People who love to write can be good at it – even more so when they put their skills to the test on a regular basis, as content writers and copywriters tend to do. 

However, even though both of them involve putting words onto paper (or screen), they have often different results and serve distinct goals. As a marketer – or for a digital marketing agency – this difference is crucial to understand as its correct implementation means greater success for you and your business. 

Our world is filled with paradoxes and overlaps, but we’re here with this post on the difference between SEO (search engine optimisation) content writing and copywriting to at least straighten out this one difference. 

Content marketing is the practice of creating and sharing content with the explicit purpose of attracting, converting, and engaging leads. Understanding this is important to understand the difference between copywriting and content writing.  

SEO content writing. 

For content writers, the primary objective is to use search engines in order to gain organic traffic. 

Unlike writing a book, content writers must know the target audience they’re writing for, and that their writing contains certain elements. This can be: 

• Keywords: Through keyword research, content writers find certain ‘keywords’ people use when searching for your business or service/product. This helps people find you because you’re answering things they have questions to. 
• Personability: While important to make writing ‘crawlable’, it’s equally important to remember to write for the people, which means making writing engaging and focused on the target audience. Search engines like Google index websites based on user intent, too. 

SEO content writers write for SEO-friendly blog posts/web pages, create local SEO content for businesses, contextual links, etc. Every content writer and agency is different, but all of them should work to do some universal things, such as increase a website’s keyword rankings, optimise internal/external linking with existing content, repurpose existing content, and direct users to other pages within the website, to name some examples. 

SEO copywriting. 

The goal for copywriters is to convert traffic into sales and prospects. It means creating strategic content that will build brand awareness, and ultimately, guide people to take a particular action – which is why it’s also called persuasive writing. 

Unlike content writers who focus on blog posts, social media posts or press releases, copywriters work on projects for brochures, landing pages, direct mails, or advertisements. Good copywriting hence means leaving a lasting impression through your words. It’s usually done by: 

• Incorporating emotion: Copywriters are adept in the skill of using certain words to invoke a desired emotional response, as well as knowing what to omit. This can be especially important for areas that have small word counts, like article headlines or email subject lines. 

• Targeting: Copywriters must know their target audience well. This means knowing their pain and pleasure points and presenting your brand as the solution and attraction to it. This understanding of consumer psychology is an essential part of a copywriter’s toolkit to push the right buttons on your audience. 

Regardless of which type of writing you choose, it’s important not to over-optimise. Using too many keywords can interrupt the natural flow of the message. While people might use those words to look for you, those words won’t encourage them to finally buy from you. 

We know how to plan effective strategies. Tribe of Brands can help you stay on top of trends to effectively navigate the complex waters of the internet. Our marketing agency can help you with further ideas on how to design world-class websites, seamless user journeys, and digital marketing campaigns.