A well-established copywriting colleague of mine was approached by one of the top SEO companies in the nation. They wanted her to assist their clients by writing web pages.
Web pages need to …
- Grab attention
- Understand the reader’s desire or pain
- Present a concept or solution
- Move the reader to a next action
- Be professionally written in a non-stuffy manner
- Incorporate keywords in a natural manner
- Incorporate keywords in a NATURAL manner SEVERAL times (very difficult)
- Have a title tag artfully crafted to get rankings and attention
- Have a description tag artfully crafted to get click-throughs
My copywriter friend was excited about the opportunity. She envisioned steady work with quality products.
Then she was informed that the top amount they would pay for a page was $20!
No writer worth the price of her keyboard would work for that amount.
Internet companies try to commoditize and systematize everything. That may be okay for some aspects, but it’s certainly not acceptable for the words that will go on your website.
Never underestimate the power of words.
So you, as a business owner, should pause when an SEO company says, “We’ll handle it all including the copywriting.”
Do you really want to entrust the marketing of your store to a low-level copywriter?
What kind of content do you think you’ll get? I’ll tell you. It’ll be the same blah, blah, blah that every other website is putting up.
To get words that truly “connect” with your visitor takes hard work. It takes deep research, thinking, writing, and rewriting to bring out what’s unique about your business and why customers should shop with you and not the guy a click away.
Even if you have a pre-stocked retail website with canned copy, most systems allow you to do some customization. But few retailers take advantage of that. And that’s an opportunity for you that your competitor is too lazy to take.
Easy Web Tip #101: Be very careful of SEO companies handling the content of your web pages. You might get stuck with a bottom-feeder copywriter.
