Second Thoughts?: SEO Copywriting for ‘Newbies’ – Day 5
Posted by:
Barry Byers on April 10th, 2008
In Internet Marketing
Defibrillators anyone….??????
Sitting on a patio Sunday, the first real spring day in the Toronto-area, I was telling my friends how great my new job as copywriter for a dynamic local SEO firm is. Then I pulled Sunday’s New York Times out of my satchel….Smack dab on Page One, right below the fold, sat an article by Matt Richtel describing how some type-A blog writers are apparently dropping dead at their keyboards, futilely trying to keep ahead of the relentless 24 hour news cycle – and one step ahead of the competition on their heels. (Talk about dying with your boots on!)
Never mind….No second thoughts! No matter how obsessive or compulsive paid-by-the-word bloggers hammering out content late into the night might be, they cannot possibly be any more driven than the business lawyers in the office tower law firm I once toiled for. As relentless as keeping up with the news cycle is, it can’t be more relentless than an eager, Cheshire-smiling associate lawyer with a view to partnership and a corner office in a blue-chip law firm.
I must admit, though, that pro blogger Matt Buchanan’s gambit of blending a protein supplement into his coffee to stay fueled up while avoiding meal breaks is one that is worthy of even the most driven investment bankers, mergers & acquisitions or securities specialists I worked with. Why hasn’t Starbucks gotten wind of this?
On Day 5, sitting through a search engine optimization seminar put on by my boss in conjunction with John Alexander of Search Engine Workshops, I am guardedly relieved that SEO copywriting may be a somewhat different breed of cat than the pay- per-article bloggers who were the focus of the New York Times article. The mantra in SEO copywriting seems to be that new and relevant is what drives page ranking. While fresh and current content is important. It is not necessarily the writer who is first on the web with comments on breaking news, so long as the content on the client’s page is new, relevant and interesting.
If I’m wrong about this….defibrillators anyone….??????
(For the sake of my health and well-being, if not his business, I am trusting that my new boss is, in fact, reading the copy I’m churning out on his behalf….)
