Most people have heard of SEO and know that they need to incorporate it into their marketing materials. However, not everyone really understands what it is and why they need it.

 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is a means of ensuring your website and web content rank higher on search engines. 

There are various elements to SEO which include:

• Keywords – the words clients search for on Google.

• Content – this includes written copy, videos, podcasts, infographics and social media posts. 

• Off-page SEO – This is all the stuff that goes on in the background, like links from other websites to yours. 

• Local SEO - as well as keywords linking to a particular area, this also includes location specific pages, MyBusiness, Google Maps and Google+.

• Search Engine Marketing – which means choosing the right paid adverts. 

When you create a website, you are creating a store front for your business. However, if no one can find your website then it won’t bring clients your way.

  

When you use Google, for example, how often do you look at the results on page 2 or page 10? Probably rarely. 

Most businesses, therefore, are trying to get onto page 1 of Google without having to pay to do so (although the top few hits on page 1 are always paid for ads). 

To get onto page 1 is aided by SEO. 

Essentially to improve your SEO rating you need to include keywords in your web content and blogs. Keywords are the search terms people use when searching Google. For me, they may search ‘Copywriter, Swindon’ or ‘Ghostwriter’ or ‘Copywriter, Wiltshire’. By including these in my content I am more likely to come up in the search near the top of the listings

Obviously for me the content writing is the most important aspect, but I want to make it clear I do content writing with SEO in mind and not SEO writing. 

So, what is the difference?

• SEO Writing is essentially taking a list of keywords and writing the content around this list and trying to include them all. 

• Writing with SEO in mind is when I take a topic and write the content before looking at the list of keywords and then when finished see which I can add organically by rephrasing something or replacing words. 

For me, content writing is not about the number of keywords I can include, it is more about including them in an appropriate place, so the content is easy to read, reflects the brand of the client I am writing for and doesn’t read like SEO-generated copy. 

 

A copywriter will produce content for the website – just one aspect of the SEO package. However, if an SEO specialist writes your content you may get some odd phrases included. 

For example, recently a client wanted the heading, "What can third party providers do?" in their content as this was an SEO keyword search and they had been told to include it. However, the meaning of this question is ambiguous. Does it mean, ability, legal possibilities or services offered?