Tag Archives: Content Writers

SEO content development

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The term “SEO content development” can be quite misleading. Since I always focus on creating content that should automatically do well on search engines, I don’t specifically provide SEO content development services, but since many clients look for this specific category, I often provide this service separately. Frankly, you don’t need a separate service to improve your search engine rankings. All you need is good content.

How SEO content development helps your business

Since I have already mentioned that all it takes is valuable content, this is something you should focus on. Nonetheless, being a good content writer doesn’t mean that you can also make the search engines happy. A professional content writer has to achieve two tasks: create content that engages your human visitors, create content that Google finds valuable and consequently, ranks higher compared to alternative content available on the Internet. Most of the content writers can achieve either one or another and it takes lots of experience and insight to achieve the both. This is where SEO content development can help you.

The best way to create search engine friendly content is to write in a language your target audience uses. For instance, if my target clients are looking for a “content writer” it doesn’t make sense to optimize my website content for “content creator”. This doesn’t mean that I totally neglect the second phrase because some people might be looking for it too. But the majority of them would be looking for the former. How do I know? I have done lots of study on the keywords people use in order to find my services and along with that, I also do lots of reading to know exactly what phrases people in my field use.

A person who does SEO content development knows this quite well. She knows how to use the language of target customers and clients in a compelling manner. She knows how to dig out the exact phrase or phrases they use in order to find products and services she is about to write about. She is conscious of the importance of targeted search engine traffic and she also knows where to strategically use your important keywords without making your content “spammy”.

You may also like to read my blog post on the same theme, titled SEO guidelines for content writers.

Through various algorithm updates, Google is constantly trying to communicate that stop creating content specifically for search engines, and focus primarily on your users. If your content is good for your users, it is also good for the search engines, and this makes perfect sense.

So whether you’re looking for SEO content development or normal content development it hardly matters. All you have to do is focus on quality and relevance and you will observe a marked improvement in your search engine rankings.

Why outsource to a freelance content writer

Outsourcing to freelance content writer is a serious business decision because it is going to have a long-lasting impact on your bottom line. Why outsource? Why not hire a full-time content writer you can constantly monitor?

This webpage is not about whether you should outsource to a freelance content writer or hire a full-time content writer for your business. This webpage is about why people take a decision in favor of the former rather than the latter?

It’s normally small and midsize businesses that outsource to a freelance content writer

It makes perfect sense. You want content for your business website, or your business blog but you don’t have a big budget, and you don’t even have a huge, well-defined content marketing strategy in place. You are just dabbling with this new medium that is fast catching up. The search engines constantly demand high-quality and fresh content. Content is constantly being shared on social media and social networking websites. People link to your website if you have valuable content. This is something that everybody knows, whether you are a small business, a midsize business or even a big business. Everybody knows content marketing is the present and future of overall marketing.

Nonetheless you are clueless. You have no idea what sort of content you want, why would people want to consume your content and which channels you want to use in order to distribute your content. You just want regular blog posts and articles on your business website and blog. This is a fair reason to outsource to a freelance content writer (I am going to use “he” for the sake of brevity). He charges you just for the work he delivers you. He does not occupy office space and does not consume your resources even when he’s not writing content. You don’t have to pay employment benefits. There is no legal tangle to get involved in in case you have to fire him. For that matter you don’t even have to see his face ever and still get quality content on a regular basis. You simply have to pay for the work he does and then get on with your life. This can be a win-win situation.

Another reason why you would outsource to a freelance content writer is that a freelance content writer is always more experienced than a full-time content writer if you think logically. Who would understand your business needs better? The person who manages his own freelance business, or who is merely drawing a salary by the end of every month? Who has more experience? Who is more worldlywise? Who knows more about the Internet? Definitely a person who provides content writing services to multiple clients.

One of the best reasons why you should outsource to a freelance content writer is that you can change your writer whenever you feel like without even giving it a second thought (of course your conscience will prick you in case you have fired him undeservedly). There is a cornucopia of excellent content writers all over the world (no, it doesn’t have to be a native English speaker) so why get stuck with what you have got locally? In the times of exceptional connectivity it doesn’t make sense to not to collaborate globally.

Of course every business has its own needs and you would outsource to a freelance content writer according to that need. But if you are a small or midsize business, it makes perfect sense whether you realize it in the beginning, or after having explored various options like, hiring somebody full-time.

You must provide all possible information to your content writer

Hiring a content writer doesn’t mean he or she is going to come up with everything you need to communicate on behalf of your business. Being a unique business you need a unique voice and this voice can only manifest if you provide sufficient information to the content writer before he or she proceeds with some effective content writing work.

Many business owners or decision-makers leave it up to the content writer to come up with the best content for their websites. Sometimes it works but mostly it doesn’t. A content writer has to be extremely experienced if he or she can come up with the right kind of information on his or her own. For instance, if you have hired me as a content writer and you are providing software development services and I need to write about your website how am I supposed to know what sort of software you provide, what the software applications can achieve and what all platforms you work on? Me being me I can dig out some information, but most content writers will turn up with superficial content or very badly prepared copy. And then you will blame the content writer for doing shoddy work. How do you expect quality work if you are not providing enough information to the content writer?

You and the content writer need to work together

The content writer you have hired may be highly talented but he or she may not be aware of what sort of questions he or she should ask you, and being a business owner it’s up to you to provide that information. Before leaving the content writer to his or her own devices you must provide the following information to him or her:

  • A well-defined site map
  • Titles of all the pages you want content for
  • Comprehensive descriptions of products and services you provide
  • A list of advantages of doing business with you
  • Profile of your target market
  • Your objective of getting the content written
  • Company-specific information

These bits of information will help him or her understand your requirement properly and deliver you exactly what you are looking for.

An experienced content writer on the other hand asks all these questions before he or she begins to do your work. For instance, I have a template that I normally send to my clients and request them to fill it up before I can proceed with my work. This gives me all the information that I may require while working on a particular project.

The basic idea is, it is not solely the content writer’s responsibility to create better content for you just because you’re paying him or her. No matter how well he or she writes he or she is not a magician and certainly not a plagiarist. If you don’t want him or her to copy/paste information from different “sources” provide all the information you can. Whenever copying/pasting takes place it begins with the content writer going through various websites in order to obtain the right information. It is the wrong advice that the content writer should visit competitors’ websites and obtained all the information needed.