The contention out there over SEO copy writing is astounding. With good cause, writers and SEMs alike are exchanging scuffles over the topic on a regular basis. Even established professionals like Heather Lloyd-Martin face staunch opposition in tactic.
“The most fundamental [strategy] is key phrase research. Learn how to put those key phrases into copy to have it make sense.”
This philosophy, to write write copy with search engines in mind, is the key offender. Bob Bly, the well-known author of “The Copywriter’s Handbook” is a vocal opponent and has even written an article titled “Why I Don’t Believe in SEO Copywriting.”
In this article… as if in response to Heather’s statement, Bly remarks, “When I write copy, [the] audience is the prospect, the potential buyer of the product I am selling. However, with SEO copywriting, you pander to another ‘audience’ - the search engines - and not the reader. And by creating copy that’s optimal for attracting search engines, you are, to some degree, weakening that copy’s power to sell. You dilute its strength because you are worrying about two audiences - the reader and the engines - instead of focusing every word on the customer.”
It would seem that Mr. Bly is, understandably, concerned about preserving the power of words… that by “pandering” to a spider, this is somehow compromised. Perhaps he’s correct. The argument is certainly strong. Yet let us consider Heather’s defense of such.
“SEO copywriting is still copywriting. It’s not changing the concepts of regular, direct response copy writing. What you’re doing is adding those key phrases in to make your copy more specific. You might not get to be as flowery as you’d get to be in a print catalog or you might not be able to describe things in fifty words and expect that page is going to position well. SEO copywriting is controlling the controllable on your website…. but to be able to walk that line between writing good content but making sure that you have keywords in there.”
Sounds innocent enough. Who’s to say that a careful craftsman couldn’t weave a poetic “compromise?” There’s certainly wisdom to be spread about in both camps… and that’s not even to consider other varying opinion.S
