seo copywriting is a modern tool for both search engines and average users. From one side the content should be easily readable, from the other – search engines could detect what it is about and evaluate it somehow

thanks for nice post though!

keep it up!

writing for the web requires a whole range of skill sets.

Firstly I think anyone doing business on the web should use a skilled copywriter as their default standard.

Next the writer should know and understand how people read and interact on the web, Uncle Jakob has been writing about this for years, and really it’s quite easy to grasp.

Next the writer should understand how users eyes move across a PC screen, and how much screen real estate they have to work with. This will determine how much of their copy is initially seen, and how it appears on the screen.

There’s no point writing great headlines and juicy copy if they get mangled by other page elements, or dissappear below the fold.

Yes, they should have an “understanding” of SEO and keywords, but if they write great, unique, relevant and high quality copy, it will probably rank highly anyway, because that is what search engines ultimately want.

Lastly, there’s the whole issue of personality types and buying behaviours, but if they are good copywriters they probably know about this anyway.

OK, one more thing: The most important thing for any website is to get a conversion (sale, lead whatever.) High rankings and traffic should not be the primary objective. There’s no point generating huge exposure and traffic if no one buys.

In a similar way, SEO assures that prospects visit the web site and then consider the content pertinent.

SEO and content should compliment each other. SEO assures that the writer will use words that are used by the site visitor and relate directly to his needs.

If the SEO terms are foreign to what you write about the product benefits, then there is a disconnect somewhere.

It does no good to get a lot of visitors if the content does not relate to your product benefits. In that case, the search terms may be too far afield and probably do not do a good job of matching up the prospect with your product.

Ramon sees SEO as part of a copywriter’s job but Jay thinks SEO presents possible dangers to on-page copy. I’m simplifying, but that’s the issue.

I’ll write about my own views sometime. I’d really just like to hear other viewpoints on this right now.

I jave Lijit search analytics installed on my blog and I would never be able to guess some of the search terms that bring me new visitors.

That depens: do you want to rank well in search engines? If so, SEO is a priority. But that does not mean it’s the the ONLY prority.

Q2: ‘Or should it be secondary to good on-page copy?’

If the answer to q1 is ‘yes’: It’s never secondary, but always complementary. SEO should not degrade the quality (or presentation/readability etc) of the content, but strengthen it.

It’s simply a challenge for a copywriter to include relevant keywords. And if SEO is a priority, that challenge must be met. In practice though, compromises are always possible. That is something a professional copywriter and a professional SEO should be able to figure out together. If they can’t, they’re not professionals.

p.s.: seo is not about over-optimization and stuffing of keywords. 20+ keywords in a text of 200 words is NOT good seo.