Is outsourcing your copywriting to India a good idea?

Western businesses tempted by the low rates charged by Indian companies for copywriting services – SEO copywriting, web content writing and so on – would do well to consider the styles of English which Indians use. 

For many, English is not their first language.  Hindi is the majority language among many others.  The likelihood is that outsourced copywriting may come back as something which is not what would be regarded as ’standard English’.  Even worse, it may read like ‘Hinglish’, a hybrid argot which has acquired a certain cachet among India’s middle classes! 

That’s not to say that Indian companies dealing with SEO and website design don’t produce good work.  They do.  Copywriting, however, is different in that English has many hues.  In the same way that Chaucer’s English is divided from modern English by a big chasm of time, so present-day Indian English (or even American English) is separated by geography.  To paraphrase the saying: the UK and US are divided by a common language.

Indian copywriting tends to reflect the more formal English syntax used 50 years ago – or more.  Before any work becomes usable, a time-consuming editing process is usually necessary.  Suddenly, this can make the low fees much more expensive.  As any copywriter will tell you, there’s often as much work involved in a ‘re-write’ as there is in producing original copy. 

Where more colloquial English is needed – as in ads, sales letters and (to a certain extent) with websites – it’s essential for the copywriter to be on the same cultural wavelength as his audience.  Without cultural empathy, the sales process is severely compromised.

 

SEO copywriting meets PR – hello Article Marketing!

Submitting articles to publishers – online or offline – is a highly effective way to generate interest in a company or person, especially in a niche market which has its own specialist media. ‘Selling in’ feature articles has always been – and remains – a mainstay of PR and media relations.

The advent of the Internet as a marketing tool has seen the evolution of many traditional offline methods into full-blown techniques which boost search engine rankings through the clever use of search engine optimisation (SEO) and SEO copywriting.

Article Marketing relies for effectiveness on linking the websites of online directories, e-zines, blogs and other websites to the landing page URL of the article sender.  Also vital is ensuring that every article has keyword-optimised content for maximum search engine recognition of the landing page published.

The skills of the SEO copywriter (and other online marketers and SEO professionals) in identifying appropriate keywords and using them in opportune ways as the article and landing pages are written creates a wonderful synergy.  Google also rewards the quality and relevance of inbound links with potentially higher rankings for website pages to which published articles are linked.

 

 

SEO copywriting beats the economic slowdown!

Search engine success starts with SEO copywriting.  It’s the most cost-effective marketing tool around.  You’ll see a clear and rapid return on your investment in the shape of higher search engine rankings and more website traffic.

For REAL immediacy, of course, there’s Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.  Whether this counts as SEO copywriting is a moot point, although PPC does rely heavily for its success on good keyword selection that relates to tightly configured AdGroups, well-optimised landing pages and keyword-focused small ads.

It hardly matters, but PPC is firmly rooted in the search engine marketing (SEM) stable.  For purists who see SEO copywriting solely as a way to achieve higher website rankings, we have to be talking about optimised website copy, complete with appropriate keywords, meta tags and smooth, semantic syntax!

Other link-building tools which also draw on SEO copywriting skills include online PR and article marketing although, in this context, their SEO uses are focused on improving a website’s search engine rankings.

For businesses looking to generate sales and qualified leads in the most straightforward and cost-effective way, SEO copywriting and the improvements it can make in organic search engine ranking make it an essential secret weapon in any marketer’s armoury.

Buzzwords Copywriting Manchester at Squidoo!

Buzzwords has taken another step into the Web 2.0/social media world with Squidoo!  Check out this ‘lens’:

www.squidoo.com/buzzwordscopywritingmanchester