No matter which way any digital marketer spins their skills; if you don’t have a good content marketing strategy in place for your business, you’re just not going to get the reach and results you’re expecting.

Most of my clients come to me for SEO consulting and we typically combine it with Paid Search. We combine these two channels to boost reach in the those initial months of optimisation when Google starts thinking about what you do, and where you should rank on its index amidst other people wanting the same thing. (You actually also pay less on Google CPCs with a solidly optimised website 😉 which is why these two channels work so beautifully together.)

One Page Ain’t Going to Cut It

You will be surprised at how many people come to me with SPAs (Single Page Applications), and expect me to work miracles for them. They might have the prettiest one-page website,  and think they’re being really clever about it, but it’s just not going to cut it. As an aside, I’m gobsmacked with how many people also pay a pretty penny for these one page websites and think that is all they need!

Now, optimising and being successful with a SPA can be done, but when you’re in a competitive industry, one needs to make sure you’ve built the best presence you can. The strategy for a SPA to do well, is a LOT bigger than when one has built out a well thought-out website structure. For both, however, multi-channel marketing strategies are also best, and one should not rely on only one or two channels to do the bulk of the work.

Building the best digital presence usually starts with a solid website. It’s great to create core pages that are well optimised and get your message across to your potential customers succinctly, but quite frankly, those ’10’ pages aren’t going to cut it. < And that right there is what many people don’t want to hear.

Content Remains Key for Successful SEO

Slapping a “blog section” on a website is NOT considered a SEO strategy as many people will have you believe. It is merely the vehicle to help you categorise your content, but having a blog does not mean you’ve now got a SEO optimised website.

Optimising your core website pages remains the pivot for which you use the blog content to boost those core terms.  Merely writing an article for the sake of adding a ‘blog post’ to your website is also NOT SEO.

SEO content is planned around the initial keyword allocations and strategy for the website. Some keywords are used to boost visibility, while others boost leads. Almost ALL content should boost your core terms as that is where your great rankings (and leads) are going to come from – if done correctly.

It takes time to see a difference in traffic (and ultimately leads) from a SEO content strategy.

The Format of SEO Articles Matter

I’ve trained many writers to be great SEO copywriters over the years.

I’m not saying I’m a great writer, but I can tell good writing from terrible writing. I can also tell when an article has been written (I use that term very lightly) by copy-pasting a bunch of paragraphs from other articles together and expecting it to read well. (It happens!) Or expecting the ‘article’ to sound clever and filled with jargon to ‘impress the client’. Both of these ‘techniques’ fail miserably, and as a writer, you look stupid.

Not all copywriters are the same, and that’s okay. Some writers love writing in an investigative journalism style. Some enjoy writing press articles. Some enjoy writing stories or long-form content. It is usually the first and last that do well with SEO writing. Believe me, SEO writing is an art-form.

The style for writing press articles is so far removed from story-telling, that I’ve never actually seen someone that came from, for example, a PR background be able to transition to a blog-writing style successfully.

What is the format?

Quite simply an SEO article as an introduction, a middle and a conclusion. One theme. One story.

The easiest way to write these articles are to choose a topic that best suits your keyword/key-phrase and write about it. Simpler than that it can’t be. If you write on-topic, you’ll naturally weave that keyword/key-phrase into your writing without even noticing it, and without it sounding forced.

Is a Copywriter an SEO?

The short answer is: they can be, but more often than not, these are two different people.

There are people that think they can hire a copywriter to do an SEOs job. Some people bring a SEO on board for a couple of months to set the foundation and strategy and then hire a copywriter to continue that work.

That is not a bad plan per say, but you’re only going to get 25% of the way to your objectives.

Writers write, yes. Trained writers can write SEO copy. They can also follow the original SEO strategy.

What they can’t do is tell you whether it’s working or not. 

SEOs constantly analyse site traffic, user intent, channels, conversions and, yes, keyword (and landing page) performance to keep tweaking strategies. SEO strategies are not stagnant as some might believe. SEO strategies and performance are constantly evolving with the company, the competitors and objectives.

Having a copywriter that understands SEO writing is crucial. Having a SEO to guide them on their path should be non-negotiable.