The internet is a massive, seemingly bottomless pit of information. It is full of people giving or selling information and as many people looking for some. This information is visual, aural, and interactive and covers every subject you could imagine a whole load more that would never even occur to most people. What is consistent in this constant flow of information is the use of words.

It sounds obvious but too often the importance of words in a website is overlooked. A visually stunning and slick website is nothing but eye candy if the user cannot find any useful information on the site, or if it is badly written and they cannot understand the message the website is attempting to convey. Conversely, we are less loathe to overlook a naff attempt at web design if the words are spot on.

SEO copywriting is the technique of optimising key search terms (words and phrases in other words) throughout a website so that the website ranks highly in the major search engines and is user friendly at the same time.

When we talk about the major search engines the big players spring to mind: Google, Yahoo, MSN and there’s also Lycos, Alta Vista and ASK (formerly Ask Jeeves). These are the gateway to the internet for millions of internet users. Ranking high in the major search engines is invaluable to any business.

SEO copywriting is not just about filling your website with key search terms. It is about how and where key search terms are used throughout a website to gain maximum effect while not impinging on the quality or usability of the website.

A good SEO copywriter has the right mix of creative and technical skill. While it is important to utilise highly searched terms, the website must be informative and intelligently written once someone arrives at it. There is little point in ranking high in the major search engines if the website itself does not provide what a person was searching for in the first place.

SEO copywriting does well for websites that have a fair amount of writing in them anyway. If there is at least one page in the site with 250 words or more on it, SEO copywriting could improve that website’s performance. Some websites have less text in them and adding much more to them would ruin the style and flow of the website.

The key to a well written website, no matter how many words are in it, is relevance. The online world is a fast paced one and too much waffling will bore your surfers. Remember, your competitors are right at their fingertips.

A big fish in a small pond

If your business targets a niche market, you’ll get even more value from SEO copywriting. There are some areas of business on the internet where competition is much tougher because there are so many competitors. Health, insurance and personal finance are just a few of the areas a new company would have difficulty reaching the upper echelons of the major search engines in. If a website targets a search term that is keyed in less often and there are fewer competitors, it is easier to rise to the top of the pile in the search engines.

This is not to say that SEO copywriting will not be successful for a business in a very competitive area online, just that a much more rigorous approach is needed.

If you’re big on the internet you can reach the smallest and most hard to reach places in the world, and this means, more importantly, reaching people.