Solving Client's Biggest Problem

Solve Your Client’s Biggest Problem … Writing One “Page” of Copy
by Rebecca Matter

There are thousands of companies that share a common problem …

Their website is nowhere to be found when a potential customer searches the Internet for a product or service similar to the one they offer.

Not only that … they don’t have the knowledge or expertise to fix that “invisible” problem.

They know it involves changing their website, but they’re not sure how. They’ve heard of search engine optimization (SEO), but the whole idea of it seems confusing and a bit overwhelming.

So instead of making changes to their website in order to get lots of free search traffic, they decide to pay for their site traffic by using pay-per-click (PPC) ads … or they do nothing at all.

Or they think SEO means jamming a bunch of keywords into their Web pages, and they make the problem worse. (Indeed, one of the reasons the PPC industry has grown so much over the past few years is the general lack of knowledge about SEO copywriting. But don’t worry, we’ll tackle PPC next.)

And although running PPC ads might make sense in some situations, optimizing a website using SEO techniques should be done regardless.

For copywriters who can advise and provide their clients with a solution to this problem, the payoff is extremely lucrative.

I’ll tell you exactly how lucrative in a minute, but first let’s take a quick look at what SEO copywriters do …

In a nutshell, the SEO copywriter’s job is to increase the ranking of his client’s website in Google’s (or another search engine’s) “organic” search results. If you’re not familiar with the term “organic” as it applies to search results, let me explain …

There are two ways a web page can appear on a search engine’s results page. One way is if the search engine places it there because the site owner is paying for it with a PPC ad.

[Note: If you are unfamiliar with PPC ads, go to Google and do a search for the phrase “running shoes.” Just under the blue bar, you’ll see two headings labeled “sponsored links.” And directly underneath them, you’ll find the PPC ads.]

A second way is when the search engine deems a Web page relevant for a specific keyword or phrase being searched. Because search results like these are not paid for, and show up on the results page naturally, they’re often referred to as “organic.”

The SEO copywriter’s main job is to improve their client’s organic search results. This is done by strategically modifying the copy to include specific keywords or phrases.

This article appears courtesy of The Golden Thread, an e-letter from AWAI that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on how to build your freelance copywriting business. For a free subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread