Want to Hire SEO Writers? Here Are the Traits You Should Be Looking for

First off, let’s make one thing clear: the old kind of SEO is dead. You know, the kind of SEO where you publish tons of barely readable content and you rank higher and higher. Today, if you want to move up in the search engine results, you need quality content. When you hire SEO writers, you need to make sure they are able to do a good job, not just fill blank pages with keywords.

In one of its latest algorithm update, Google specifically states that quality content is what helps you rank.

But what does quality content mean and how does this influence your quest to hire SEO writers?

Quality content is, first and foremost, written for human readers, not Google crawlers. This means that every piece you publish has to be:

• Correct from a grammar and spelling viewpoint
• Informative
• Evergreen
• Engaging
• Properly formatted
• Trustworthy

That is if you want to rank higher, of course. In other words, copy that repeats the same keyword in every paragraph no longer cuts it. This is why you need to put in extra effort if you want to hire SEO writers that are worth their name.

4 Essential Traits You Should Look for when You Hire SEO Writers

85% of B2B marketers said their success in 2016 was mostly due to upping their content marketing game. This means they created more content and better content.

I know, it’s sometimes a hassle to come up with new ideas for sparkling and evergreen pieces of content AND find the time to write them. But this is where SEO writers come into play.

The right content writing agency can not only take copywriting off your plate. It can also help you win the content marketing game. Provided that you hire SEO writers that are incredibly good at their job.

Here are the traits that will help you separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to hiring the right SEO writers for your business:

1. Marketing Abilities

Whenever we hire a new SEO writer for Idunn, we make sure they have at least basic marketing knowledge. We’re not looking for a marketing guru, but for someone who understands the need to change their writing style and tone of voice from brand to brand.

We work with SaaS companies, but also with a fertility clinic. What I look for is the ability to change your style so that, if someone reads a blog post from our SaaS clients and one from the fertility clinic we work with, they couldn’t tell they were written by the same person.

Of course, even if the style were consistent, they might both rank high enough and get plenty of visits.

But vanity metrics is not what we’re after!

I always teach my clients to look beyond that. To aim for the traffic that actually brings them business and revenue, not just visits. Bounce rates, for instance, are one of those metrics that go beyond vanity. If your content manages to keep readers engaged enough and make them curious about the rest of your websites, then you’ve struck gold.

When you hire SEO writers, this is what you should always be looking for – gold!

2. Keyword Research Abilities

If you can’t do keyword research on your own, then you need to hire SEO writers who can. And proper keyword research means more than adding a query into Google’s Ad Planner.

At Idunn, we use SEMrush, Buzzsumo, Moz Explorer, and Google’s Ad Planner to come up with the right keywords that bring relevant traffic. Why so many tools?

Well, it’s quite simple: finding out the search volume and the difficulty in ranking for a keyword won’t bring you targeted traffic. It will bring you generic traffic.

Let me give you an example of a mistake I made with Idunn: back when I had just started my agency (and its blog), I was doing very light keyword research, if any. Yes, I know, it was a terrible mistake.

However, soon enough I started to rank for certain keywords and, of course, became interested in finding out the profile of my visitor. Turns out they were mostly copywriters looking for tips or for gigs.

Definitely not the traffic I wanted!

In the meantime, I took down some of the posts that generated useless visits for Idunn. Yes, my traffic numbers took a bump. But my business didn’t.

I purposefully chose to let go of a few thousand visitors per month just because they were not within my target audience. Instead, I started doing better, more thorough keyword research and gain the type of traffic I do want.

You see, proper keyword research means finding the same keyword your buyer persona would look for. For example, for Idunn, a good keyword would be “copywriting agency”. When I wrote a blog post entitled “Copywriting Mistakes to Avoid at all Costs”, the traffic said post brought in wasn’t what I was looking for.

I still write the occasional blog post for fellow writers. That’s because we also hire SEO writers and it never hurts to get some applications in through the website. But this happens rarely now.

3. Awesome Portfolios

Yes, beginners need a chance, too. But only if you work with freelancers. If you hire SEO writers through a digital marketing agency, you should definitely ask for a portfolio.

Ideally, you should ask for published work i.e. links to pieces said agency’s SEO writers produced. Even more, a good agency should have samples in various fields, so don’t be afraid to ask for something written for a client in the same industry as you.

You want to make sure that you hire SEO writers that already know your industry. This way, their learning curve won’t be steep at all: they just need to learn all about your business and adapt to your tone of voice (or create one from scratch for you).

4. High Quality Standards (and Promised Quality To Be Delivered Consistently)

Sure, checking their portfolio is a great way to see if they are the SEO writers you’ve been looking for. But it goes without saying that their portfolio will only contain the best of their work.

When you hire SEO writers, make sure you specify you want the same quality for the duration of your contract, whether it’s a month or five year. Consistency is the key in both ranking higher in search engine results pages and to getting and keeping clients.

At Idunn, we have clients that we’ve been working with for more than five years. Our collaboration wouldn’t have lasted this long if we weren’t able to meet and exceed their expectations every time.

Even more, because we know a loyal customer is perhaps the most important asset a digital marketing company can have, we go above and beyond to provide them with extra value. For instance, whenever a Google algorithm change occurs, we always let them know about it and about how it will impact their strategy. We come up with ways to adapt to these changes and help our clients get even better results.

Of course, we could just do what we’ve been doing for the past five years. After all, that’s what the client expects, right? Right; but we know our revenue streams are tied together, so it’s in our own advantage to ensure all our clients rock their content marketing through us!

Want to hire SEO writers with great marketing skills and the ability to deliver consistent quality? You have come to the right place. We have helped hundreds of brands win the content marketing game and we’d love to help yours, too.

Fill in the contact form below and we’ll take it from there. Can’t wait to meet you!