by Karon Thackston © 2004 http://www.copywritingcourse.comIn part one of this article series we began looking at Cruise Vacation Center site: a travel site whose copy was sorely lacking in emotional appeal and visual imagry. (You can see previous version of copy here: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/CruiseVacationCenter-Original.pdf.) In conclusion, you’ll see how all rewrite turned out and how exciting end results have been.
The Rewrite
It took me a while to get started on this copy. Before I began writing, I wanted to really be in mood. I played around on vacation search feature of CVC’s site and read all about some of places I have always wanted to go. I took my time and let my imagination run wild while reading about ports-of-call, activities, and ship’s amenities.
When people shop for vacations, they are typically interested in what they’ll get first and they worry about price second. They want to feel and sense experience of a vacation while reading about it on a website or in a brochure. It sort of falls into same category as copywriting for brides.
Getting married, for most people anyway, is a limited experience. It’s not something you do every day. While a bride may be working on a budget, she still loves to see $10,000 Donna Karan gowns and imagine herself in one. The same holds true for those planning a vacation.
You usually only go on one vacation/holiday a year. That’s why we dream. It’s a limited experience. Something we plan for and look forward to for months on end. So, while a vacation planner may not choose to buy king-sized, master, grand suite, all-inclusive, five-star vacation trip around world, s/he sure has fun reading about it and imagining it. Why do you think shows like “Lifestyles of Rich and Famous” are so popular?
Once I’d filled my mind with everything wonderful about cruise vacations, I was ready to tackle copy.
Keyphrase inclusion was simple on this page. There was just one keyphrase, cruise vacation. I used both singular and plural forms throughout text. My challenge with SEO aspect of copywriting was to keep balance.
Normally, when there is just one keyphrase, there is a very high tendency by most people to ram, shove, and squeeze phrase into every nook and cranny of copy. I beg you… resist that urge! As you’ll see shortly, SEO copywriting is NOT about forcing keyphrases into every possible slot.