SEO Copywriters

I treat an SEO copywriter as a specialised hire, not a shortcut to rankings. The first thing I do is clarify the page goal before I ever write a brief. If the page is a landing page to capture emails, I need the copywriter to think about form placement, headline testing, and trust signals. If it is a blog post to educate, I care more about thoroughness and internal linking. Mixing those up wastes money.

Next, I research the topic and keywords myself and hand the writer a summary. Why? Because most SEO copywriters are strong on prose but weak on search intent analysis. I pull the top three ranking pages, note what questions they answer poorly, and give the writer a one-sentence brief: "This page needs to help someone who is choosing between a hostel and a budget hotel in Bangkok – the ranking pages talk about price but ignore location noise." That brief cut my bounce rate from 68% to 41% on a client's Bangkok accommodation page within three months.

Then I ask for a one-paragraph outline before the full draft. That catches structural problems early. I once approved an outline that had the keyword in every subheading – I rejected it and asked for a layout that grouped the content by searcher question, not by keyword. The rewrite's time on page jumped 22 seconds.

After the draft comes, I check three things: does the page answer the searcher's next logical question, does it have a clear call to action that matches the goal, and are the SEO elements (title, meta description, heading tags) distinct from competing pages. I do not check keyword density – I check whether the supporting terms from a [content audit](/content-audit/) are present. If the page targets "cheap hotel in Bangkok" but never mentions "noise", "breakfast included", or "cancellation policy", it will lose to a page that does.

Finally, I test. I run the page through a [title checker](/title-checker/) to make sure the title tag pulls through correctly, then I watch the click-through rate for two weeks. If the CTR is below 2%, I rewrite the meta description and the first paragraph, not the title. That alone lifted a SaaS landing page from a 1.7% CTR to a 3.9% CTR in ten days.

The most expensive mistake I see is hiring an SEO copywriter who only works on blog posts. That creates a website full of informational content with no conversion paths. I made this error with a client who had 40 blog posts ranking for solid terms but zero leads coming in. The fix was to redirect the copywriter to [landing pages](/what-is-a-landing-page/) and product descriptions. If your SEO copywriter cannot write a landing page, do not hire them for SEO alone.

Another watch-out is ignoring the meta description as a real estate. Many copywriters treat the meta description as a keyword summary. I have started treating it as a headline for the search result. I rewrote a meta description from "Learn about our cheap hotel booking service" to "Book a budget hotel in Bangkok with free cancellation – 3,000 verified reviews" and saw the CTR move from 2.1% to 4.5%. That is not a ranking factor, but it is a conversion factor from the search result.

Beware of the copywriter who produces the same structure for every page. If I see a listicle format for a product page, I push back. Product pages need comparison tables, trust signals, and a clear hierarchy of features. Blog posts can be looser. A copywriter who forces a five-paragraph template on everything will flatten your site's variety and lose you differentiation from competitors.

Also watch for over-optimised headings. I had a freelancer write an H2 that read "Affordable SEO Copywriters for Your Business" – that is a keyword-stuffed heading that repels readers. Headings should answer a searcher's question, not repeat the target phrase. I now ask copywriters to write the H2s as if they were explaining the page to a friend who asked the main query.

Finally, check the copywriter's understanding of [internal links SEO](/internal-links-seo/). If they never link to other relevant pages on your site, you lose the topical depth that Google rewards. I require at least three internal links per blog post and two per landing page, and I audit those links to make sure they are not forcing commercial anchors on informational pages.

Early on, I thought an SEO copywriter's primary value was keyword placement. I'd give them a list of exact-match phrases and expect rankings. That approach gave me a page that ranked on page one for "best budget hotel in Bangkok" but had a conversion rate of 0.3% – basically zero. The problem was that the page talked about pricing tiers but never addressed the searcher's real fear: hidden fees. I had to rewrite the entire page to include a transparent pricing table and a FAQ section about extra charges. After three weeks, conversion rate hit 2.1%. I now give copywriters the search intent, not the keyword list.

I also got wrong the balance between readability and SEO. I once instructed a writer to include a target phrase in every 150 words. The result was a 2,500-word article on hotel booking tips that Google flagged as unnatural. I had to do a full content rewrite, dropping the keyword density to under 1% and focusing on related terms like "cancellation policy" and "walking distance". The rewrite recovered the rankings in two months. The lesson: Google's Helpful Content update rewards natural language, not repetition.

Another mistake was not using the copywriter to improve existing content. I used to hire writers only for new pages. Then I ran a content audit on a client's site and found that 70% of their top-ranking pages had meta descriptions that did not match the search intent. I brought in the same copywriter I used for new pages to rewrite those meta descriptions and the opening paragraphs. The average CTR across those pages went from 1.9% to 3.3% in six weeks. That cost less than writing ten new articles and had a bigger impact.

Finally, I underestimated the value of subject-matter knowledge. I hired a generalist copywriter for a medical niche site. The draft used phrases like "get healthy fast" that sounded like a supplement ad, not a medical resource. I had to redo the entire page with a specialist who understood the terminology and the patient journey. Subject-matter expertise matters more than SEO vocabulary for topics where trust is the conversion factor.