What To Expect From Professional Website Content Writing Services

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins of content marketing.

By “sloth,” we mean failing to live up to your full potential by:

• Not putting out enough website content
• Publishing unoriginal content, or
• Not taking the time to verify that your content is accurate and authentic

However, it is also possible to go too far in the other direction and put too much time and effort into website content writing to the exclusion of your other business activities.

How do you find the balance?

Working with website content writing services allows you to scale your content marketing campaigns and consistently share useful information that resonates with your audience. It also frees up your time to attend to other parts of your business.

If you’re new to content marketing, you may wonder what value professional content writing services offer your company. You may also wonder what you should expect when you work with a website content writing company. Read on to find out more.

What Is the Value of Website Content Writing Services?

As digital marketing becomes more significant, content marketing has become a focal point of many companies’ overall strategy. This marks a shift in attitude from earlier in this decade when content marketing was largely regarded as an accessory advertising tactic.

Bear in mind that content marketing isn’t only for reaching new customers, although it can certainly be effective at that. Website content writing can also be a valuable recruitment tool, helping to attract people who share your attitude and philosophy by sharing your brand culture with the world. This helps you to find people who are a good fit for your company and who will hopefully be motivated to stay with you for some time.

Why Content Marketing Is Starting To Matter

Approximately 25% of all respondents in a 2015 survey about digital marketing trends identified content writing and marketing as the most significant within their larger strategy.

Part of the reason that companies are devoting more effort toward content marketing is that producing more website content can provide a significant return on investment. The indexed traffic for a website that publishes at least 16 blog posts per month, or four per week, is approximately 3.5 times that of a website that publishes only one or two posts per month.

As we’ve previously detailed, working with SEO content writing services offers significant savings over hiring in-house writers.

This chart makes clear that outsourcing content writing offers significant savings. Note also that it is not only money that you stand to save, but time. Every writer is limited in the number of SEO articles that he or she is able to write in a given time frame. However, while you are likely limited in the number of in-house writers you can hire, website content writing services contract with dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of freelance writers.

When you outsource to professional website content writing services, more writers can work on your project at one time and finish it more quickly.

What Can You Expect From Professional Website Content Writing Services?

The value of a professional content writing company to your business extends far beyond time and money savings. Here are some benefits that you can reasonably expect from the best website content writing services.

1. Organization

Despite the current emphasis on content marketing and the success that many companies have had with it, some companies have struggled to take full advantage of it. This is due to limiting factors such as a lack of dedicated teams or a haphazard approach to a content strategy.

More often than not, companies will get started on an SEO writing campaign only to get through an order or two and then get busy with other things within their business. Content writing then falls on the back burner, since you’re in charge of that as well as a million other things. The easiest way to get your content writing campaigns off the ground and keep them in the air is to rely on website content writing services to do it for you.

The best website content writing services have the experience to devise a content strategy that will work for you. They already have organized teams of writers in place ready to create content for you. You can outline your project and goals, and then put it on the content writing services’ shoulders to take care of the day-to-day.

In order to scale your SEO content writing quickly and effectively, you need the help of content writing experts who can complement your existing team, rather than putting more responsibility on your team members to get it done.

2. Accuracy

Part of the purpose of content writing as a subset of a larger digital marketing strategy is to represent you as an expert in your chosen field. SEO content that is inaccurate or misleading undermines the perception of you as an authority on the subject. Website content writing services carefully train their writers on conducting research and using sources so that the information is correct.

Sometimes the information is correct but there are spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. This, too, reflects poorly on your credibility. The best professional writing services hold the writers they contract with to a rigorous standard of writing ability, testing their skills beforehand to ensure that they will create material that is accurate in both form and content.

Another way to keep content accuracy high is to ask your website content writing service about additional editing/proofreading services. We’ll talk about that more in step four.

3. Originality

Your ability to publish content that is completely original is crucial to the success of your content marketing campaigns. Writers who contract with website content writing services receive specific training on presenting existing information in a new way to avoid unintentional plagiarism. This training pertains not only to creating new content but also to refreshing existing content with an eye toward originality.

The truth is that duplicate content does almost nothing to further your SEO writing campaigns, but it’s more common than you think. Obviously, plagiarism is wrong and anyone that is plagiarizing someone else’s content writing outright should be penalized. Aside from that, though, duplicate content is often seen quite frequently in the world of ecommerce.

Many ecommerce companies that are resellers of products have been given permission by the manufacturer to use the original OEM product descriptions on their site. When you have hundreds of thousands of product SKUs you are trying to get up, it can make sense to do this at first. But the only real way to differentiate yourself from the hundreds or thousands of other resellers of that same product it to write original descriptions that utilize keywords and speak to your audience.

Whether you are just worried about making sure your blog writing is always original and relevant or you need some help rewriting existing content to be more original, this is where website content writing services can come in handy.

4. Authenticity

Prospective customers who perform web searches are looking for authentic content. In other words, they want valuable information that is relevant to their individual situations.

