Five Things to Expect from Your SEO Copywriter
From the perspective of a business owner, webmaster, or marketing manager, the change wrought by the Internet is exciting but deeply worrisome. The information it provides (and the misinformation and disinformation), the business benefits it promises, and the rules are governed by change at such a rapid rate that it is almost impossible.
These changes have led to an increase in the value of quality web copy. This appreciation has led to opportunistic 'copywriters' promoting themselves as website copywriters or SEO copywriters. Don't get me wrong, there are some great SEO copywriters out there that you should shop around for. The purpose of this article is not to scare you; This will help you find an SEO copywriter that provides honest service and excellent results.
So with that in mind, check out the following ten tips. These are the rights you expect from anyone wearing a name badge that says “Website Copywriter”, “SEO Copywriter”, “Internet Copywriter” or “Web Copywriter”… (Also see 10 Things to Expect from Your Website Copywriter and How to Get Your Website Copywriter Use more.)
1) Understanding of SEO
Your SEO copywriter should have a solid understanding of the essentials of search engine optimization. They should know that ranking is the result of a website's relevance (i.e. keywords) and importance (i.e. inbound links). There are many factors involved, but if your SEO copywriter doesn't understand these two basics, you should look elsewhere. If you want to make sure your SEO copywriter knows a little more than the basics, check out SEO for CEOs, Writing SEO Copy, SEO Trade Secrets, Web Copy – How Much Is Enough?, and How to Rank on Google. Writing essays for some tips on what you want to ask to assess their knowledge.
2) Proven experience
The proof, as they say, is the pudding. It's not enough for your SEO copywriter to talk the talk; They can also walk. Ask to see some examples of websites that have achieved some good rankings. Note that it can be very difficult to find an SEO copywriter who has worked on both keywords and link building, so if you find someone who does and writes well, sign them up! They will have a very broad and useful working knowledge of search engines.
3) Understanding how many keywords to use
You don't want to fill every page with every keyword you're targeting. This dilutes your site's relevance and reduces readability. Ask your SEO copywriter how many keywords they recommend targeting on each page. They recommend no more than 3, preferably 2. Aim for 2 key phrases per page so you can use more of them without compromising readability.
4) A clear agreement on who will supply the keywords
Someone should do a keyword analysis to figure out which words you should try to rank higher for. Your SEO copywriter can do this for you, but it's more cost-effective to have someone a little closer to the business do it. Either way, make sure your contract with your SEO copywriter makes it very clear who does this work. Don't assume that the SEO copywriter is going to do it, because they might assume you're going to do it, and then you'll blow your budget.
5) Keywords or key phrases
Expect your SEO copywriter to give you some advice on how specific you should be with your keywords. In most industries, the competition for keywords is so fierce that you'll be forced to target specific keywords to rank - at least initially. For example, if you're in IT, you wouldn't start by targeting the keyword "IT." The competition is immense (at the time of writing, there were about 3,240,000,000 results for this search on Google.com) and the IT giants already dominate the search engines for this keyword. Instead, try using a specific keyword phrase such as "IT infrastructure consulting New York" (at the time of writing, Google.com only had about 4,000,000 results for this search). And the other benefit of targeting specific keyword phrases is that you'll generate more relevant leads.
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