We’re developing a great new site for a client. The design and code are working really well (as always…), but on this project, the copy has really shone through, both in terms of providing users good information, and providing good keywords & structure for search optimisation.

This client has seen the light in terms of copy writing – they employ a copywriter part-time to work on all of their marketing material. This means that when we started collecting content together for the site, there was a large body of good copy already existing, and an easy way to get more copy written, from short intro snippets for the Home page to full blocks of copy for the main landing pages.

Our client is in the security products industry, and, more than just selling top of the range security products, they want to enter into the debate on the security situation for home and business owners here in South Africa. On the website, we’re doing this through a monthly discussion topic and other customer feedback components, and through a series of articles on security in South Africa. In this 1st phase of the site, there are 9 really good articles on topics ranging from Securing your home for the Holidays, to Security in a Complex or Cluster Home development. These articles are providing us with a huge amount of content with which to create a really good linking structure – Google is going to love the site! What this means is that because of the articles, which discuss the broader issues, but relate directly to our client’s products, the hero pages – which promote the products and have buttons that say “BUY NOW” – are really well supported and (hopefully) Google will rank them well.

We have a new project in the pipeline – for a wedding photographer – and we’re going to be using a series of articles on that site to achieve the same end. We discussed setting up a blog with the wedding photographer, but a blog isn’t right for his business, so articles will give him a more formal way of discussing broader topics.

It really does pay to have a copywriter working on a website project, and articles seem to work really hard on a site, providing content and search-friendly structure.