“Our mega store has NFL footballs for sale at low prices. NFL Footballs are a great gift for children of all ages. Buy our NFL footballs on line right now”

As you can see it is clearly written for the key words “NFL Footballs”. I know you’re thinking I wrote that terribly to prove my point but no I’ve found text that bad on a client’s site. At least it does have a high density for the keyword phrase but stuffing your phrase into every sentence is not going to win you any points with search engines. More than likely, you’re going to get hit with an over optimization penalty and even worse potential customers are going to walk away with a negative impression of your business. Take a look at the same pitch only rewritten:

“We have the best prices on NFL footballs in Minnesota. Made from premium quality leather our footballs are built to take NFL style punishment and come out shiny and new. Whether your athlete is in high-school, college, or pee wee league these pro NFL footballs are perfect for any age.

This new pitch still mentions NFL footballs as often as the last one but it presents it in a much more natural sales oriented way. Not to mention, we are going to grab some long tail terms by seeding the text with keywords that pertain to the target market (high-school. pee wee, etc…) and it even mentions the geographic location “Minnesota”. If you were a consumer which pitch do you find more appealing?

Writing proper ad copy is an art and a science. Just practice a bit and you’ll find that you’ll start writing SEO friendly ad copy. So in conclusion write for people first seach engines second.