You don’t need to be an SEO expert, but your copywriter should be. At least, they should understand SEO insofar as it concerns your website and blog copy. But how do you test someone’s SEO expertise if you don’t have a deep knowledge of it yourself? These two questions should get you the answers you need without a crash course in optimizing copy.

2 Questions to Check a Copywriter’s SEO Expertise

1. How do you optimize copy?

However a copywriter answers this question, they should detail their system for keyword research. Keywords are the search terms people enter in search engines. Your copy needs to contain that keyword in the right places to show up in search results.

SEO expertise means a copywriter knows where to place keywords and what makes a keyword good in the first place. If no one is searching for a keyword, there’s no point optimizing your web page for it. Plenty of free tools exist to figure out exactly how many people use a keyword each month. (You can learn more about them here.)

Once a copywriter has a keyword selected, they should be able to tell you what keyword density they aim for. Currently, best practice is to aim for 1%-2%. In other words, one or two uses of the keyword per one hundred words. Google’s AI will flag more than that as a type of keyword stuffing. Notice also that this means a 100-word blog post probably won’t get you far since you don’t have a lot of opportunities to use your keyword. A copywriter claiming SEO expertise likely will offer longer blog posts for this reason.

2. How do you balance SEO with compelling copy?

SEO is invaluable, but it’s easy to focus on it so much that your copy sounds robotic. A copywriter’s SEO expertise gets people to your page. Their ability to tell a good story keeps people there. How copywriters achieve this can vary. Here are a few ways we balance SEO with readability.

As we mentioned abov, keyword stuffing hurts your rankings. It also makes web pages awkward to read. Did you ever read a website that felt robotic? The author (human or AI) probably tried to fit too many keywords in, hurting the readability of the page. Aside from being bad for SEO, keyword stuffing tends to unsettle people. Distinctive brand voice always should be a priority.

Keeping readers on your page longer is good for SEO. Hypothetically, there’s a snowball effect. Better copy keeps visitors on your page, which helps you climb Google’s rankings and attract more visu. One of the best ways to keep people reading to the end is to make your content easy to skim.

A copywriter with SEO expertise will give your website or blog a clear structure. Have you ever opened a page and confronted a wall of text only to close the page without reading it? You’re not alone. Headings, lists, and bold statements make copy easy to read quickly. 

How copywriters approach SEO can vary, but the foundations will always rest in keywords and compelling copy. Are you looking fo a copywriter with SEO expertise? At Brandcendent, we specialize in on brand, SEO-driven copy for small businesses. Reach out to learn how we can help you reach your dream clients!