What an SEO copywriter actually does
An ordinary copywriter persuades someone who is already reading. An SEO copywriter has to earn the visit first, and that changes how the page is built before a word of persuasion is written. It starts from a keyword brief with one primary intent and at most two secondaries. It is structured with headings that match the way people actually phrase the search. It opens with a direct answer of about 40 to 60 words that a search engine or an AI assistant can lift as the response. It carries the proof, prices, real numbers, named clients, that makes the answer credible. And it links to the page that should rank next. Only then does it do the ordinary copywriter’s job.
That second layer matters more than it used to, because ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews now answer a growing share of searches directly, and they quote pages that answer plainly and can be trusted. We wrote about that shift in
what is AI SEO.
What SEO copywriting costs in Sydney
Service or location page (600 to 900 words)
Includes the title, meta description, headings, answer block and FAQ
Article or guide (1,000 to 1,500 words)
Research, structure and internal links
Hourly
Common for edits and rewrites of pages you already have
Inside an SEO retainer
Usually a set number of pages or articles each month
The spread reflects experience and how much research is included. Under about $100 a page usually means a writer working from the keyword alone with no knowledge of your business, and it shows. Above the range you are usually paying for a specialist in a regulated field such as finance, health or legal, where every sentence has to be checked against advertising rules. That is money well spent. These are the rates we see quoted in Sydney, not figures from a published survey.
How we deliver SEO copywriting
We do not sell copywriting by the page. We include it in the
SEO packages that need it. Local, at $750 a month for ten keywords, covers optimising the pages you already have. Growth, at $1,500 a month for twenty keywords, adds new pages and articles each month written to this standard. Authority, from $2,500, adds more of them plus link outreach. All prices ex GST and month to month.
Every page follows the same method: a keyword brief built from live search data, a look at the pages currently ranking, a draft that opens with the answer block, your real proof points, Australian English, no stray dashes, and none of the claims the ACCC would expect you to substantiate. Then a human edit that checks every number. Clients in regulated fields such as allied health, finance and legal get an extra pass against the relevant advertising rules. If you would rather start smaller, the $240 one-off on-page tune-up covers titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, internal links and basic Search Console and Analytics setup on up to six pages. It is groundwork rather than new copy, and it will not build rankings on its own.
How to brief an SEO copywriter
The page URL and the one keyword it must rank for, plus up to two secondary phrasings.
The reader: who they are, what they already know, and what they should do by the end of the page.
Your proof: prices, real results you can show, clients you have permission to name, credentials.
The competition: the two or three pages ranking now, so the writer knows what better has to beat.
Your rules: banned words, tone, spelling and any compliance constraints.
Does AI-written copy work for SEO?
Google says it ranks content on whether it is helpful and accurate, not on how it was drafted, and that matches what we see. Unedited AI copy underperforms for predictable reasons: it is generic, it repeats what already ranks rather than adding anything new, and it invents facts and prices. We use AI tools to draft and to check structure, then a human editor adds the specific detail only you know, verifies every number, and removes the tells. The result reads like your business wrote it, because in the ways that matter it did.
What to check before you publish it
Whether the copy came from a freelancer, an agency or a draft you wrote yourself, the same five checks catch most of the problems that cost a page its ranking.
Does the page open with a direct answer of about 40 to 60 words that could stand on its own if a search engine quoted it?
Does every heading read like something a person would actually search for or ask out loud?
Is every number, price and claim on the page one you could substantiate if a customer or the ACCC asked?
Does the page link onward to the page you want to rank next, with anchor text that describes where it goes?
Would someone who knows your business recognise it as yours, or could the same page belong to any competitor?
The last one catches more weak copy than the other four put together. If the page would read identically with a competitor’s name dropped in, it is not finished.