When it comes to putting content on your website, gone are the days of just filling it up with words. The content that is flooding the internet nowadays, is content that is filled to the brim with useful and enlightening information that readers actually find helpful. This is the new norm when it comes to content on the internet, and the way that your website is going to be ranked by search engines as time rolls on. So, what is SEO copywriting and what does it do?
What is SEO Copywriting and What Does it Do?
SEO copywriting is a rather specialized form of online writing that is characterized by the following three characteristics:
- Keyphrases: Keyphrases are words that are contained within the text of a websites content. These target words are specifically selected to target types of readers.
- Increased online rankings: SEO writing has been specifically designed to help websites gain higher search engine rankings when certain keywords are searched.
- Traffic drivers: SEO copywriting that converts visitors into customers is the overall aim of the SEO game, and making sales is what it is all about.
Keyphrases are essential to the success of any copywriting for SEO, and should be easy to read, non-repetitive, and should not draw the readers focus away from what they are reading.
SEO Writing vs Traditional Copywriting
Although at first glance it may seem that the only difference between traditional copywriting and SEO copywriting is the use of keyphrases, but this art form goes a little deeper than that. SEO copywriting is about authoritative and insightful content that is able to assist people in their search for what they are looking for. It stands out from competing content, and always delivers what the readers are looking for. SEO copywriting content is content that is rich with useful information, as well as keyphrases, and not simply stuffed with words to make it look good.
Serving Two Masters
When you take the time to think about it, copywriting for SEO is a task completed that serves two masters at the end of the day: the readers you are trying to reach, and the search engine you are seeking favor with. Obviously your content needs to be adored by your readers, and equally important that Google views your content in a certain way. It needs to understand what your content is all about, and SEO copywriting that converts viewers into customers, helps Google differentiate you from the rest.
Concerns for You
The freshness, research, and words that you use are all important factors when it comes to the success of your SEO copywriting. Some of the most concerning factors include:
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
- Pages not showing in Google rankings
- Pages are not converting visitors
- Your content is outdated or not up to scratch from the start
- Your content has never been optimized
If these are any of the concerns that you or business may be having, then an SEO copywriting strategy could be the perfect opportunity for you.
The best SEO is great content, and there are no excuses for poor quality in this digital age of marketing. Done right, your copywriting can be the best thing you have done for your business since its inception.
The trade-offs in SEO copywriting that nobody wants to talk about
Most guides tell you SEO copywriting means writing for search engines and humans at the same time, as if that's a neat little box you tick. It isn't. Every piece of SEO content involves a trade-off, and the decision you make changes what the content is for. Here are the ones worth understanding before you write another word.
- Rankings now vs rankings later. You can write a shorter, tightly focused piece that targets one keyword and ranks reasonably fast, or a comprehensive resource that takes longer to climb but eventually outranks everything and holds the position. Pick the first if you need traffic this quarter. Pick the second if you're building an asset for the next three years.
- Optimising for search intent vs optimising for conversion. The page that best answers "what is X" is often not the page that sells X. If you cram a sales pitch into an informational page, Google and the reader both notice, and rankings suffer. If you write a pure answer with no path to conversion, you get traffic that goes nowhere. The fix isn't a compromise in the middle, it's deciding which job this specific page has and writing to that job only, then linking to a separate page for the other one.
- Broad keyword coverage vs depth on one topic. Chasing every variation of a keyword phrase spreads your content thin across many mediocre pages. Going deep on one topic with proper subheadings and related terms built in naturally usually beats it, but it takes longer to produce and you'll rank for fewer pages overall. Choose depth if you're in a competitive niche. Choose breadth if you're covering a long list of low-competition terms nobody else bothers with.
- Writing for the algorithm's current preferences vs writing for how people search. Google's guidance shifts. Content that overfits to this month's ranking signals ages badly. Content built around the actual question someone typed, answered honestly and directly, tends to survive algorithm updates because the underlying intent doesn't change even when the ranking factors do.
- Speed of production vs quality of research. AI tools can draft SEO copy in minutes. That draft will rank for nothing unless someone adds real specifics, current data, and a point of view the tool couldn't generate. The trade-off isn't AI versus human, it's whether you're willing to spend the saved time on research and editing instead of just publishing the first output.
- Updating old content vs publishing new pages. A page that already ranks on position 8 and gets rewritten with better answers and fresh examples usually moves faster than a brand new page targeting the same term from zero authority. New content feels more productive. Updating existing content is usually the better return on time.
None of these have a universally correct answer. The right call depends on your timeline, your competition, and what the page is meant to do. What's not okay is pretending the trade-off doesn't exist and writing content that half-heartedly tries to do everything at once, because that's the content that ranks for nothing and converts nobody.
Still wondering?
Should every page try to rank for multiple keywords?
Only if those keywords share the same search intent. If someone searching "keyword A" wants a different answer to someone searching "keyword B", trying to cover both on one page weakens it for both. Check the intent first, then decide whether to combine or split.
Related guides you might find useful
