If you’re like most business owners, you want to save as much money as possible. Unless you’re hiring someone with specific expertise who commands a higher fee, you don’t need to pay top dollar, especially when you can do the task yourself.
You might think writing your own website content is one of those tasks you can do yourself and/or outsource cheaply. Plenty of people seem to be doing great with DIY content writing for SEO.
While it may seem that way on the surface, content writing for SEO is actually a specialized skill that requires more than a good grasp of the English language.
Before you start writing your own web copy, consider hiring a professional writer for the following reasons.
1. You’re not a professional writer
If you’re not a professional writer, that’s reason enough to hire out your content creation. Writing is a legitimate profession. Regardless of how many people on YouTube suggest writing your own content, your content will miss the mark if you do.
There are four main skills involved in content writing for SEO that can’t be learned overnight:
· Using appropriate anchor text for backlinks. Writers proficient in SEO know that proper backlink strategies require varied anchor text. That’s why writers from link building companies like link.build are in high demand. Writers from professional marketing agencies know exactly how to craft anchor text to follow best practices and get you results.
Once you get a backlink from a publisher, it’s hard to change the anchor text. If you choose your own anchor text and focus too heavily on exact phrase matches, Google will start to devalue your backlink profile. Search engines see too many instances of exact match anchor text as over-optimization.
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Writing to help readers understand information or concepts. Content needs to be easily understood or readers will bounce and find another resource. It takes time and practice to learn how to reach an audience, let alone a distracted or multi-tasking audience.
· Writing for readers to take a desired action. Most people don’t ask for the sale or, they use soft language to suggest buying their services. If you don’t have a call-to-action (CTA) within your content, you’re losing daily opportunities to convert more visitors. Always ask for the sale.
· Writing for search engines to understand the context of the content. Search engines, like Google, use headings and keywords to determine the context of your content.
Writers who are proficient in SEO will use LSI keywords and phrases to make sure search engines understand your content in the right context. This helps your site rank for relevant searches (as opposed to ranking for unrelated search phrases that happen to share words with your industry).
2. Professional writers are wordsmiths
A skilled writer knows how to cut the fat and write copy that will get readers to take a desired action rather than just collect information. For example, here are two versions of the same copy that demonstrate this difference in action.
Copy version 1: This is how most people write their own web copy
“You’ll love our product because we spent years developing it for people like you who needed a solution to their problem. Thankfully, we came up with a good solution and we want you to benefit from what we’ve found so here’s a link to learn more about what we offer and how we can help you with your problem.”
Copy version 2: This is how a professional writer would write your web copy
“If you’re experiencing [problem], our product will outperform all other solutions you’ve tried. When you use our product, we guarantee you’ll start seeing results right away or we’ll give you a full refund. Click here to buy [product] now and start seeing results as soon as tomorrow.”
The first version doesn’t say much and isn’t compelling. The second version is direct, succinct, and provides a specific directive that will lead to conversions.
3. You don’t have access to search phrase data
If you don’t have access to search phrase data through a service like SEM Rush, you can’t accurately incorporate SEO into your content.
You might be shocked to learn that Google’s keyword planner doesn’t provide actual search data. However, a professional content writer working with a marketing company will have access to an authentic keyword research tool.
Make content writing a permanent part of your budget
Now that you know why content writers are so important, it’s time to make content writing a permanent section in your business budget.
You don’t have to spend a fortune on content writing, but spend enough to get a decent amount of high-quality content that you can continue to rank in the search engines.
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