It's time for copywriters to evolve and embrace search engine optimization. And not just re-writing headlines, but owning the search-optimized content creation process from start to finish.
The only reason writers and editors haven't been responsible for SEO in the past for interactive agencies is because SEO firms (and interactive firms) position it as some mystic science. "Meta keyword this" and "<h1> tags that."
It's not mystic. SEO is simply another function of the content creation process, one that ought to be owned by an agency's editorial group. SEO is words and content, and if your interactive agency is selling it to you as anything but, you should ask why.
Here's the high-level overview of why SEO should be in the copywriter's arsenal:
1. Search Term Research requires subject matter expertise and an understanding of the client's business and value proposition. What are people searching for? Who is doing the searching? What do they hope or expect to see. Understanding the client's business is the job of everyone in the agency, but putting the correct words to it is the writer's job. This is likely the weakest link for your writers simply because they don't have the tools for quantifying the research. "Quantifying" means knowing the highest volume searches and the terms with the most competition for pay-per-click dollars.
2. Coming up with the sitemap requires understanding of the messaging strategy, which your writer should own. It's about usability: what will people be navigating to find, and where does it make sense to find that information. Think of it as the grocery store: you know that when you're in the meat aisle, you're likely to find the fish and pork and chicken. Search terms need to be distributed across the sitemap. That means you're not doing a lot of doubling up of search terms.
3. Optimizing headlines, copy and meta info in a sophisticated way requires a crafty, creative writer. This is the least mystical part of all. Put your search term in the headline, the first sentence of body copy. Use a first sentence that will double as a good "organic ad" in the Google, and you can dang near copy-and-paste that first sentence as your meta description. Done and done. Honestly, the hardest part of this is wrestling with your art director to let you get away with long headlines on top-level pages. Re-writing/optimizing copy on the recommendation of a separate SEO expert is a waste of time and money when it can easily be written correctly the first time.
4. Internal cross-linking means using the search terms as the text link to send users to another page. In my own head, I tend to categorize this as more Search Engine Marketing than Search Engine Optimization, but whatevs. Cross-linking requires understanding of all the content, knowing tangential information for that page, and making decisions about who's on the page and how the content relates.
I'll be the first to acknowledge SEO experts and their efforts to stay current with trends and search technology. I have a very good friend who's an search engine savant, and he's gonna give me all manner of crap about this article. However, in practice, is not a difficult science to learn. Where search engine specialists can add the most value is in search engine marketing. This means collaborating with the writer to spin out new articles and content that support the terms, and finding high-value sites that will publish them.
As a smart client, finding an agency that smartly weaves SEO into their content creation process means you're getting additional value and traffic with less effort.
And as a copywriter, embracing the fullness of your role as described above and educating yourself about the search engine optimization technologies, you'll make yourself invaluable and your agency stronger. Copywriters must understand SEO the same way they understand basic interactive technologies and best-practices.