Write Powerful Copy: Don't Write for the Search Engines

Robert Bly, the well known copywriter, wrote a great article on why he doesn't believe you should write your copy for the search engines.

Bob explains that you need to have a single core audience in mind if you want to write powerful copy. If you write for the search engines, then you are catering to them and not the reader.

His main points:

• Write the strongest selling copy you can aimed at the human reader and forget the search engines.
• When finished, check to ensure keywords are appropriately placed, but ...
• Never change a word of strong selling copy if that change will make it even one iota weaker, even if SEO best practices would endorse that change.
• Once the page is up and working (i.e., generating strong conversion), optimize for engines by experimenting with word changes, testing to ensure those edits don’t reduce conversions.

Bob includes comments made by other copywriters he spoke to and most agree with his point of view.

I also use a method similar to Bob's. I write the copy first (or help my clients write theirs) and then go back and do some keyword research and make modifications to the copy, inserting keywords where appropriate as long as they don't take away from the copy itself. I find that well written copy that is geared to a specific target audience naturally will include a lot of the key words people use when searching for a particular product or service on the web.