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What a freelance content and SEO copywriter can do
By Carsten Bjerregaard, Marketingcapacity.dk (Feel free to link to this article. Copying/publishing without agreement is not allowed)
A translator can convert written content from one language to another. This is a must when accuracy is required and removes a barrier because it's easy for the target audience to read texts in their native language. The translator's job is to both preserve the exact meaning and maintain the tonality of the original content. The translator must therefore master at least two languages at a near-native level in order to understand the nuances and colloquialisms of different cultures. This is partly to understand the original text and partly to make it come alive and resonate in the new language. Anyone who has tried to read the same literary work in two languages knows how important a skilled translator is to the outcome.
View Content and SEO copywriter profiles
What is content and SEO copywriting?
As a content and SEO copywriter, you need to write to help. That is to say:
- Helping potential customers get answers to what they want to know
- Help current customers get answers to what they need (possibly to reduce the strain on customer service staff)
- Help search engine algorithms - especially Google - find and display your company's content when someone searches for information on a topic you want to 'own'
The content and SEO copywriter is thus a specialization of the general copywriting profession and is published in the form of:
- Articles e.g. for magazines or websites
- Social Media posts
- Advertising and advertorials
- Product sheet
- Brochures
- Catalog texts
- E-shop texts
- Manuals and user guides
- Customer service texts on your website
- Q&As
What else is a content and SEO copywriter called?
You can find someone who can write great content for SEO who simply calls themselves a copywriter, journalist, author, writer, concept developer or whatever. But as with anything else, it increases quality if the person has purposefully developed their skills and perhaps even specialized in that particular branch of copywriting. So look explicitly for a copywriter with content and SEO skills if that's what you need.
How does the copywriter create value?
The content and SEO copywriter creates value by writing texts that:
- Increase the number of organic visitors to your digital channels
- Get people to read the texts
- Creates preference towards your company, brand or products
- Moving readers forward through the funnel closer to a purchase
- Create a higher level of actionable knowledge with your potential customers
What types of copywriters are there?
Copywriters come from many walks of life - each with their own professional approach to writing. Some of the most typical are:
- Journalist graduates
- Cand. Mag.
- Film graduates
- Correspondents
- Business school graduates
Most copywriters probably come from humanities backgrounds. But as texts become more and more analytical, we're also seeing people coming from more technical or economic backgrounds.
To put it bluntly, most copywriters as individuals are often driven by one of these things:
- Some people love to write stories
- Some like to 'teach' with their texts
- Some love to create impact with an analytical approach
- Some people love to sit with a cup of coffee and geek out over product texts
- Some have a journalistic streak and like to write articles
If you have texts you want written, it's up to you to find the copywriter who can give you what you're looking for. And the closer to the copywriter's heart your assignments are, the better the results you'll get, all things being equal. So ask questions when you meet the potential copywriter.
What can a content and SEO copywriter do?
Of course, a content and SEO copywriter must be able to write. Correctly and positively. Just like anyone else who makes a living from writing. But if you want to be good at this particular discipline, it helps to have some special skills, and so he/she must:
- Be able to dive in and understand everything about a product
- Understand what a potential or current customer is thinking
- Have the imagination to understand what a potential customer or current customer needs to know
- Understand how customers USE your company's products
- Be able to write 'bite-sized' and easy to read. If someone types: "How do I clean a coffee machine?" in the Google search bar, it doesn't help if the copywriter writes an article about: "Disinfecting beverage dispensers" - to put it bluntly
- Be able to 'angle' material in many directions
- Understand how to find and use the keywords customers are searching for
Knowledge of Google Analytics - and preferably user experience - is worth its weight in gold. Luckily, some copywriters also have a logical, analytical side.
A good content and SEO copywriter can write 5-10 articles on a subject area where many others might only be able to write 1-2. Because he/she can spread the material out and make it accessible in an educational way. This is a gift to the COPE strategy (Create once, publish everywhere).
It may well be that some of the material is repeated in most articles. But it is angled differently, because good content is characterized by the fact that it answers the exact question that the customer wants an answer to. If he wants to know how to clean a coffee machine, the text should answer exactly that. It shouldn't start with how to make coffee in Brazil, however interesting that might be. You'll know a good content and SEO copywriter when they can quickly come up with a variety of angles on your business, your product, or even your brand.
A journalistic background combined with solid commercial training will be a good combination. Because the journalist is used to thinking in terms of stories and angles, and because commercial training is necessary to 'feel good' about writing positively and with a direction towards a sale. Because even though what is written must be true, the intention is to increase sales.
Insights into SEO
How much a content and SEO copywriter needs to know about Google and other search engines is hard to say. After all, they change algorithms at irregular intervals, so a lot of exact knowledge can become irrelevant at some point.
However, there are two basic rules. 1) Search engines like Google have an interest in being as good as possible at giving their customers what they are really looking for. 2) They are getting better and better at seeing through 'false' information. In other words: It's getting harder and harder to 'trick' Google. That's why we no longer see websites with 3568 repetitions of the word 'coffee' if we search for 'organic coffee beans' on Google.
So, providing real information will go a long way. But if you want to go far on Google, it helps to know something about, among other things:
- Preferred word order and sentence construction
- Long or short texts
- Link-building
- Exact wording
- Ranking
- Keywords
Collaboration
Obviously, the ability to collaborate is an important skill. As a customer, you need to find a content and SEO copywriter that fits your way of working:
- Do you understand each other?
- Does the person get back to you as quickly as you need them to?
- Does he/she bring great ideas to the table, or is it all 'handed to you on a silver platter'?
- Are you happy (not satisfied) with what you're getting?
- Is the quality ok?
Examples of good content and SEO work
Type any question into the Google search bar. The first article that comes up is likely to be a well-written content article. Written by someone who has succeeded:
- Guessing your exact question
- To answer it accurately
- Writing language that Google decodes as 'easy to read'
- To link to other articles that may be relevant to you
And that hasn't just 'copied' another text. Because Google is getting better and better at recognizing this.
Why a freelance content and SEO copywriter?
In the past, most people might have thought of freelancers for one-off projects. However, many companies have now realized the benefits of working with freelancers on a long-term basis:
- You can cover needs that don't justify a permanent position
- In periods when you don't need it, you don't pay for the skill
- In a long-term relationship, the freelancer gets to know the company almost as well as a permanent employee
- Compared to buying the desired skill set from an agency - such as an advertising agency - working with freelancers is usually much cheaper
- You have the flexibility to rethink the overall competency profile of the person responsible for an area
- More and more really talented people prefer to work freelance
- A freelancer can still look at your business 'from the outside' - which is a valuable thing when thinking about creative
- Freelancers can bring fresh, outside inspiration to your business
How do you find a good freelance content and SEO copywriter?
Finding the right freelancer can be difficult. And above all, it can take a long time. Because there are many freelancers within the same field, and even if they boast the same skills, there can be a big difference when it comes to the way they work and the work they deliver. When you ask Marketingcapacity.dk to help you find a freelancer to work with, the process is simple:
- You describe your needs to us (either in writing or verbally - we'll confirm in an email)
- We screen our 600+ profiles and, if necessary, the market through our channels
- We nominate a list of candidates and talk to them according to your needs
- You will be presented with 3 candidates that seem to meet your needs
- During the 3 meetings (at your location or digitally) you can ask questions and see examples of their work
- You choose the freelancer you would like to start working with
- We set it up in our systems with time tracking etc. so you have an overview and full control
In other words: After describing your needs, simply set aside 2 hours to meet with 3 hand-picked and screened candidates. That's your guarantee of a good result with reasonable effort.
