Hiring Expert SEO Copywriters

You may optimize your web page copy for the search engines yourself. However, often it is better to have the help of an expert. But how do you find the right one?

By Heather Lloyd-Martin

This article is taken from Heather Lloyd Martin's excellent new book Successful Search Engine Copywriting

If this excerpt is of interest to you, you are bound to enjoy the entire book.

Things To Consider When Searching For Outsourced Help

Not all outsourced copywriters and consultants are considered equal. Some are top-notch folks who spend time learning about your business, your conversion goals and your customers, and craft compelling copy. Other “writers” aren’t as conscientious or as skilled—and their text won’t be effective.

If you are searching for some outsourced help—either for a main copywriter, or an SEO copywriter/consultant, there are some things to consider.

How An Outsourced SEO Copywriter Adds Value To Your Business

Most SEO copywriters are accomplished with all forms of direct marketing writing, and writing for search engines is an advanced skill set. An experienced search marketing copywriter views your product or service’s benefits from the customer’s perspective and communicates that excitement to your prospects—while still gaining the positions you require.

Expert SEO copywriters seamlessly weave crucial keyphrases into your marketing text without sacrificing a conversion flow—plus strategize how your new pages should be structured for maximum keyphrase saturation. Hiring someone who brings that expertise to the table (especially for time-challenged marketing departments or sole entrepreneurs) can help immediately increase your site’s return on investment and your rankings.

Nine Tips On How to Choose And Work With Your New Online Copywriting Expert

The way you write for search engines is much different than writing for print or non-SEO online writing, so experience is crucial. You need someone who can switch hats on the fly, write in a Webfriendly manner, integrate call-to-action hyperlinks and think about usability issues. Sure, writing for search engines isn’t rocket science—but if you hire someone with straight print experience and no online or search marketing experiences background, he or she will learn SEO on your dime.

Your SEO copywriter should have at least one year of intensive SEO writing experience—preferably more—and know HTML basics. She should have also trained under a search marketing company or Master SEO copywriter to gain advanced skills. If she is new to the field, or hasn’t trained with someone, search for a writer with more experience.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but checking your copywriter’s references is extremely important.

There’s nothing worse than hiring a new writer and then finding out he or she regularly blows off deadlines, doesn’t answer E-mail and turns in shoddy work. Most good copywriters have a fan list of satisfied clients, so getting a reference should be a snap (and if it is a problem, run away fast!).

Be sure to ask how the individual pages in a project positioned, and for what keyphrases. It’s not important if the writer doesn’t have #1 rankings for all the pages. It’s more important that each page positions for a number of keyphrases—plus the page still reads well. It’s common for well-written SEO pages to position in the top-20 for four keyphrases or more.

Review the writing carefully and see how it makes you feel. Does the text tempt you into taking action—now? Or does it put you to sleep? Are the keyphrases skillfully woven within the copy? Or does the text read like, “Our cashmere sweaters are the highest quality cashmere sweaters of all cashmere sweater stores.” If the sample text doesn’t resonate with you and excite you now, don’t figure things will change later. They won’t. Find another copywriter.

Good SEO copywriting does not come cheap. Experienced copywriters can charge anywhere from $75–$500 an hour, and they are worth every penny. Just as your attorney protects your legal assets, your SEO copywriter is fiercely protective of your search engine branding and image. Think about how many Websites you’ve left because you couldn’t understand their main sales points, or the benefits weren’t as compelling as the competition’s.

Additionally, an inexperienced SEO copywriter may inadvertently spam the engines by overstuffing the text with your important keyphrases. Not only could this cause your site to be downgraded in the engines, it also ruins the text’s persuasive flow. Why save a few dollars for that kind of “quality”?

Once you’ve signed on the dotted line, your SEO copywriter will want to interview you and other key personnel about your organization. From a copywriting perspective, this is a crucial step—in order to write about your product or service, your copywriter needs to understand your industry’s nuances and your specific benefit points. Asking for business plans, demographic studies, focus group results and click-through ratios is not uncommon. If you block her every move under the cloak of “proprietary information,” she won’t get a good feel for your business—and the copy will sound unfocused.

Depending on the page’s slant, tone and feel, some keyphrase variations may be easier to naturally include within the text. That is, using the keyphrase “Hawaiian adventure tours” may sound more natural within the text than “Hawaiian vacations.” If you tell your SEO copywriter what your keyphrase priorities are and provide five phrases per page to choose from, she can construct copy specifically meeting your positioning and messaging needs—and use the terms that work best within the text.

No matter how wonderfully talented your SEO writer is, first drafts are typically unfocused—and that’s what you’re getting when you order a rush job. Strong copywriters are perpetual copy-tweakers, needing time to uncover the right writing angle and persuasively penned benefit statements.

Would you dump your income taxes on your accountant on April 14th and say, “I’ll need ’em done by tomorrow morning?” Don’t pull a rush job on your copywriter and expect perfect results.

One way to drive your copywriter slowly insane (and cost you more money if they are charging you by the hour) is if five people on your staff all have a different idea of how the Web page should read—and they all want a separate revision. Figure out the salient points before you talk to your copywriter and have one person handle all communications.

Copywriters have writing egos of steel and are used to constructive criticism. So, your copywriter’s feelings will not be hurt if you don’t like a particular headline—that feedback is incredibly useful.

Changing the text for your writer without saying why you are changing it, however, frustrates the writer—and costs you time in-house to make the revisions. The best writer may not write everything perfectly the first time, but they will learn your requirements if you provide specific feedback. If you love the work, tell your writer what you liked and why. You’ll make her day—and she’ll be sure to replicate the tone, feel and structure for your other pages

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to check out the entire book: Successful Search Engine Copywriting: How to Write Prime Positioned Webpages That Convert Like Crazy by Heather Lloyd Martin.

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