What Does a Copywriter Do?
We have two copywriters on our content team at Helix House. But what does a copywriter do? For one, copywriters write blogs (like this one here!). Almost every Helix House blog on our website was written by one of our copywriters. That’s not all, though. A copywriter’s job description is a bit vague: they create clear, compelling written blogs, descriptions, articles, etc., to sell products and/or educate and engage consumers. It doesn’t say what they’re in charge of creating. So let’s take a moment to get into everything a copywriter here at Helix House does/can do on an average day.
Copywriters Write Blogs!
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way: we write blogs. If our Helix House clients are interested in SEO work, content creation is normally part of the service. The blogs target specific keywords (we’ll get into this later so remember that word) and tell Google that, hey, this website is active and people who search this keyword might be interested in that blog! It’s an SEO ranking strategy, but it’s also so much more. Blogs, when done well, establish reputability. Think of it this way. You’re in the market for home repairs and have it narrowed down between Company A and Company B. Both have great reviews and good referrals and both are in your price range. So you go online to research them and both of their websites look appealing. But Company B has another section — industry news and resources; aka a blog. The blog is full of topics, including the home repair you’ve been looking for. You read it, learn their process, learn the company’s tone, and get a feel for who they are. Company A has no blog. Therefore you don’t know their tone, you don’t get a feel for what they know or who they are, and there isn’t an added wow factor. What company would you choose? If you pick B, you picked correctly because a copywriter’s work helped put Company B ahead of the competition.
Link Building
We won’t get into this too much, but some copywriters are involved in link building! This means we write blogs for other people to point links back to our clients’ websites. It’s added work, but one new backlink can be the difference between your business being on the ninth page of Google and the second page.
Initial SEO Research
Some copywriters will be involved in initial SEO research. Remember the term “keywords?” A keyword is the key word or phrase that you’re writing a blog around. It’s what people are commonly searching for on Google. For instance, a keyword can be “AC repair company” or “kitchen remodels.” It’s a copywriter’s job to find those words using various tools such as Ahrefs so they can optimize their client’s website, blogs, and adwords toward the right keywords. We did an entire blog on keyword research, so we’re not going to get fully into it. What you need to know is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of keywords that can fit one business. A copywriter needs to work with the client, look over their website, and research their client’s competition to make sure they are finding the right keywords to target. If involved in SEO, a copywriter will then apply the keyword to the website and blog’s metadata. Google uses this meta data to rank the page and drive traffic to it. For instance, an optimized SEO blog on “air conditioning repair” won’t appear in a google search about plumbing.
Writing Website and Landing Page Copy
Does your website or landing page have words on it? Chances are, they were written by a copywriter! This is very similar to the blog writing process, but on steroids. At Helix House, the content team works with our designer to produce the best possible website or landing page for our clients. It’s fully optimized for SEO and built to turn potential leads into conversions. Those snappy taglines you see? Either a marketing team or a copywriter came up with it. That poetic description under the header? Copywriter! What about the fun names in the menu? Yup, a copywriter most likely came up with those too. While we can’t say that every word on the page was written by a copywriter, there’s a good chance one was involved in the process.
Creating Conversions with Copy
Copywriters are often involved in writing ad copy, email marketing, pop-ups, and lead generation. These are jobs that are meant to turn potential leads into customers. Think of pop-ups on websites that offer a newsletter, a free ebook, or a coupon if you put in your email, or the wording on ads you see on your Twitter or Facebook feed. Those were created by a marketing team; by ad experts and copywriters. At Helix House, our content team looks over every social ad before it goes live. We also write and run our client’s email marketing campaigns (which are vastly different and can distribute information, act like a newsletter, or distribute coupons).
Okay, What Else Does a Copywriter Do?
We do everything. Okay, not really, but we do everything that involves the written word. We help establish and convey personality, tone, reliability, reputability, and accountability. We help clients get seen on Google, which can seem like an impossible task if you’re a local business competing with a well-known chain. We’re the behind-the-scenes workers who take pride in what we do, because what we do matters even if it doesn’t get read by everyone on the website. And if it doesn’t work? We’re the ones analyzing the data, sanding down the rough edges, and polishing everything so that you start seeing results. Then we do it all over again. Sure, we’re not writing fantasy novels or in the spotlight, but we’re the ones who beat Google to get you on the first page of search results. We’re the voice for the business. We’re pretty much experts on 56 thousand things SEO. That’s pretty cool.
