Sense, sensibility and SEO: Why search optimisation means nothing without good copywriting
Aside from Mumm-ra from ‘Thundercats’, the most despicable acts of villainy i’ve ever encountered are crimes of SEO.
The so called ‘black hat’ practices for search engine optimisation make me depressed, angry and utterly confused. Thankfully, dark arts such as ‘stuffing’ and invisible text are becoming less prevalent and those that do remain are treated with the contempt they deserve by the industry and market alike.
Google has dedicated itself to devising increasingly fiendish algorithms to cripple SEO, but despite the many atrocities that have been perpetrated in the name of a strong listing, SEO continues to be as much a part of a marketer’s armoury as any other weapon.
What is an affront to the industry is SEO that values indexing above engagement. The kind of strategy that depends on tricks, misdirection and shortcuts to draw people to a destination and then give them absolutely no value in return.
Good SEO has a place, but only through the creation of content that is interesting and useful in equal measure. No one can honestly dispute that getting a high ranking for your online destination is critical – it is an uncomfortable truth that the second page simply does not exist in the mind of the Googler.
Too often, the pressure of achieving such high placing prompts content managers to focus too intently on certain keywords. In direct conflict to the purpose of any online marketing communication, this kind of approach damages the content and by association the trustworthiness of the source.
The incontrovertible truth is that there is no specific number of times a particular keyword phrase should appear in your content. A similar truth is that no piece of SEO software has ever been conceived that can even come close to doing the job of an engaging online copywriter.
SEO is a fluid concept in an incredibly dynamic field, but one constant is that the intelligent use of the right terms and phrases that speaks TO your audience, rather than unerringly ABOUT how brilliant you are, will give you the platform of quality content you need to stand out in a universe of messages.
Mutual sharing of content and a proactive social media direction is intelligent SEO in action. Similarly, the writer that takes the time to understand how their target audience searches, discovers what engages them and what compels them to act will gain the interest, attention and truth of their visitors.
Thankfully, the lazy and insincere attitudes to SEO are fading fast. And as this evolution takes place, the perception that SEO is a solely manipulative practice is also gradually dispersing.
Hopefully, as time and technology progresses, the feeling that SEO unfairly elevates destinations with the best optimisation rather than the ones with the best content will be answered. And it is the copywriters who will be the heroes if this victory is to be achieved. The ‘Thundercats’ if you like.
Copywriters, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Andrew Boulton is a copywriter at the Together Agency. His favourite Thundercat, controversially, is Panthro.