SEO Copywriting: the pros and the cons

[mandy]

Why I Don’t Believe in SEO Copywriting

Search engine optimization copywriting requires that the copywriter concern himself with strategic placement of keywords, tags and the like within his Web copy to optimize search engine rankings of the pages he writes.

But to create powerful copy, you need to have a single core audience in mind and concentrate all your effort on writing to that one audience. When I write copy, that audience is the prospect, the potential buyer of the product I am selling.

However, with SEO copywriting, you pander to another “audience” — the search engines — and not the reader. And by creating copy that’s optimal for attracting search engines, you are, to some degree, weakening that copy’s power to sell. You dilute its strength because you are worrying about two audiences — the reader and the engines — instead of focusing every word on the customer. That’s not how to write copy that sells.

full article: http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot...e_id=35017

[accentnepal]

[quote author=mandy link=topic=1698.msg5971#msg5971 date=1134394909]
That’s not how to write copy that sells.[/quote]

It can't sell anything until people can find it. If you were so smart you could do both instead of trying to be a purist. 'Till then stick to writing for magazines.

[mandy]

Another viewpoint. 

Search marketing puts a new spin on the art of copywriting

...for SimplySoles.com, a small online retailer of designer women’s shoes, a paid search campaign for “Frye boots” was a winner, generating a 50% increase in conversions after the company made a critical change to its campaign.

That change? It wasn’t more money for a higher keyword position on search engines. In fact, the campaign, newly managed for the season by search marketing firm MoreVisibility.com Inc., actually cost SimplySoles less per click than when it had managed its own search campaigns, while producing better results.

Instead, SimplySoles and MoreVisibility looked to a side of search that some online marketers underestimate: the ad copy...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=17746

[accentnepal]

Search marketing puts a new spin on the art of copywriting

Yes Yes Yes

A frequent error she sees in writing for paid search is ads that are too broadly written in an effort to snare more clicks. They can end up backfiring because they attract too many clicks that won’t convert, unnecessarily burning through the marketing budget. A better strategy, says Thackston, is to qualify clicks with “deal breaker” copy in the listing. “If you say, ‘Luxury Mexico Cruise, 2/6,’ people not available to leave on that date won’t click your ad.

Sacrilege for magazine copy writers.