Buzzwords Copywriting Manchester

‘Copywriting Rates’  (Dec 8, 2007) is easily the most popular post on this blog!  It underlines the commercial significance of business copywriting and the hard-headed approach people take to what is an important, and often crucial, decision.

I should say, however, that quality should score over price every time.  There are plenty of so-called copywriters out there - especially on the Internet - who are charging five dollars an hour.  To me, that’s commercial suicide - unless you’re living in a third-world country of course.

As you would expect, Buzzwords charges much more than that (call me on 01565 654 023 to find out!).  That’s mainly because I have 20 years’ experience and know-how under my belt.  But also because I’m good at what I do! 

Different types of projects are charged out in different ways.  Standard copywriting for things like advertising and brochures are charged at a fully negotiable day-rate, pre-agreed as a fixed rice for each particular job.  Copywriting for websites is negotiable on a ‘per project’ basis, whilst anything that’s ongoing - such as PR, article marketing, link building and SEO - works best on a monthly retainer fee. 

Nothing is set in stone, however, and copywriting rates are always negotiable, especially for volume work or ongoing consultancy-type projects.  The best thing to do is give me a call the next time you feel a project coming on.  The copywriting rates may not surprise you, but the quality and commitment surely will!

Most people’s idea of SEO copywriting would probably be writing a website with major keywords included at a suitable density.  Throw in some expertise in the on-page SEO department and the job’s as good as done.  Or is it?

If you personally commission SEO copywriting, either for your own company or on behalf of a client, you should know that SEO copywriting skills can use those same keywords to great effect in other ways.  We’re back to link-building again - using keywords in areas like Online PR and Article Marketing (aka Article PR) to link back to a landing page on your website (whose URL should also include the magic keyword[s]!).

Any SEO copywriter worth his salt will be able to create links with online article directories, PR newswires or distribution sites.  With skillful keyword research and some savvy online marketing, extending the reach of your keywords (and, by extension, the number of links pointing to your website) is only an SEO copywriter away!

Listen to some SEO commentators and you’d be forgiven for assuming that meta tags are no longer a factor in the way search engines rank websites.  Following a recent Google declaration, greater  emphasis is now placed on the number of quality, inbound links which point to a site.

It’s obvious that this will be a good indicator of the ‘importance’ of a site but, it should be said, meta tags will always remain as the signposts which indicate relevance of content.  That in turn must surely mean that  meta tags will always be an important part of on-page SEO.

Fortunately, the search engine robots can now identify ‘natural’ language patterns in online copy.  The death of ‘keyword stuffing’ is not only good news for the readers of websites who now no longer have to endure unreadable and repetitive text.  It also frees up copywriters to write in the way they prefer - in real sentences that concentrate on the flow of ideas and information, rather than including as many keywords as possible.  

Keywords are still important, of course.  The difference now is that they should be used carefully - in <h1> tags certainly, and also in introductory sentences. They also have a place in <title> tags - the nearer the beginning of the line the better.  (And if you can also include main keywords in a page URL, this too will help with ranking.)

The conclusion to all this is that mega tags are alive and well but - in an increasingly c0mpetitive web environment - the search engines have been forced to look at inbound links to sort the wheat from the chaff. 

And yet, this is far from being a perfect science - even with all the powerful semantic analysis tools at the search engines’ disposal.  Generating links from online articles and PR, for example, is a process that is still open to abuse by automated submission software but, here again, search engines are ‘on the case’ with their increased awareness (and intolerance) of duplicate content.

It’s important for online copywriters (and those who brief them) to remember that search engines exist solely to provide the most relevant search results for their punters.  Quality content will bring its own rewards in increased uptake among the online community.  Meta tags, similarly, will always be needed to invite the search engines to ‘come see about me’.

If you want a higher ranking website, make sure you work on those inbound links!  SEO copywriting is a great tool for doing this and I’ll be looking at the various ways to approach this massive subject over the next few weeks.

Suffice it to say: Google now sees the number and quality of links pointing to a website as probably the most important factor in deciding that site’s fortunes.  The part that SEO copywriting can play in this is enormous - on-page SEO, article marketing (aka ‘article PR’), online PR and systematic directory-led link building… all of which is based on solid keyword research.  It’s enough to make your eyes water!