Search - what's going on?

As as web copywriter, I've been offering search engine optimisation with my regular copywriting for the last couple of years. But it seems to have really taken off in the last few months.

The reasons? From the BBC News website to Time Magazine, search engine optimisation is now a legitimate subject for the mainstream media.

But there's another important reason. As I see it, many clients are going through the process of replacing an old (usually Flash-only) website, and are discovering why they performed so badly on the search engine results pages.

(FACT: one leading Scottish design consultancy doesn't even appear on the results pages for Google - even if you search for their very unusual name, and the city they're based in. Bonkers.)

The result? Almost every client is now asking for at least some search engine optimisation along with their web copywriting. For me, it's as good as it gets: a service where clients don't just get a warm glow, but a measurable result that's down to web copywriting and web copywriting alone.

Of course, I don't pretend to offer some of the more specialist search engine optimisation services - such as link building campaigns, or cleaning HTML code. But if a site's built properly, and the client follows my link building guidelines, the results are almost invariably very good indeed.

Oh, and I get to send a slightly bigger invoice to the client. Yippee.