In a recent interview with a potential client seeking SEO services, I was posed with an interesting question. It was the kind of question which made me pause to reconsider my SEO copywriting methods and how I market my services.
"Marjorie," he said, "I like what you're saying about the importance of content, but I can't help but notice that your approach seems quite different from many of the other SEOs we've spoken with. They've talked a lot about links and meta data, while you seem to be much more focused on site content. What can you say about that difference?"
I tend to consider myself a writer, first, SEO second. It just so happens that SEO is often easiest to apply when integrated into site content writing and content marketing. You want me to write content for your website? Well, why not do the keyword research and incorporate optimized page titles, meta data, header tags and internal links into the content while we're at it? You'd like me to write articles or feeder sites to market your website? Why not include well-researched, optimized titles and links with strong anchor text? It just seems to make sense.
Ironically, my emphasis on quality writing seems to have only pushed me deeper down the SEO rabbit hole. It's as if quality writing and SEO go hand in hand!
In answer to the potential client's question, I pointed out that my end strategies and goals were very similar to those of the other SEOs he'd spoken with, they just took a different approach. My proposal contained plenty of recommendations for link building and optimization, but they were expressed in terms of content rather than in terms of straight text link building. I pointed out that in order to gain a substantial number of quality links, SEOs must at one point or another syndicate articles and content. The other SEOs didn't reference content writing because they most likely planned on outsourcing article/content writing at bottom dollar, while I included article writing as part of my service package.
But there was another important difference he was picking up on: my emphasis on on-page site content optimization and writing. Other SEOs emphasized link building as the priority - why did I place such importance on on-page content writing?
Well, first, because I'm a writer. If you want someone to pull grey or black hat SEO ninja moves and acquire thousands of links for you in a short span of time, I'm not your girl. True, more aggressive link building strategies can be very effective for ecommerce sites in competitive markets, but there are plenty of SEOs who specialize in that area, and I don't care to compete with them.
But there's another reason I place a strong emphasis on on-page SEO copywriting: it works. In the long run, having lots of well-written SEO on-page content tends to develop more sustainable search engine rankings while drawing more qualified traffic - or, in other words, people who are more likely to buy.
Why? Because on-page content allows you to optimize your site not only for competitive main category terms (i.e. "auto body repair"), but also a host of niche longtail keywords as well (i.e. "car bumper dent repair", "fix auto paint scratches").
Why target longtail keywords? By their nature, longer search queries are more specific AND less competitive, allowing you to market your site to people looking for very specific products or services with a lot less effort.
Neglecting to optimize your site for longtail keywords means missing out on a huge sector of your market. Recent figures indicate 56% of buyers searching online use queries of three words or more, and 20-25% of all Google search queries are completely unique. Studies have also shown that visitors brought in by longtail keywords tend to have higher conversion rates.
In a recent article on optimizing content for longtail keywords, SEOBook.com used the following diagram. Take a close look at how the On Page Optimization slice of the pie chart differs between competitive and longtail keywords:
According to SEOBook.com's research, on-page optimization only has a 5% influence in gaining rankings for competitive keywords, while it has a whopping 50% influence on rankings for longtail keywords. These figures seem very low, and from my experience, on-page optimization tends to carry more weight than 5 and 50%, particularly for smaller niche industries and local businesses (i.e. sites with lower competition). Still, these figures demonstrate an important point about marketing sites for longtail keywords: it requires on-page content.And what does good SEO on-page content require? Good SEO copywriting.
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