The SEO Writer: Five Key Skills

What is the difference between a good copywriter and a good SEO writer?

A good copywriter has writing talent and marketing expertise. A good copywriter creates succinct, error-free content that broadcasts a specific message to a general audience.

A good SEO writer also has writing talent and marketing expertise. Yet, the SEO writer's marketing expertise includes knowledge of search engine algorithms. A good SEO writer creates succinct, error-free content that broadcasts a specific message to a specific online audience. Specificity is critical. 

The distinction is like the distinction between traditional and digital marketing. Both aim to attract a specific audience. Traditional marketing broadcasts to a general audience, casting a wide net to amplify a message. Think billboards, radio ads, or newspaper circulars. Success is defined in several ways: by increasing brand awareness, improving brand image, or attracting a percentage of viewers to a product, service, or promotion.

Apple's famous "Think Different" campaign, which some credit for saving the company from financial ruin, is a perfect example of how traditional marketing, when performed correctly, can make a brand "deeply recognizably."

Traditional marketing focuses on macro-audiences (although the goal may be to engage only a percentage of that audience). Digital marketing, on the other hand, focuses on micro-audiences. The success of any digital marketing campaign is contingent on defining the best keywords and creating relevant, engaging content for that audience.

More on keywords: How to Perform Keyword Research 

Of course, the distinctions between traditional marketing and digital marketing is unimportant. The term "digital content" is a misnomer: The best content--in traditional and digital marketing--is defined by the quality of the writing itself. However, successful online writing requires a distinctive set of knowledge and skills. A copywriter may or may not understand how to effectively attract an online audience. To attract an audience online, you need an SEO writer.

The SEO Writer: Five Key Skills 

Researching & Effectively Using Keywords

A good SEO writer can help you research and choose the best keywords for your product or service. If you are unsure how to define your product or service, keyword research can help you clarify your offering: Imagine you are Googling your product or service. What keywords would you type?

A good SEO writer can use these keywords resourcefully to attract attention to your site--attention that will lead to conversions. A copywriter may overlook the details that make a piece of content work for a search engine. An SEO writer, however, writes with a keen eye on attracting an online audience. By nature, this sort of work is concise.

Writing URLs and Meta Tags

A page's URL (uniform resource locator) is its web address. A fully-optimized web page will include a coherent, simple URL that humans and search engines can quickly identify. Crafting a relevant URL is a deceptively simple practice perfected by SEO writers.

A title tag is displayed in search results as the title of a web page. Once you click on the page, the title tag may or may not be displayed at the top of the browser (Firefox does; Chrome does not). Title tags should be hyper-specific and relevant, yet not spammy--keywords must be used judiciously.

Meta tags are inserted into your web pages' "head" area and used by search engines to list your site in their indexes accurately. Every page of your website must have unique meta tags. A good SEO writer optimizes your meta tags to describe the content of your page accurately.

Creating an Effective Structure

Many writers are enamored with their work--to the detriment of the writing. First, a good SEO writer is a great writer, but they also understand that SEO requires structure.

Good SEO writers get picky about details that other writers overlook--details that might supersede the writer's natural inclinations. A good SEO writer, for example, understands the importance of the appropriate number of words, keywords, and links as well as paragraph and article length.

To view the picky side of SEO writing, read Neil Patel's article How Long Should Each Blog Post Be? A Data-Driven Answer. 

Composing Effective Links

The link above (for Neil Patel's article) precisely describes the nature of the link. Many copywriters create articles with arbitrary links ("click here") that have little to do with the actual content of the link.

To optimize a link, a good SEO writer creates a precise description of the link's contents. Like URLs, title tags, and meta tags, this detailed description allows the search engine to understand and "index" the link.

Again, an adequate link description is a deceptively simple task, yet the best SEO writers have learned the value of outbound links and how to maximize this value effectively.

Choosing Images and Composing Effective Image Tags 

By now, you might have noticed several themes. First, every aspect of a page needs to be optimized, from the text to the tags. Second, SEO writers are not simply adept at writing--the best SEO writers perfect writing and the technical and design aspects of SEO, including keyword research, URL and tag composition, and structure.

Choosing the perfect image for your content requires an eye for design; writing the perfect description requires SEO knowledge and writing chops. In a way, image optimization synthesizes the skills of a good SEO writer.

Content Marketing with SEO Sparta 

SEO Sparta is an SEO company in Bucks County, PA. We understand how to promote websites with good content. To learn more about how we combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective content marketing campaigns, call 215-900-9398.

If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

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