Savvy clients

Last week, a client asked me to tender for a big web copywriting project. The brief was very comprehensive - covering audience motivations, tone of voice and a fair bit of useful background information.

What I found most telling was the insistence that the copy is accessible. I couldn't agree more.

Even sorting out link text is a good start. So if your site says "click here for web copywriting courses", change it to "Visit the Blackad website to find out more about our web copywriting courses". If you're sending people to an external site, say so. And if the link points to a download, say what type of file it is and how big it is too.

Now all I have to do is make sure I apply all this to the tender.

Fingers crossed.

Rare sighting

Every so often, a website copywriting job doesn't turn out right. Thankfully, I can truthfully say it's a very rare occurrence over at Blackad. However, we're working on a site just now that's thrown up a fair share of issues.

The main problem? Structure. It's become apparent that the proposed sitemap just isn't going to service the client's business. And it's going to make writing the copy very difficult indeed.

Thankfully, Blackad and our partner on the site have mapped out a way forward, and we're now well and truly back on track. Once we're done, hopefully the client will think it was worth the effort.

When is an optimised site not an optimised site?

I recently completed the first phase of the copywriting for a client's new website. They're very keen on search engine optimisation (or "optimization" for my North American friends), but aren't too sure how to go about it.

I talked them through how I can help, including finding in-demand keywords and phrases which are under-supplied. I also explained that I would need to write some of the meta data, specifically the page title and the description tags.

Now the site is ready for testing, but I noticed my carefully constructed page titles had disappeared. It seems the web developers don't think they matter. I gently challenged them about this, and they said they tend to put in their own meta data.

This causes me a problem, as my copy will be less likely to do the job it's designed for. In the end, I've explained the situation to my client - and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

It's strange that some people in the industry aren't keeping up with developments in the search engine and directory market. Instead, they rely on outdated information, and pass it off as fact. If there's one thing I've learned about search engine optimisation, it's that there's always more to learn.