Search Engine Optimisation: A Writer’s View

Recently, I was working on the website for a major British retailer. They – or rather their agency – wanted me to write captions for the products that feature on their website.

It’s writing for the web. So, they wanted to do more than simply sell the product. They wanted SEO – Search Engine Optimisation. Keywords needed to be built into each caption to reflect the search terms that people use when they search for that particular type of product.

The Holy Grail of Search Engine Optimisation. A top ten listing on Google.

Now, I’ve got a vague idea of how the technology works: I’ve been on Axandra’s search engine tips e-mailing list since about 1998. I’ve also recently signed up for Google Analytics on my own website. But, the technology is not my concern.

My job is to write the words.

Writing for search engine optimisation (or optimization if you’re reading this in the USA or Canada), really isn’t very difficult. You simply have to weave in the words you’re given.

The job of the copywriter is to make those words make sense. This is also easy, provided you follow a few simple rules.

Rule 1: Write it so that it makes sense to your target reader.

Rule 2: See Rule One.

Rule 3: If you can’t write it yourself in a way that’s engaging and meaningful, pay someone to do it for you. (Someone like me, naturally.)

Working with key words or phrases for a website is no different from working with a set of corporate values. The words have to be merged seamlessly in to the text without getting in the way of a meaningful statement.

For example, say you’re selling low-priced tissues that have a special balm to make them softer on the skin. Now, say that your web stats show that the top key words and phrases people use to reach your site are: “red nose”, “runny nose”, “sore” and “cheap tissues”.

You only have space for 40 words – and seven of them have been dictated to you. Here’s how I’d handle it:

“Some cheap tissues leave you with a sore, red nose. Ours have a soothing balm that’s soft and kind to your skin when you’ve got a runny nose. Great value,too, at just 99p a pack!”

It’s a meaningful statement. (Well, as meaningful as you’re going to get when you’re writing about tissues.) And it includes all the key words and phrases in a seamless way. Plus, notice how I got over the product feature – “soothing balm” – and turned the price proposition around from “cheap” to a more positive-sounding “value”.

And it only took me 27 years in the business to do that so easily.

So, what were the results from my most recent SEO exercise? The site’s updated copy is about to go live. If I hear any results, I’ll get back to you.