In brief: SEO copy is clear page content that answers search intent, uses customers’ natural language and helps the search engine understand the topic and the website’s relationships.
How I use SEO copy in practice
With service or category copy, I first address what a person needs to learn before making a decision: whom the offer is for, which problem it solves, how it differs, how the next step works and how they can verify the claims. I use search queries as research into customers’ vocabulary, not as a mandatory list of phrases. The context of the whole page also matters — headings, photographs, parameters, references, navigation and internal links. A paragraph under a catalogue rarely fixes an unclear architecture.
What to watch out for
Text written only for a bot is usually recognisable to a person too: it repeats the same phrase, risks nothing and could appear on anyone’s website. The other extreme is a creative slogan without a single specific fact. A good page needs a recognisable voice as well as facts.
Questions for decision-making
- What does the visitor need to know before the next step?
- Are we using their language or the company’s internal names?
- Which claim can we substantiate?
- Is the content on the right URL and does it have a clear role in the architecture?