Heather Lloyd-Martin will be speaking about “SEO Content” at SearchFest 2010, which will take place on March 9th at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Tickets are available now. To purchase, please click the following link.
1) Please give me your background and tell us what you do for a living.
I own SuccessWorks Search Marketing, a content marketing agency specializing in SEO copywriting services and training. When I first started working as an online writer, I freelanced for a number of publications (including Entrepreneur Magazine) and wrote Web copy for clients. I had worked in print marketing before – so online Web copy was a natural next step. Then, in 1998, my writing focus changed. Back then, companies were just starting to understand the importance of "optimized" Web sites and putting keywords into copy. I had just enough geeky knowledge under my belt to see you *could* dovetail the needs of the search engines with the needs of the readers – and create persuasive, engaging and prime-positioned Web copy.
I went to my first Search Engine Strategies when there were something like four other female speakers and sessions were held in one big room with a bunch of round tables (it was in Dallas…so that must have been 2000). My, how things have changed!
Today, I split my time between writing for clients (I think it’s important to stay in the writing game – otherwise, it’s easy to get rusty,) speaking at conferences, and training in-house and freelance writers. I just launched my new SEO Copywriting Certificate program so SEO practitioners, marketing professionals, agency folks, small business owners and copywriters can learn the art and the science. So many people think that SEO copywriting is all about "where should I stick my keyphrases" – and it’s not. Not by a long shot. It’s discovering how to create a customer persona, understanding keyphrase strategy, learning how to pen persuasive prose that converts and figuring out how it all fits into the big marketing picture. It’s actually pretty fun. 🙂
2) What role do web analytics play in SEO Copywriting?
A huge, huge (and shall I say – huge) role. It’s sad when content marketers are told, "You don’t need to see the analytics – just write the page." When in fact, analytics help writers write even better. Here’s why:
Once a writer creates and uploads a page, the only way she knows it "works" is when (1) conversions rise and (2) rankings rise. Now really, this information is pretty darn good. 🙂 But it’s general. And there is so much more to learn through analytics, such as:
1. Are people clicking on your links in that third paragraph…or is they something you can delete?
2. Can you make your copy convert even better through A/B testing?
3. Is there a page that just isn’t working?
4. What keyphrases are people using to find certain pages – and are some keyphrases better for conversion than others?
5. Are your Tweets driving traffic? Or are they just fun to write?
Some companies have a policy of not sharing this data with their content marketing specialists – and I’ve never understood that. The best writers are closet geeks. They love data. They happily roll around in information overload, picking and choosing the data they need. It’s true that not all SEO copywriters understand analytics. But the ones who *do* understand analytics – and use analytics to help drive a content marketing strategy – are worth their weight in gold!
3) Is it easier to “SEO Copywrite” effectively from scratch or to rewrite someone else’s non-compliant prose?
Good question – and it totally depends.
For instance, I’ve seen many, many sales pages that weren’t written with benefit statements or a customer persona in mind. It’s more of a general page filled with features – and features don’t sell. In a case like this, I always recommend a rewrite. That’s because the issue goes beyond "search engine optimization stuff" and falls into "How can we make this page perform at a higher level?" After a rewrite, I’ve seen conversion rates go through the roof – plus, with the new SEO focus, the pages tend to position much better than before. So it’s a win-win for the client.
Then again, there are some sales pages, articles and blog posts that are excellent..but not keyphrase focused. In that situation I may recommend keyphrase editing (which is what’s commonly known as "optimizing" the page.) There are ways to seamlessly include the keyphrases so they "fit" within the copy and don’t make it sound keyphrase-stuffed. Plus, you want to match the newly-optimized copy with a killer, clickable Title – which helps with search positions, as well as conversions off the search engine results page. Keyphrase editing can be a great way for clients to leverage the "low hanging fruit" of their content marketing campaigns and transform their good copy into great, keyphrase-rich copy.
Either way, SEO copywriting (or SEO content marketing) revolves around two skills: Creating fantastic, customer-centered writing (whether the writing is a blog post, article, press release, sales Web page, etc.), and developing a tight-and-wired per-page keyphrase strategy. You can’t have one without the other.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.