Aull Or Nothing

Over at one of the online discussion forums I frequent, recently a member complained about problems with search engine optimization. Specifically, one of his issues was that a site that had supposedly been “SEO’d” was not generating as many inquiries as a site that had not been “optimized.”

I’m not sure he was ready to hear what I had to say… but, of course, that didn’t stop me from saying it anyway. My answer was: if a page that has supposedly been optimized isn’t converting, then it hasn’t truly been optimized. I advised him to go back and take another look at the copy on his page to see what he could do to make it more compelling, interesting and “human-friendly.”

Seems a lot of folks have some strange ideas about SEO copywriting — for instance, that it consists primarily of stuffing keywords all over the place to increase some mythical “keyword density.” Or that it needs to focus on a single phrase per page and you cannot use any similar or related phrases on that page without “diluting” something or other.

Unfortunately, some of these folks with the strange ideas are so-called professional copywriters who are peddling these misconceptions to their clients and prospects.

What’s lost in all this? They’re so busy focusing on the “SEO” part, they’ve apparently forgotten about the “copywriting” part. Last I checked, search engine spiders still aren’t carrying credit cards. Sure, you want to write copy that the search engines will “like,” but you’ve also got to keep the needs and desires of your human visitors in mind.

Here’s the bottom line. It makes no difference what kind of copy it is, or where it’s going to be used. If the copy doesn’t inspire a good percentage of its readers to take whatever action the business owner wants them to take, then the copy has not done its job.

This can be a delicate balancing act. But that’s part of the professional copywriter’s job. I don’t mean to come across as harsh, but if someone is not capable of writing copy that focuses appropriately on a target search phrase and is compelling, persuasive and appealing to human readers, that person has no business holding themselves out as an SEO Copywriter.

Cranking out poorly-written, keyword-stuffed prose is not SEO copywriting.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “content is king.” Of course, content isn’t the only component of website optimization, or even necessarily the most important component, but it is definitely a significant factor.

Beyond it’s influence with search engines, your content has a strong influence on your site’s human visitors. The words and images on your page make a tremendous difference in their perception of your product or service and how likely they are to buy.

Most website owners probably realize this. Which makes it all the more puzzling when so many consistently leave out what I think is the most important factor to encourage those conversions.

What do they leave out? A call to action and a link to their actual product or service.

They write wonderfully informational articles, chock full of useful advice. Fascinating stuff. Their visitors are entertained, informed, educated… but without a call to action, without a link to the applicable product or service, many visitors don’t know what to do next. They read the article, then simply click away to another site.

Don’t make this mistake with your website content. Don’t leave your site visitors hanging, wondering what to do. If you’re going to go through the trouble of writing an article for your site, be sure to include a call to action and a link to your most relevant offering.

If you need some ideas of how to incorporate appropriate calls to action and product links with your articles, I’ve included some examples in this article I wrote for Search Engine Guide.