Your business needs writers, not just employees who may be able to write. You need professionals that, for a living, put fingers to keys and string words together in a way that makes sense.
Every day, websites post blogs and other materials that not only contain grammatical and spelling errors, but that simply do not make sense for the brand they represent, and most importantly don’t make sense for the users who click on the links to their site.
Content marketing is here to say, and while content may be king, the internet user is the queen, and the queen rules everything. As Google gets smarter, it begins to recognize what real content creators have known all along: SEO and successful marketing are not about keyword stuffing and the right marketing language. (If you have questions about content creation, click here). Content should be written to benefit the user.
Good Writing
Not everyone is superbly literate or a grammar nazi, but it is a sure bet that at least some of those visiting your site are. While they may not be able to point out the exact grammar rule you broke, they will say things like “that does not sound right,” or “when is this article going to get to the point?”
Good writing can make all the difference about whether a reader stays on your site, or bounces back to Google to look for something that better meets their needs. The difference between good writing and great writing might also make the difference in exactly where you rank for a particular query.
You can do everything else right, including backlinking and other strategies, and a site with a smaller backlink profile but better writing can beat you out of top spots in the SERPS. This is especially true of Google snippets or the single answers provided through voice searches like those performed on Google Home or Alexa and Amazon’s Echo.
Getting those top spots is called ranking #0, and in several cases it is not the wiki page or the highest DA site in this coveted spot, but the website that has the best answer to the query the user posed.
Expertise and Research
Professional bloggers know how to create great content, and they are disrupting the content marketing world. If you decide to hire a freelance writer or one that has been in the writing industry for a while, you will find that they have two advantages over much of your existing staff.
First, they probably have wide expertise in a number of areas they have written about. This means they not only bring a wealth of knowledge with them, but they often make connections that someone not as widely read or written will make. It is those critical pieces of information or crossovers with other industries that can make your content stand out.
Second, they are experienced researchers. If you give them a topic, they know how to dig up information from a variety of sources. For most writers, this is a large part of their job, and they typically uncover questions or issues your employees might miss because they are so close to the topic and familiar with it.
Saving Time
Freelance writers have learned to do things quickly and efficiently. They create different kinds of content much faster than your own employees can. Since they do it for a living, most freelancers live in the writing zone, or at least know how to get there quickly.
Not only that, but your employees will have to take time away from their regular duties to write, and that can have a few consequences.
- Their “real” work gets neglected.
- They become distracted, maybe even frustrated.
- They struggle with the process.
- Quality suffers.
It’s not that your regular employees can’t write. Some of them probably write well, but that is not what you pay them to do.
These are just a few of the reasons your business should hire writers. Freelance writers are often the best choice unless you have long-term needs. They can be hired per project and can deliver what you need without disrupting the workflow of other employees.
If you do have longer term needs, consider putting a freelancer on some kind of retainer, or hiring a writer full time. Your customers, your reputation on the web, and your Google rankings will all thank you.
