Five Stupid Ways Clients Sabotage Their SEO Copywriting Campaigns

Today, most companies understand that strong content is an important part of the SEO process. But why do some clients do everything they can to ensure that their SEO campaigns just won’t work? If you’re working with a SEO copywriter (or plan to hire one soon), don’t let this happen to you!

1. Hiring the cheapest SEO copywriting bidder. Yes, you can find scads of writers on Craigslist. Sure, you can outsource to India. Perhaps your friend’s mother’s brother who just graduated high school could really use the work. But at the end of the day, whoever you hire creates your messaging. Have you ever left a site because you couldn’t figure out what to buy? Or the writing was so keyphrase-stuffed that you couldn’t slog through it? Chances are, the writer had a lot to do with that. You don’t have to pay $1,500 a page. But you will get what you pay for.

2. Deleting due diligence. Oh, the horror stories I’ve heard! If you work with an agency, remember one fact: the person making the sales call is not the person writing your copy. Additionally, many firms have multiple writers, all with different styles and capabilities. Learn who your account will be assigned to, ask questions about the writer’s experience and review their work (some folks even ask to have a quick conference call with the writer.) If the writer’s style doesn’t resonate with you — or if you have any other concerns — ask to be assigned to a different writer (or find another firm.)

3. Keeping your new content to yourself. A good SEO copywriter can’t help you with your search campaign if you don’t upload the copy. And it’s not fair to complain to the aforementioned writer that the conversions aren’t clicking if the pages aren’t uploaded. Key takeaway: writers can do brilliant things, but only when people can see our work!

4. Dropping out of sight. Clients, we love you. We really do. And it worries us when you disappear. If you don’t give us feedback on your pages, we can’t tweak the copy per your specifications. If we don’t know how to tweak the copy, copy creation comes to a screeching, grinding halt. Please, please — just let us know if something is hung up in the approval process, or something internally is taking priority. We’ll understand. We just need to know.

5. Editing the copy without checking with your friendly writer. It’s completely understandable that a few tweaks may need to be made. Just let us know what you did. Most firms are happy to do a free once-over to ensure that the copy is still set for search engines and conversions. Better to know before uploading than having to make changes much later — and pay for the privilege.