The "SEO Manifesto"

'SEO Copywriting" is a term that gets thrown around quite a bit.

Is it SEO? Is it copywriting?

Can the two ever coexist? Joel Klettke and I discuss this in today's conversation.

Quick Links: 00:00 Introduction 01:40 What is SEO copywriting? 05:22 Beginner copywriting and SEO mistakes 08:00 Why CTR is the most important metric in Page 1 SEO rankings 10:15 SEO vs. Content Marketing 11:00 SEO research and Copywriting research

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What SEO copywriting means really depends on who you ask. Some live and die by it and some swear it is it's own full-blown skillset.

Copywriters who also know SEO and understand the impact of rankings and title tags are awesome.

Joel, and I, both hate the phrase SEO copywriting because typically when you're writing copy for the web you're writing for the intent of engaging a human being

SEO copywriting, on the other hand, is a phase used by companies on Upwork who want spammy articles they hope will bring in search traffic but also covert people to an offer. It becomes this less awesome game of keyword density and other nonsense.

If you're doing copywriting and it's hurting your SEO, it shows you really don't know how to do copywriting. SEO is writing for people. Copywriting is writing for people. It's the same thing if you're doing it right.

It's NOT finding 100 different ways to say why the pizza at your 100 locations in and around Tallahassee is awesome.

If you're writing great, compelling copy, you're going to tick a lot of boxes for SEO anyhow. SEO should be a consideration and it should be baked in, not the end goal.

The end goal is not to show up, or to rank for a thing, it's to deliver a message and communicate a value. If all you care about is ranking, you've got some misaligned goals in your business to rethink.

One of the biggest seo copywriting mistakes that people make is thinking that the pages have to be a certain length. When that's the focus for your SEO, you put the word count ahead of the conversion and message of the copy. Every word on the page should serve your readers.

Copy does have a place in SEO, but the mistaken belief that the H1 tag or title tag has to be a certain way, is wrong. When you have a stronger link profile, you can be a bit more playful in your copy. When you rank third in the search results, but your title tag is more compelling, you'll start getting a lot more clicks which will quickly boost you up in rankings.

It doesn't matter if you do everything right with SEO and show up on page one, but when you can't convert that traffic, it's mostly worthless.

Yes, get informed on SEO and understand ranking factors, but that is just one more tool in your SEO copywriting toolkit.

What we're doing with words is having conversations and (hopefully) communicating something of value. That's way too important a thing to hand over from a true copywriter to an SEO department.