Guest Post: Andy Owen. How to copywrite your website….part 4

By rebecca Tuesday February 16, 2010

SEO for your website

To give it its full name, search engine optimisation is the technique of writing copy text on a web page in such a way that it reads well for the spiders. This can result in the site enjoying a higher ranking in the search engines for the targeted search terms.

It is a discipline that everyone talks about, yet literally only a handful of knowledgeable writers out there, have any idea of how to write this type of copy well.

And this is why…

I am convinced that to be effective at writing SEO copy, you have to be a direct marketer first – and an SEO copywriter second. (The best in the world at it, is a good chum of mine, Ian Dewar, who is an old DM ligger like me and ran one of the first DM agencies in London in the halcyon days.)

The reason is very simple:

What your website copy has to do, is interest your visitors (that means your potential prospects, customers and clients) in what you have to sell, the moment they arrive on your site and start reading. Never mind anything else. Your website has to sell…

SEO is ‘manufactured’ copy aimed to attract a particular audience. But, it’s not those potential prospects, customers or clients at all, staggeringly – but the spiders. These are those shadowy figures that get turned on to your particular subject or discipline, by reading copy that has the right number of relevant phrases and words in any block of copy, that they find important.

The spiders review web pages and if they like what they see, they rate the page highly, which in turn drives traffic to the site. I think we can all understand the logic there. But there’s a BIG problem with this. And it’s as big as it gets…

Companies are now placing more importance on this ‘manufactured’ copy, than on the ‘real’ copy that does the selling. I have seen numerous sites recently, where copy is clearly written for the spiders – not for human beings.

This means that all this costly work done to attract spiders, get high rankings and drive traffic – is totally undone in an instant.

Why? Because when real people visit the site, they are confronted with copy that’s so unattractive and unappealing, so lacking in the killer elements, it fails to connect. So, the visitor leaves and will never return. It’s barmy…

The spiders love you. But real people don’t. It’s total lunacy in my book.

But why are we getting seduced by all this stuff?

I’ll tell you why; it’s this obsession about being on page one of the rankings. To a lot of people, this is vital. I can understand it, if you’re a mail order company or selling a special widget, or have something vertically different – but for the rest of us, it’s not something we even aspire to.

For the vast majority of you out there who have a website, you look at it as virtually your corporate brochure on line. Your website is there for one main reason – to support and underpin your promotional efforts.

So, when your promotional strategy and your valuable money has succeeded in driving real people to your website, every single word has to sell as hard as it can. Whatever you may be selling or providing, you invest your money in promoting your speciality – something that you offer that’s better or different than anyone else.

All those efforts will result in business from those you convince quickly – or continuing interest from those you don’t. The latter group will return again to visit your website to get further information, a more convincing argument or to allay their suspicions or fears.

Good, well-written copy is essential to convert these individuals, who are interested, but not convinced.

Now what I’m saying here, is this. Copy that has been written by an “SEO professional” is not the best copy you could present to someone in that scenario. And, I’m being very kind when I say that.

I’ve been in DM for nearly 30 years. I’ve been writing cutting-edge copy for the best part of that time. I know what is needed technically and emotionally in copy terms, to get a prospect hooked – in any medium.

Every word is a weapon in selling copy. Every comma, dash and dot is a calculated decision. We write that way for a reason. It delivers. It convinces. It produces interest, response and orders. It SELLS.

I would never ALLOW my cutting-edge copy to be diluted and defaced by a SEO copywriter who is only interested in spiders. Who the bloody hell are they anyway? Spiders do not place business. People do. And real people do not get turned on by manufactured copy.

We have so much information to back this up, it’s scary. So why are we letting these charlatans mutilate that hard-working copy that we have taken so long to prepare? This has worried the hell out of me for the last couple of years.

Digital is now on top of everyone’s agenda to such an extent, that in certain circles, to criticise any part of it, is tantamount to heresy. Well, I don’t give a monkey’s chuff about that. A lot of digital these days is 100%, first division garbage – and I’m not afraid to say it. The main reason it is garbage, is because people are forgetting the basics …we HAVE to communicate…we HAVE to SELL…

Nothing is more important. Nothing…

Whatever people may tell you to the contrary – copywriting techniques that sell off-line, will sell on-line too… …believe it, because it’s true…

Keep the faith

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