What’s an “SEO copywriter”? This term is often tossed around by newbies, and is a fair indicator of fatal Web copywriting mistakes you should avoid. Here they are.

Let’s start at the beginning. Copywriting is marketing. Copywriting isn’t writing educational or informative material. It’s writing words that sell, whether online or offline. That’s all it is. On the Web, words sell much as they do in direct response copy; they touch the reader’s emotions, and get him reaching for his credit card.

In a nutshell: copywriting equals sales.

So please avoid these fatal Web copywriting mistakes - any one of them is sure to make your clients hate you, so that they not only will never hire you again, but will badmouth you in the industry.

1. Writing for the Search Engines

The search engines can bring you traffic, but they can’t buy a client’s products. People buy. Therefore it’s much better to get 50 visitors a day who want to buy a product, rather than 5000 visitors who typed a keyword into a search engine and landed on a Web page.

Should you use keywords in your copy? Yes, if they’re words buyers type into a search engine query box, and if the keywords are buyers’ keywords. Using keywords for any other reason will always dilute the effectiveness of your copy. See mistake #3.

A SEO copywriter knows which keywords result in sales for products. A good SEO copywriter is a copywriter first, and is a search engine optimization specialist second.

2. Writing Without Proof

Hype-laden copy which isn’t backed up by proof is ineffective, because it harms your credibility.

Avoid writing without proof. Saying “our product is the best” without proof is useless. Back up every statement you make, with testimonials or research studies, or don’t make them.

If a client fails to provide proof, it’s up to you to get it, in any way you can.

3. Failing to Track Sales and Adjust the Copy

We said that copywriting equals sales. Therefore, before a company hires a copywriter to write, they decide how they’ll track the effectiveness of the copy, and will inform you how they’ll track. For example, “our current conversion rate for the page is 2 per cent. We require your copy to convert at 5 per cent. We expect revisions without further charge, until you reach a 5 per cent conversion rate.”

I love clients who track, and so should you. If a client doesn’t outline how he’ll track, help him to develop a tracking method, and ask for a bonus (or at the very least, a glowing testimonial of how you improved sales) at the end of the project. Clients who track become long term clients, and they have the potential to bring you many more clients.

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Copywriting is writing for business: promotional writing. Copywriters write material like advertisements and they’re VERY highly paid.

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