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When we work with clients on their latest blog, or updated web site copy, one of the things we often ask is – what are the questions your perspective customers have for you? What can you answer for them? We’re taking our own advice and addressing a common question we hear from clients. What is the difference between copywriting and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing? Are they both pieces of Content Marketing? 

Click the links below to jump to each topic, or keep reading to to learn the key differences between copywriting and SEO writing.

We will dig into SEO writing in greater detail in this blog, with Part Two looking in depth at copywriting and its role in your digital marketing goals.

Copywriting and SEO writing are two pieces of content marketing crucial to every business. Sometimes these two may overlap, or marketers execute an overall content strategy without differentiating between the two.

To fully understand the difference between copywriting and SEO writing, we need to get an understanding of content marketing as a whole. 

What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing has been a game changer for the Digital Marketing industry — and our clients. If you are not familiar, content marketing is the art of creating, optimizing, and sharing valuable content to attract and retain your target audience, and ultimately — drive a profitable customer interaction. 

Instead of simply pitching your products or services, you provide truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues. According to Hubspot, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get their information from an article over an ad.

Who creates the content?

Content Marketing writers use language tailored to a specific audience to address problems, answer questions, and inspire consumers to use your product or service. This can include all types of avenues, from blog posts to web copy to mailed brochures.

“Often we want to put various tactics into separate boxes instead of looking at them all as pieces of an integrated marketing strategy. It’s easy to think of copywriting, social media marketing or SEO writing as completely separate. But the truth is, you need them all working together to be successful.”

Aubrey Burkhart, Owner, ThinkPod Agency

Content writing includes all these kinds of writing and works across a variety of communications teams, including sales and web design. 

Where content writing appears:

• Blogs
• White papers
• Social media posts
• Press releases
• Videos
• Web page content
• Email blasts
• Direct mail
• PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertisements
• Radio advertisements
• Taglines and headlines
• Catalogs
• Billboards
• Brochures
• Television or radio commercial scripts.

While all these marketing assets require writing, not all deliverables should be written the same way.

Think of a conversation in real life. Even though you may tell the same story to two different people, you most likely alter the way you share with your best friend versus a new coworker. The same concept applies to content marketing. Although your end goal is the same, you communicate information in a different context or drive conversions using a different method. That is the reason significant differences exist between copywriting and SEO writing.

SEO vs. Copywriting

Copywriting and SEO writing may be two different disciplines, but they do have common ground. Besides the fact that both require serious writing chops, they also have one common goal—to drive your business forward.

The main goal of both copywriting and SEO writing is to attract, engage, and convert leads. But they approach that goal from different angles.

With SEO content writing, the central purpose is to increase organic traffic through search engines. With copywriting (often referred to as sales writing), the end goal is to convert that traffic into leads and sales.

But aren’t both SEO content writing and copywriting capable of doing both? Absolutely. The difference comes in knowing which method is optimal to achieve your business goals quicker.

In marketing, we often speak of the Sales Funnel, or the journey potential customers go through on their way to a decision.  SEO writing is mainly crafted for people who are at the top of the funnel—those who are still investigating a certain problem, as it aims to draw people to your website. However, SEO is also used at every other level of the funnel to draw people to your products and services.

Copywriting, on the other hand, is mainly aimed at leads that are already warm and are leaning towards buying or even ready to buy.  If you are after more online sales, then customers must be able to find your website. There is no point in using conversion copywriting to convince people to buy your product or service unless you have traffic reaching your site in the first place.

The specialization of SEO writing

The key difference between a general content writer and an SEO writer is specialization. SEO writing is truly a specialized kind of writing. These marketing experts have learned the techniques necessary to format and present your message, and follow the (many) SEO rules while still producing quality content drawing readers in. Top SEO content writers offer more than just content writing – they essentially act as your website’s SEO analyst as well. 

Why hire an SEO writer?

When you want to generate more organic traffic to a website, an experienced SEO writer is vital to accomplishing your goals. Traffic is generated through high-quality, error-free, keyword-optimized, and relevant topical content.

How do writers accomplish all of this? The discipline of keyword research is used to discover which words people search for in relation to your product or service. An expert SEO writer will then use these words (or phrases in the case of long-tail keywords) to direct the content they create. 

Because SEO writing is about producing informative content that answers a question, SEO writers use these keywords to create content that answers the questions your readers are asking, as well as creating guides and other types of informative content. 

When users search the internet looking for resources or services that fulfill their needs, Google does the work to find quality content that can answer their specific search queries.

Complex Google algorithms study website content and determine whether those articles would be a good fit or not. To help users the most, search engines look for high-quality SEO content writing. This kind of content writing is heavily based on keywords, meta content and quality writing. It provides detailed information that is easy to find and straight to the point, making it an ideal resource for curious readers.

SEO writers create content to achieve a variety of goals, including:

• Increase a website’s keyword rankings
• Boost Click-Through-Rates (CTR) from SERPs (Search Engine Results Page)
• Improve website navigation
• Attract high-authority backlinks
• Write in Google E-A-T guidelines (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)
• Repurpose existing content
• Direct users to other pages within the website 
• Optimize internal and external linking with existing content
• Convert unique visitors into subscribers, leads, buyers or customers
• Not over-optimizing

SEO Writer or Copywriter? The answer – Both

One question companies ask is which of these two writing disciplines is best for their marketing goals? The answer is both. That is, use both where they are needed. An effective marketing campaign needs both copywriting and SEO writing for it to succeed. 

If you are noticing your company missing from Google search results, ThinkPod can help. Talk to us today about a free SEO audit to look at how your site is performing with search engine best practices. Our team of experienced writers and SEO experts can get you on track – and to the top of the results page.