Are You Creating Quality Website Content?

How to Produce Quality Web Content

Google’s criteria is a great reference point to set the standards for your copywriting and editorial process. Let’s examine each of the five criteria so you can consistently produce quality content for your business.

1. Useful / informative. Factual and complex information must be communicated clearly and concisely. David Ogilvy offers the best advice in his rules for writing and says writers should use “short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.”
2. Provide more valuable content than any other website. Take a look at your top competitors and analyze how their content might be contributing to their success. If you are in a very competitive market, you’ll want to find ways to deliver exceptional web content that offers real value to your target audience.
3. Be credible, be an authority. Industry experience and expertise will be reflected in the content you produce. If you’re hiring a writer to take on the complex nature of your business and they lack fundamental knowledge, except to receive low-quality content. Find a copywriter that specializes in specific verticals if you need content for a unique business niche.
4. High quality. You might think of outsourcing your content production to bulk-providing agencies or third-world countries where English is second-rate. If you choose this, you’ll get exactly what you pay for. Writing mistakes in grammar, spelling, and word usage can reduce conversions and impact the reputation of your business. In some industries where the precision of language is critical, such as healthcare and law, poorly researched and incorrect content can lead to costly setbacks.
5. Engage and excite your audience. Hopefully, you’re aware that the internet is often used to entertain and be entertained. Depending on your industry, finding a clever and creative tone can be the key feature that sets you apart from your competitors. You should know the style your business wants to convey and use this throughout your content as well as your marketing messages.

What to Consider When Hiring a Copywriter

Hiring a copywriter requires a rigid process to ensure your business gets the best content that actually leads to increased sales. Here are a few tips and considerations to guide you in the hiring process for a copywriter:

• Meets deadlines and works well under pressure
• Understands the fundamentals of SEO, conversion rate (CRO), and web design
• Quick learner and communicative
• Offers independent research
• Avoids jargon words
• Provides appropriate revisions for the fee negotiated
• Edits professionally and diligently
• Accepts direction and criticism
• Responds to feedback and offers their professional opinion
• Delivers good content at high-quality standards

A common approach to finding and hiring a quality freelance copywriter is to invite a batch of writers to complete a paid test. You shouldn’t ask for free content because, as an insider secret, quality writers never write for free. So, provide a paid test for a piece of content you can use for your business with clearly outlined requirements before you begin.

Freelance copywriters are usually paid per project. Some agencies might employ copywriters that pay by the hour, but this can be difficult to track, especially when you factor in the creative process of the copywriter. Do you want to pay for their endless hours in a coffee shop, browsing around the internet and playing with their thoughts?

KEY TAKEAWAY𑁋PAY BY THE PROJECT, NOT BY THE WORD

A rule you should adopt in your business model is to avoid paying per word. When short and concise copy does the trick, you wouldn’t want a copywriter who’ll squeeze in a few extra words so they can squeeze out a few more dollars. Content can get exceedingly long and quickly lose direction, focus, or logic if writers are motivated to get paid by the word.

Do You Have a Creative Brief?

Once you have found a copywriter to produce your web content, give them a creative brief. This is a concise summary of what you need, your editorial standards, and the expectations for deliverables.

The more you can educate your copywriter about your business, such as marketing data, buyer objections, and buyer personas, the more accurate and authoritative their content will be.

Some copywriters may be able to provide research to ensure that the facts and information presented in the content are both relevant and accurate. You should outline which sources are acceptable to keep your business reputation credible and trustworthy. Otherwise, it may be best to add your research and include this in the creative brief.

Here are a few important things to provide in your brief to copywriters:

• A working title for the content
• 2 to 3 sentences that summarize the purpose of the content
• Details about your target audience
• The action you want readers to take after reading it (i.e. the CTA)
• Key points to include
• Links to identical works, examples of style and tone, and supplemental research
• Keywords
• Target word count

The creative brief is a blueprint that guides the creative construction of your content. You may have to fine-tune the elements in your brief to find the right balance between what a copywriter needs to know or not. If possible, ask for feedback from your copywriter to find ways to improve your briefs for future projects.