What is SEO Copywriting?

This article has been sitting in my drafts since *checks history* October 13, 2023. To say SEO copywriting is something I believe in and have ample experience in creating is an understatement. But, as AI took hold of writers’ stability and career safety in 2023, I started to question why in the hell we would optimize for the bots that are ultimately utilizing our content to take creative jobs. Don’t worry. This is not an anti-AI post. There are enough of those on the web. No, this is a this-is-why-optimizing-helps-people-find-your-content article. And that, after almost a year of sitting on this idea, is exciting to me.

SEO vs Copywriting

SEO experts and copywriters typically exist in two different camps. 

1. Optimization is the one and only shining, golden key to growth.
2. Content over everything. Optimization sucks the soul out of copy.

Honestly, there’s a strong case for either of these stances. I’ve read hundreds of them. Just type “Copywriting vs SEO” into your search bar, and you can scroll through 26 million ranking articles. Yes, million with an “m”. Those are the ones that have been properly submitted to search. Imagine how many more are out there that are uncrawlable (another major flaw in content-only thinking, but I’ll leave that for later). But I’ve been doing this since the dinosaur ages of 2008, and one thing has been consistent since then—there is a middle ground. This little San Diego SEO company has proven time and time again that this beautiful oasis of good optimized content still exists and works in 2024. It is called SEO copy.

How To Combine SEO and Copywriting

Here’s the thing. First and foremost, I am a content strategist and marketer. That means our team of copywriters will always pick strong and interesting copy over stuffing in an optimized term. The end reader is always our priority. So, if there is a straight line between SEO vs copy or content—I lean toward the latter. Perhaps that contradicts my earlier thought, but I believe there is a difference. When we are given access to experts, expert-driven content, and research and studies, our content is drool-worthy. Not only do we, as writers and creators, get to dive deep into interesting topics like financial fraud, spray-dried flavor creation, the science of seltzer drinks, and the state of ADA compliance, but we also get information that isn’t already in the top ten regurgitated posts on Google. That’s the golden ticket: Access.

Creating Unique Copy

Some clients, though, don’t have the capacity or maybe even the research and expertise to talk through content with us. In that case, we are digging into research on our own, utilizing scholarly tools, content, and outside experts to craft content. We go into each piece with a rough outline and let the information guide us. Often, when interviewing experts, I send them questions before, but we let the conversation take us on whatever twists and turns it has for us. Those twists are where the magic lies. So, though we have a brief and outline for all of the copy, slogans, tags, articles, and even meta descriptions that we create, they almost always change as we dive into the story.

Once the content is ironclad and as engaging as possible, our copywriters here in San Diego get to work adding optimizations. Only where they make sense, and only when they add to the content, or, at least, don’t take anything away.

Doesn’t An Optimized Article Sound Terrible?

So, what does that look like? Well, this article is optimized. A trained SEO can likely see those optimizations. I know I can when I am reading an article, but the average reader likely cant. Do you see the keywords sprinkled in here?

The point is, optimized copy does not have to be clunky and unengaging, and copywriting doesn’t have to be all sugar and honey, you can work with the algorithms so that the people who need your content find it. After all, if your experts spend an hour a month speaking to a writer, they likely want their audience to hear them. And, yes, we specialize in organic content marketing, so we attain traffic from the promotions at launch and then throughout our content schedule, but when that article is sitting on your site, no longer being shouted from the rooftops on social, email, and other platforms, don’t you still want it to work for you?

The answer is yes.

And, so that you don’t think you are just reading something about long-form content, copy—taglines, web pages, product descriptions, and more—should. all. be. optimized.

Optimizations take a while to start gaining steam. They’re the perfect complement to content marketing. You promote content, and while doing so, your content starts to rank.

Zettist works on these projects more than anything else. Want to see how adding optimization positively impacts a site?

Client Results From SEO Copywriting

One client with a one-location, multi-business mall went from an average of 400 visitors a month before working with us to over 5,000 in just three years—only counting organic content. The month before they began working with us, they had earned 226 keywords, and today, they have 4.2k keywords. They were getting about three leads from organic marketing each month; today, they get over 50% of their web leads just from SEO-optimized content at 20 high-ticket leads a month.

Okay, great– that’s one client. Show us another.

I’m glad you asked! I’ll up the ante. Here is a client where we just came in for about one year, created a new website, implemented optimized copy, and added some articles. They were at zero, zilch, zip. With very high-ticket B2B sales, they needed help getting in front of their incredibly niche audience. After the work we did in 2021, they climbed up to around 3,000 visits per month. Today, they still get almost 1,000 visits a month (sometimes more) just from our content! Guys, they haven’t worked with us since 2022. That’s pretty cool! They are still ranking for important keywords we targeted and an estimated 1,500 leads from organic search. WOW.

This client just wanted their website copy updated—a project where we pop in and pop out. Before our work, they were averaging about 100 visits per month. After creating a new user experience with copy, they have climbed to over 400 visits per month. That’s a lot for a quick little copy optimization project, especially for a B2B client. They went from 192 ranking keywords to 522.

Now, you’re getting greedy, huh? You want a bigger example. Sweet. We have em! Like this one. A multi-location B2C business that had about 7,500 ranking keywords and 50,000 organic visitors a month when we took on the project. After six years of working together, they climbed to 30,000 keywords and almost 250,000 organic visitors a month. Those numbers are still climbing, meaning millions have read our words and taken action. Oh my! 

So, after almost a year, I am confident in saying that just like in 2008, 2014, 2016, and 2019, today—in 2024—it is still important to optimize your content. Want help creating a content marketing strategy or a team to help you optimize your existing content? Need a copywriter? We are here for you when you need us. Contact our team here.