's a person to do if he's looking for a copywriter to write his Web site so he can get some business before he has to get a real job? He types in something like "cheap copywriter to write my website" or "web online copywriter" and so many more fun things like that.

Well, believe it or not, the word "cheap" can get you to my site. Why? I use the word "cheap" in my copy to describe what "not" to look for in a copywriter. It sure as hell doesn't describe me. Hey, I make people a ton of money and I expect to be paid well to do so.

But I digress again. At my age I'm entitled to digress from time to time so bear with me. I do have a point.

If I'm looking for a bodybuilding book, which I am almost all of the time, I don't type in bodybuilding book. Oh, that would have worked fine in early Internet years. Not now. Now I might type in "book about women bodybuilders who don't take steroids." Wahoo! That's a mouthful. But it usually gets me better results. After all, the search engines are full of bodybuilding books and you not only get books when you type in a short term but you get all sorts of sites that you're not at all keen about seeing.

So if you're an SEO copywriter or if you're (god forbid) a layman writing you own copy, you can't put in an awkward term like that or some other awkward term three times or so in the first 200 words of copy. Your copy would be terrible.

I had a client recently who asked me why I didn't use one of his key phrases exactly as it was listed in his list of key phrases. Here's why:

The search engines do not --- I repeat DO NOT --- read. They do not digest entire sentences and ideas. They see WORDS. Got it. Words. So if I put the word copywriter on my Web site and then mumble some other great things about myself including the fact that I write brochures and radio commercials and blah blah blah, guess what. Google and the other search engines see me if you type in "radio copywriter" or "radio commercial copywriter" or any number of permeation of that phrase. Or brochure copywriter. Or a hundred other different phrases. Thus, you've typed in a specific result that you want and you come up with the greatest of all time radio copywriters. Me.

But the search engines also grab my site if you type in "cheap copywriter" because I lavish the word "cheap" on my site in poking fun at people who think they're smart to screw copywriters out of what they deserve. So right after
cheap-copy.com you get expensive SKH's site. You also get Michel Fortin's Blog --- not a surprise. You can read everything a copywriter ever thought on that great blog.

But I digress yet again.

Let's fade to black here and go to wrap. In writing your Web copy, don't concern yourself with using clunky phrases.

Write for your audience. Write well. Talk to the people who visit your site. Don't talk to the search engines.

Yes, use the words you want. Use all the words in a long phrase. But for god's sake don't feel the need to use them as you say them. Again she tells you --- the damn search engines do not read! They see words. Words, my friends.

Write words.

Keep it simple. After all, I'll bet in a few days if you type in "copywriter who take steroids" you'll see this site listed. How's that for dumb search engines? But how's that for SEO copywriting? Assuming, of course, I really cared to be found in that manner or, indeed, if anyone was really looking for such a copywriter. Though I do confess my copy is copy on steroids. I, on the other hand, am not.

My point is simple. Whatever words I write will be coupled with my main keywords. I don't need to, nor should I, write out a silly phrase that looks and sounds stupid and artificial, to get the listings I want --- and far too many that I don't want. Ah, but you can't will 'em all.

Now back to my Starbucks and The Wall Street Journal. It's almost time to hit the weights.

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