• 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).

In the market for an editor? If you’ve done any kind of shopping around you’ve probably seen estimates for different kinds of editorial services, which can be confusing if you’re not familiar with the terms. Here’s a quick run-down of different kinds of editing.

Proofreading
Proofreading is the most basic kind of editing and is typically done just prior to publication (on- or offline). When an editor is proofreading they’re just looking for blatant errors—a random period here, a lower-case proper noun there—really obvious mistakes that a user would probably notice at a glance.

Copyediting (light and heavy)
Copyediting is more involved than proofreading. To copyedit is to dig into the language and logic of a text and work some degree of editorial magic to make it as flawless as possible. The mistakes an editor catches at this level can be obvious, but many of them are subtle and require an understanding of English’s nuances to catch. They can also be matters of style—the AP Stylebook has a different rule for state abbreviations than the Chicago Manual of Style, for instance, so a copyeditor would be on the lookout for places where a text deviates from a given style and make it conform.

It’s all a matter of degree, though. In a “light” copyedit, an editor will proceed gently, looking mostly for surface issues and not interfering too much with tone or voice. In a “heavy” copyedit they’ll dive right in and move sentences or entire paragraphs to improve readability. They’ll also eliminate wordiness, improve the overall flow, check facts, and flag any ambiguous or misleading statements. For clients that are struggling to communicate their brand or really engage customers, we would recommend a heavy copyedit. For clients who just want to strengthen their text and make sure it’s correct, we’d recommend a light copyedit.

Content development (or “content editing” or “substantive editing”)
This is basically a super-heavy copyedit. At this level of editing, an editor is working with very rough, incomplete, or disorganized text and doing a complete overhaul, often rewriting much of the text and changing or elevating the tone in the process. Content development is mostly associated with traditional publishing, however (if a book is in rough shape, it needs content development, but if a website is rough, it needs to be rewritten). When we do work above-and-beyond a heavy edit, we consider it “copywriting” because we’re essentially rewriting the text.

Just a little tidbit: the terms “proofreading” and “copyediting” aren’t as arbitrary as they seem. “Proofreading” comes from the practice of doing a final check for errors on “page proofs,” i.e., images of book pages before they go to print. “Copyediting” comes from the term “copy.” Newspapers in particular call their text “copy,” which seems counterintuitive as en editor because you’re editing original text, not copied text, but in the print world it’s text that’s meant to be reproduced in print so they call it “copy.” The very idea of “copy” doesn’t really apply in web editing, but the word “copyediting” will likely stick around.

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

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“Copy (or text, or words) used in design is a very particular type of creative writing that requires the inspiration of an artist and the control of a craftsman or craftswoman.”
—Mark Shaw, Copywriting: Successful writing for design, advertising and marketing

We don’t really think of business writing as creative writing, in part because the aims of business writing—to sell a service or a product—seem so different than those of creative writing—to express one’s self, to move an audience, to make some kind of social commentary, and so on. But they do have similar challenges for writers, the most important of which is creating just the right tone.

What is tone?
Tone is huge in any kind of writing. Finding a tone is like finding something to wear to an event; your choice to wear jeans, a cocktail dress, or a suit depends on where you’re going. You wouldn’t wear a cocktail dress to a football game, and you wouldn’t wear jeans to a job interview. Hopefully.

The same goes for tone in writing. More than being about a command of language, writing copy for websites (or any kind of business marketing) is about having a command of tone.

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