Who should Copywriters write for? Search Engines or People?

This question is often at the forefront of any copywriter’s mind, and if it isn’t………….it should be!

The balance between producing content for Search Engines and People is often the key to a successful online campaign and a successful copywriting career.

Here is the problem!

It is possible to produce content that search engines love, have KW rich text across the entire article including KW titles, metadata, categories, tags as well as including contextually relevant keywords in order to wow the semantic element of modern search engines. Without a doubt, with the correct amount of quality links going the article with a balance of social media, this article would be ranking in no time! The issue is people wouldn’t read it!! It would be verging on illegible with readers spotting SPAM from a mile off.

Equally you could write incredible prose, with product descriptions looking like they came straight out of a Shakespearian masterpiece. The text would flow throughout the article giving people the urge to……..

• buy the product/service
• want the product/service
• tell their friends about the product/service

….or preferably all 3.

However with limited linking and virtually no keywords, semantic relationships and social media, the article would simply fall into the abyss of the internet with hardly anyone finding your wonderfully constructed article.

You can see the dilemma, you cannot please both parties absolutely and therefore need to establish where the balance should be and how your writing should suit both SE and readers.

Search Engines vs Readers – The Weigh In

The difference between Search Engines and people are fairly obvious however with the development of modern search engine algorithms such as Google Caffeine and the addition of real time search, Search Engines are becoming increasingly similar to humans in the way they view content.

• They both read text!
• They both view images (with relevant Alt Text)
• They both can associate other text, videos and images to a particular article.
• They both want news (quickly)
• They both use social media (in different ways)
• They both can spot SPAM instantly!

The similarities therefore give us an indication about what we must do but little in what we should do to produce content for a particular party. Here are the distinct differences!

• If Search Engines like you they will bring traffic to your site – it is more difficult getting people to influence SE.
• Viral Campaigns are purely for the benefit of readers (SE can’t appreciate a video of real skill)
• Humans tell their friends. Search Engines have no friends.
• Search Engines do not buy your products!!!!!!!!!

To be honest I cannot stress the last point enough, yet it is the one element that many online copywriters forget. We aren’t writing to put our thoughts on paper, to produce memoirs or tear jerking novels, we are here to sell, nothing more!