Search engine marketing and copywriting make uneasy allies. SEM means writing for a machine, for an equation, for a filter. Copywriting means expressing human desire, passion, creativity for people. Yet when you can combine the basics of search engine marketing with creative copywriting, your clients win. Big time. And I’ll address this at the end.

But first, to illustrate this, I did a little experiment this last weekend with the beer making blog that’s updated by a few folks here at Pop Art. We planned this past Friday to drink our way around the world at the Portland International Beerfest, then do a beer review. I wanted to see firsthand how a linking strategy and keyword density strategy would work. Short answer: It worked really, really well.

Granted, it’s not like there’s a ton of competition over the Portland International Beerfest search term. But we drinkers and brewers tend to write a lot, and being the sort who are willing to pay $9 per six pack, we’re probably well-educated with a good income. Plus this is Portland, home of craft brew. My point is that this ain’t like competing over a zillion dollar search term like mesothelioma, but it’s a decent test.

Here’s how it went:

Friday: Drink. Eat. Get a lift home. Read for a bit. Zonk out.

1 HOUR WRITING, 1 HOUR MARKETING

Saturday: Get up, drink some water, eat some eggs, write the review. Terms to focus on: “Portland International Beerfest” and “list.” I figured “list” would be good because folks might want to know what’s on tap and in the bottle there. I made sure the search terms are in the title and H1 (the Title box in WordPress, depending on how you have it set up). Made sure they were near the beginning of the first paragraph. Then I sprinkled them together throughout, and dropped ‘em one more time for good measure at the end.

I waited an hour or so, then Googled it (sans quotes). “Portland International Beerfest.” Third page. “Portland International Beerfest list.” First page, last listing.
Sweet.

I then went in to the beer blogs that I normally read and comment on, as well as the forums where I’m a member, and posted links back to the site using the terms inside the anchor tag. Like this: “I just posted a review of the Portland International Beerfest list of awesomeness.”

Then I took some aspirin and went back to bed.

PROVING DAY

Monday: Headed into work, and did a quick search for my terms. Lo’ and behold, we were on the front page, fourth item, for “Portland International Beerfest.” And when you tacked “list” on there, we were No. 1. Killer. Our SEM wizard, Blu — who nearly won the Stein Hoist contest Friday with a whopping 5 minutes, by the way — gave me a thumbs up.
CREATIVE COPYWRITING AND SEM

Whoop-dee-do, though, right? Search engine marketing works. Duh. But getting it to work elegantly with branding? That’s where you earn your big bucks if you play it cool.

See, it’s easy for copywriters to get incredibly flustered with SEM. You’re basically given terms — often unwieldy and lacking poetry or rhythm — and told where to put them. Which can be very limiting, if you look at them that way.

SEM MAKES LEADS EASIER

I prefer (for my own sanity) to view them as building blocks. “Portland International Beerfest list” could be used in so many different ways in a lead sentence, all of them interesting. Being constrained is just another way of saying you’re focused. Wasn’t there a da Vinci quote about that? Anyway, here’s a few examples:

• The Portland International Beerfest list of awesomeness (my choice: hangovers do not breed creativity)
• I saw the Portland Internationational Beerfest list and said, “It’s like Christmas in July!”
• The Portland International Beerfest list couldn’t be less global: it might as well be the Portland European Beerfest list. There were maybe 10 non-European ales.
• One look at the Portland International Beerfest list told me I’d better bring enough cash for a cab ride home.

All of those work. They’re all interesting, decent lead sentences.

WORKING SEM INTO TITLES

I think headlines and titles are a little more difficult, because you’re already fighting hard for character real estate. But, just like leads, it’s all about attitude. When you’ve got long terms, like my example of Portland International Beerfest, you’re extremely constrai… Er, I mean, you’re extremely focused. So live with it.

Are you going to be able to pull off an Ogilvy special? “Lemon”? No. you’re not. But you’ll get your site higher on Google, letting customers find information they want, and hopefully generating goodwill for your client. And for 99% of the jobs out there — jobs where you’re conveying information rather than going gung-ho for branding — that’s something to hang your hat on.

And c’mon. You’re on the creative team, right? Then be creative. Throw out an insanely long headline, a la Leatherman or Redfeather Snowshoes. Plus designers love playing with type, so give ‘em a thrill. Here’s a few examples:

• Portland International Beerfest List of Awesomeness
• Portland International Beerfest List of Le Crappiest Ales in France*
• You’d Be an Idiot to Miss the Ales on Our List from the Portland International Beerfest

Get the point? Sweet. So there you’ve got it. I’m sure there’s a million strategies and tactics I’m overlooking — remember, I was hungover while I did this — so I look forward to your comments about search engine marketing and copywriting.
* Believe me, I tried them all, they were booooooring. Note: Chimay was not present.