Practical SEO Copywriting Review — The Easy Way To Learn SEO Copywriting
I provide SEO copywriting for a number of different businesses, but unfortunately, I haven’t been able to help everyone. You see, a large number of the people who contact me are website owners with budgets that are simply too small for the amount of copy and content they need.
The other group is moms, dads and students who would like to earn some extra cash writing for a living. They want to do it, but they just can’t afford to pay me to teach them one on one and finding a decent course on it is like finding a needle in a haystack blindfolded!
While I do help some of these people on rare occasion, I simply can’t afford to help all of them. Now, with Practical SEO Copywriting by Glenn Murray, I can!
About Glenn…
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Glenn Murray of Divine Write for almost three years now. We met over a tweet about SEO of all things. I was looking for some good quality resources to learn more about SEO, and he was kind enough to offer me a copy of his book SEO Secrets.
Being a creative, writing-obsessed, information addicted, quirky soul with a passion for SEO like me, we hit it off instantly and spent a good chunk of time talking about…I don’t know…something. Anyway, despite the fact that we’re technically competitors, we’ve become colleagues, and most importantly, great friends. We’ve worked together and helped each other more times than I have fingers and toes. (Might explain why I don’t know how many times we’ve helped each other out!)
You’ll never find another copywriter more interested in talking about the industry and willing to help. He’s smart, knows what he’s talking about, and is certainly ahead of the game compared to most in the industry. Naturally, I was excited and flattered when I got a sneak peek at Practical SEO copywriting.
Glenn and Writing
Perhaps one reason Glenn and I get along so well is that we have the same methodologies, techniques, and ideas when it comes to SEO copywriting and running our businesses. (They say imitation is the best form of flattery 
)
Well, we do argue about one thing: I’m a firm believer in the idea that contractions should be used to improve the flow of the writing, but they should be mixed with the long form to add variety and emphasize various points. He doesn’t. As a result, it has become one of our favourite arguments that I poke him with just often enough to keep him on his toes. (I keep meaning to write a post about that…)
Ok, ok. He uses a lot of funny words that remind me of Crocodile Dundee, his spelling is a little off (who spells tire with a ‘y’ anyway? ) and he’s made me go digging through an Australian/Canadian dictionary for a translation more than once, but I digress.
In short, Glenn has written a book that contains the teachings I would have included in a book about SEO copywriting. He is an extremely talented copywriter, successful, and someone I look up to very much.
Practical SEO Copywriting
I absolutely loved the way Glenn formatted and set up the book. Not only was there lots of pretty pictures and tables to look at, but it also meant I could absorb more information by reading less. Who doesn’t like that?
The problem with writing about SEO copywriting is that it contains many problems you don’t encounter or think about until after you get going on it. This can make these situations a bit difficult to for someone new to the gig to understand. Glenn, however, handled it beautifully.
He explored each of the common issues in detail using simple and entertaining English. (I must say that ‘The sniff of an oily rag is the Honda ride-on mower’s equivalent of over-eating!’ is my favourite line in the whole book.) The problems, solutions, and examples included in the book made it easy to understand what he was getting at and how to solve them.
Glenn also covered a number of the dilemmas I was forced to learn through experience. I think this will give everyone wanting to know more about SEO copywriting a huge advantage that those of us who came before this book simply just didn’t have.
Everything you need to know about SEO copywriting is in this book and explained in a way everyone can understand! It’s far better than most of the multiple week training courses I’ve seen, and if you don’t think so, Glenn is more than happy to refund your money. (If it makes you feel better, I don’t remember Glenn ever having to give someone a refund on any of his books.)
What I’d Like To See In The Book…
Like the brain freeze that comes with ice cream, you have to take the good with the bad. On the bright side, the sugary sweet goodness more than makes up for the momentary discomfort.
First of all, Glenn doesn’t talk about himself or brag about himself near enough. I know him, so I know there’s much more to the story that I think others would have related to and found interesting. It would also have gotten readers to realize exactly how big of a deal he really is. (In case you’re wondering, he’s as big in the copywriting world as Oscar the Grouch is on Sesame Street. Wait…is Oscar still on Sesame Street? Never mind. You know where I’m heading with this. You definitely want to get to know him!)
I would have liked to see him dig a bit more into formatting text and the importance of bold, italics, colour, and underlining. On the Web, this can make or break your copy, as far as I’m concerned.
While making headlines and text scannable was mentioned in the book, I would have loved to have seen a section devoted to it. Other items such as studies, reports, statistics, etc that outline the habits of online readers (the first three words of a title, for example) would have been another great set of topics to consider, even if it was simply providing links to further reading.
The book doesn’t dig much into creating headlines, but at the same time, this is sort of a tough one to teach. You just need to practice. A pull file filled with great headlines you find along your travels can really help too.
I think those new to copywriting and websites would have benefited from a set of examples they could refer to. The book does have examples, but some people learn better when they can compare before and after samples in different styles. Perhaps it would have been even better to give some exercises at the end that we could work on and compare to the optimized version? That’s right, I need more dammit!
From now on, those who ask me about SEO copywriting will definitely be getting a link to this book.
So, if you haven’t already purchased Glenn Murray’s Practical SEO Copywriting, I strongly suggest you do so. You won’t be disappointed!
Update: Blair Keen of Good Signal.com did up a great video that takes an excellent look at both of Glenn’s books. However, it gives you a REALLY good look inside the cover of Glenn’s Practical SEO Copywriting. Enjoy!
(Yes, these are affiliate links on an honest review.)
May 6, 2010 at 6:20 pm | Copywriting | 2 comments
Ha! Thanks for the review Angie. Very nice. Two points:
1) Wherever you disagree with me, or criticize me, you’re wrong; and
2) Wherever you praise me, clearly you’re right.
Cheers.
Oscar
LOL That’s pretty much what I’d figured
It was one of the funnest reviews I’ve done in a long time and I’m waiting patiently for the next book to come out! 
Angie