I recently took a 2-week course on SEO copywriting through mediabistro.com. I can’t say I learned anything super new in the course, but it articulated in a cohesive way little nuggets I’ve been gathering here and there. It also laid out some basic assumptions about SEO copywriting that I found worth sharing:

• SEO writing is about ensuring content is visible and discoverable in the digital space
• Identifying keywords to incorporate into your website copy is a critical first step in optimizing your content
• It’s useless to insert keywords willy-nilly into your content (search engines have gotten hip to that game); resist the temptation and use keywords as naturally as possible
• The more human and conversational you are in website content, the more search engines will pay attention to what you have to say, and the keywords you use to say it
• Contrary to other forms of copywriting, SEO copywriting should be less flashy and entertaining and more informative/educational/utilitarian
• “A good writer can learn SEO skills, but someone with SEO skills can’t necessarily learn to be a good SEO writer.”

Want to learn more? Looks like they’re offering another course starting January 12th. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has minimal SEO experience (almost half of the course is an exploration of SEO fundamentals).

Posted by Jessica Swope, web editor for Business Bullpen. You can follow Jessica on Tumblr.