• by Danielle Leitch , December 7, 2007

When my company redesigned its own Web site, we also needed to rewrite copy or provide new content, which of course will get optimized. I have been involved in the process of coordinating the draft content to be optimized by our SEO team -- ultimately delivering final page copy.

Keyword matching and key phrase research was done behind the scenes, but not necessarily shared with the same person writing the draft copy. This can be challenging, as the optimized copy needs to veer away from the original copy because of the lack of keyword density originally provided. Of course, the draft copywriter is well versed in our products and services but is not an SEO copywriter.

This is likely the case in most companies -- the product expert provides the meat and potatoes, and the person responsible for optimization is concerned with fine-tuning it to become optimized copy. How can this optimized copy process flow better in your company?

Keyword matching is important for a site's SEO success. It is the crux and core of all other efforts to follow. Once you have established which key phrases are critical for your business, make sense for that page, and provide you the best opportunity for positioning (think search volume and competition here) then it's time to write. This is where the title of my article comes in: " If you want to show up for it, use it!" The "it" refers to the keywords. Producing well-written and easy-to-read copy is step one; incorporating the key phrases you matched to that page for optimization is equally important. This goes past page copy, as page name urls and meta tags or alt tags should also be considered.

Take a look at some of your key Website pages that you feel don't get decent natural search results. What keywords or key phrases are you hoping to get ranked for? Are they woven into the copy of that page, more than just one mention? Has good keyword density been achieved (The percentage derived from the number of times the word is used in copy versus the number of words in copy overall)?

It can be a daunting task to balance SEO and traditional copywriting while keeping the user in mind as well. Having just gone through this exercise, I better understand the importance of having everyone on your team educated and aware of the copywriting goals (marketers, writers and designers), so this task becomes easier and improved SEO success is obtainable faster.