SEO specialists are shouting their lungs out trying to persuade website owners to realize the importance of content. In the last couple of years, their efforts have started to take root, but still with limited success. A lot of people are hiring writers to create content for them because they lack the time to do it themselves, or lack the essential writing skills. In this race to acquire content, because SEO specialists said it is essential, a lot of website owners are attempting to get away with cheap solutions which end up doing more harm than good.

The whole process of creating content is something that you need to pay attention to, and outsourcing it to a freelancer who offered the lowest price for his or her services is not the way to do it. Here are some tips that can help you handle the entire situation so it actually benefits you and your business, instead of just being a waste of your money.

Quality writing

In order for content to be of any use to you and actually get you better ranking and more traffic, it needs to be well written and have valuable information that users find useful. Otherwise, it is just a useless block of text that is put up on your website for no apparent reason or, in case of guest blogging, a text that contains a link to your website (or if done right, your blog) which nobody will read, let alone click on the link.

Here are some of the things that you should pay attention to when reviewing your content:

• Grammar – Nobody is going to read a piece of text littered with spelling or grammatical mistakes.

• Value – Put yourself in the position of your target audience. Did you find the necessary information within the text and did it help you learn something? If not, it’s back to the old drawing board.

• Level of engagement – To put it bluntly, you should check if the content is interesting. An overly dry style of writing may destroy the readers will to read the text.

• Call to action – Is your content logically leading to a desired action?

• Tone – Make sure that the content is written with an attitude that doesn’t offend any of the readers, and that it is not overly critical to people who are having problems with the subject matter.

• Reading level- The reading level shouldn’t be too watered down since you are probably not addressing an audience that barely speaks the language in question, but you should also avoid going full on scientific on them.

Collaboration

No matter how much experience the freelancer you have hired has with writing content for your niche, you still need to communicate with him/her and make sure that you are on the same page. I’m not saying that you should constantly harass them with changes, but giving them some crucial information is something that will definitely help them create better content. You have the best insight into who your users are and what kind of content they would respond to best. A healthy relationship between the site owner and the content writer is extremely important and will definitely help in producing better content. Also, consider taking the advice your SEO specialists give you and avoid doing things on your own. Reading a few articles about content writing and SEO doesn’t make you an SEO specialist. Think about it, nobody reveals the tricks of their trade without a price, and there is much more to it than meets the eye.

Continuous investment

This isn’t a one-time investment. It takes continuous work and a constant level of quality in order to achieve the best results. The best way to go is to make it a monthly investment and develop an ongoing business relationship with a writer you can rely on.

As with any other resource you own, content will do you good only if it is done correctly. In all other cases, it is just a waste of time and money. I hope I managed to clarify some of the issues you might be experiencing with your content. Work hard and you will surely see the benefits.