Copywriting in the SEO trenches

Onderstaande overtuigende passage van Robert W.Bly, auteur van ‘The online copywriters handbook’, geeft nog eens aan dat de wijze van verkopen op het internet niet fundamenteel verschilt ten opzichte van de tijd dat er nog geen internet was. Wel de wijze waarop men informatie tot zich neemt en de snelheid van de service die men verwacht van dienstverleners.

Search engine marketing is an inescapable word for copywriters these days if they want to add some copy to websites. Of course, content is still king but writing content for web purposes exceeds thinking about message, listener and structure of copy alone. Moreover, a whole new generation of copywriters is ploughing the road for new businesses incorporating SEO writing techniques. Surprisingly there is one famous copywriter that still believes the profession didn´t change fundamentally. You can read it in Robert W. Bly´s ‘The online copywriters handbook’ and it reads like this:

“On- or offline, People are People, While the internet is certainly a unique medium with some highly specialized features, the important thing to remember is that is does not alter human nature. Certainly the internet has changed (read:upgraded) customer expectations in terms of information accessibility, responsiveness, convenience, and service levels. But it has not altered the basic motivations that people respond to when being sold or in any other human situation. People are not fundamentally different beings when they go online; people remain people. They have the same fears, needs, and desires online as they have offline.”

And he goes on by saying: “Don´t think that the online world has a language all of its own. It doesn´t. Computer programmers may talk in html or Java Beans. But your prospects speak and read English (or your own language – note Anycopy) whether they are on-or offline. My finding is that the basic rules of clear, persuasive communication do not change when we move from the print to the online world. “

And then he continues with ten ways in which online and offline copywriting are very much alike. He makes a sound and very thoughtful argument about the fundamentals of copywriting. So , if you find yourself sitting behind your laptop, thinking you have changed suddenly in an html engineer or programmer, putting in the same word every sixth sentence because SEO rules dictate you, sit back, take a load off and consider your written message again. You are still writing for people.

Bron: The online copywriters handbook, published by McGraw-Hill 2002, author, Robert W. Bly)