You have only yourself to blame for bad SEO content

There are two schools of thought surrounding SEO (Search Engine Optimised) copy. The first is that it can simply be generated with fridge poetry and a few keywords. It’s this belief that has given rise to the second notion: that soon these people and their fridge poetry will become redundant due the rise of “robot” generated copy as indicated by narrativescience.com. People who believe either of these notions are naïve.

Some people would believe that Shakespeare is currently turning in his grave due to the current state of SEO copy. I class these people with the previous bunch, who probably also believe that a good education can be substituted with the information on the back of Chappie wrappers. Nay, SEO copy needn’t be mindless drivel that makes no attempt to use knowledgeable and accurate phrases and language that is free of folly.

Instead it should be as well written as possible, working keywords in naturally and intelligently. Finding authoritative and objective ways to bring across a client’s message or optimising onsite copy so that it is readable by both crawlers as well as humans and generates real interest is the best way to do it. There is no compromise unfortunately when it comes to the latter rule as any leeway may result in black hat techniques which can happen more easily than you think.

Now, a client probably doesn’t care if the hat your SEO company wears is purple, all they care about is that you achieve results. However some clients proudly wear shirts that say “everyone is a writer” — these are the special clients who believe that because they are the experts on their products they are best qualified to write about them. “What word rhymes with fool” they ask as their trust in their SEO agency dwindles and they butcher a perfectly good piece of SEO copy that, to add insult to injury contains perfect keyword density.

Your analytics are the key to knowing whether your SEO content strategy is actually working. It’s unfortunately not about personal opinion or your penchant for good language but rather what the facts and figures tell you. If you can achieve good results using white hat techniques then you have a “ding, ding, ding” winner. Add to this a possible sharing of your content through other online formats and your SEO content has come full circle.

So it seems it’s not only the crawlers and humans that you have to write for but the client too. This isn’t difficult to do and if your SEO company isn’t getting this right, then the solution is simple: fire your fridge poetry writers or pay them in nothing but banana flavoured Chappies — they may actually learn a thing or two.