A few years ago, a business owner might have gotten away with writing his own brochure copy, maybe his own sales letters, and yes, even writing his own web copy. But these days, one thing is certain - the vast majority of business owners and marketing people know that content it a vital component of search engine optimization (SEO). Even still, there are people who take it upon themselves to create the own content - even as they outsource other SEO components like PPC and article marketing - and sabotage the entire process.

Need a couple more ways to mess up your SEO? Here are four easy ones for you:

The MIA client. I’m very much a management by objective (MBO) kinda guy. Give me a task, a project or an entire campaign, and I’ll tackle it. I’ll get every last detail before I start the work and I’ll also give you regular updates during the project. But when I need you, the client, for a vital question about your project, I (like most writers) get antsy. I know you’re busy, and your SEO project is probably not the only project, but when clients don’t return emails or phone calls for days at a time, it really drags a project down. Same goes for approvals. If my copy needs to be seen by 40 pair of eyes and it’s going to take a month, let me know.

Forgetting to do that last 5%. Sometimes SEO content writing is like a home improvement project. There’s often that 5% that simply gets left undone. It’s that piece of trim behind the toilet, or not moving the fridge to paint behind it. With SEO projects, I find the last 5% usually falls into the client’s list of ‘things to do’ and it involves a vital piece of the project: uploading the SEO content. So when you hire a great SEO writer and they give you their best work, that last 5% (uploading) is costing you 100% of the revenue you could be generating with new content.

Trying to win your own SEO Pulitzer and not letting me in on the fun. I’ve been on the client side, and I KNOW how tempting it is to “dial in” the copy you get from an SEO writer. Change a sentence here and there, switch around some paragraphs and polish some title tags and voila! - you’re even happier than when you got the copy (and that was pretty happy). But, if you want to make tweaks, can we do it together? I want your copy to work as hard as possible for you and as much as you know your business inside and out, I know SEO copywriting. Even the minor changes that you don’t think will effect you SEO efforts could be sabotaging you. Plus, if you make your own edits and come back to me six weeks later wondering why your conversion rates suck, I’ll have to charge you…and there is no pity coupon code for this site.

Hiring the first SEO copywriter you find (unless you find me first). I can find you a hack SEO copywriter on Craigslist in under three clicks. Doesn’t matter what country, either. But, maybe you already know someone who knows someone whose son is an intern at a PR agency and thinks he writes good press releases and content isn’t much different. Where was I going with this? Oh, right…you’ll get what you pay for. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but in the end your SEO writer will make (or break) you.