Fake content, on the other hand, lacks substance and transparently exists to promote the business to the consumer. Your customers can tell the difference between real and fake content, and they tend not to trust companies that only put out the latter.

Apart from ensuring accuracy and originality, another way that professional content writing services produce real, substantial content is by making sure the writers they contract with are a good fit for the companies they are writing for.

For example, writing services that offer content for US businesses and their customers frequently choose only writers based in the United States with verifiable credentials.

5. Quality Control

Quality control refers to reviewing, proofreading, and editing content for accuracy and originality. This can be a time-consuming task that can take away from running your business.

Content writers may be able to proofread their own work, but it’s not foolproof because it can be sometimes difficult to recognize one’s own errors, especially when one is working with a deadline. Furthermore, the costs of hiring your own in-house editor(s) are comparable to those for hiring a writer.

Many website content writing services also offer quality control in the form of proofreading and/or editing. You can often choose the level of quality control that you want for your content and pay accordingly. For instance, you could choose for the content to be checked for SEO guidelines, uploaded directly onto your site being publish-ready, or just checked for plagiarism.

If you have content generated in-house that you would like to have edited, some professional content writing services may be able to handle that task for you as well.

6. Readability

Recently, we wrote a blog post about the importance of the readability level of your content. In it, we pointed out that content of average-level readability is accessible to a majority of American adults.

The Flesch-Kincaid scale is a commonly used measure of readability that assigns each piece of work a grade level. On the Flesch-Kincaid scale, content of average readability corresponds to a grade level between six and 10.

You may want SEO content that falls within a specific readability range, whether basic, average, or advanced. If so, you can make the request of website content writing services, and they should be able to oblige.

Contracted writers have tools at their disposal, in the form of Microsoft Word tools and/or online apps, to gauge the readability of their material and make sure it falls within the designated range.

7. Objectivity

Another one of the seven deadly sins of content marketing is pride, or, more accurately, arrogance. While customers may be favorably impressed by the pride you take in the work you do, excessive bragging that you offer the best goods and services available can be off-putting, especially if you provide no evidence to back it up.

At the same time, others in your industry or community at large who feel that you have not demonstrated a baseline level of respect towards others may be more eager to deflate your good opinion of yourself.

Beware Angry Website Content

Wrath is another sin that can be potentially deadly for your content marketing strategy, and potentially your business as a whole. Despite the old saying, there is indeed such a thing as bad publicity. Allowing your web content to become too angry or hostile toward competitors (or worse yet, customers) can have far-reaching negative consequences for your company.

Decades of respectable business practices can be completely canceled out in the eye of the public by one ill-considered public rant in the name of the company. The reputation of your business may be forever defined by a conflict over something that, more often than not, doesn’t matter in the long run.

Avoid Obvious Biases

One of the potential downsides of hiring in-house web content writers is that they may have a bias in favor of your company. As a result, they may oversell your goods and services or become overzealous in defending the company in the content that they create.

The writers contracted with website content writing services are not directly affiliated with your company, so they can regard it with a greater degree of objectivity. This allows them to create more accurate, unbiased content that reflects positively on your company.

8. Timeliness

We’ve believed for many years that time is a business’s most valuable commodity, even more so than money. After all, lost revenue can potentially be earned back, while lost time can never be regained.

Therefore, when you request to have a piece of web content written, you should expect to get it back in a timely manner.

Typical Turn Times for Website Content Writing Companies

Website content writing services are typically reliable at getting your content back to you within a reasonable time frame of seven to 10 days. There are several reasons that they are able to do this:

• More article writers to devote to orders of all sizes
• Reasonable yet strictly enforced deadlines
• Extra time budgeted for editing, if desired

This is not to say that unforeseen adverse circumstances may not occasionally threaten the turnaround time when you order from a writing agency. However, a professional content writing service is generally better equipped to handle such situations because of the number of content writers that it contracts with and the consequences it imposes for failing to meet deadlines.

If one writer, or a group of writers, is unable to meet the deadline for whatever reason, there are typically others available who are willing to take up the slack. They do this not only for their own benefit but because they often forge unique relationships with the people they work with, both writers and managers, and have a genuine wish to help out.

Get Better Turn Times with Consistent Writing Projects

If you have large projects or consistent content writing needs at scale, this is where outsourced writing services really shine when it comes to turn times. The best website content writing services create dedicated teams of writers and editors to fulfill your writing project without relying on the masses to just come and select your projects when they have time.

For instance, professional writing services can dedicate X amount of writers to your team with the understanding they need to do X amount of words a week as long as you have consistent monthly/weekly writing orders. In this example, you could be turning around 100 (or 1000) SEO articles every single week! As long as the content writing company has some idea of how much work you need done and how soon you need it back, they can create custom writing teams to accommodate.

Therefore, you can generally count on a consistent turnaround time when you work with website content writing services.

9. Experimentation

If you’re struggling to convert searches of your site to sales, it may be that one thing in your content writing is preventing your potential customers from taking the next step. “The thing” – i.e., your prospective customers’ major concern – can vary, but it typically falls into one of five categories:

1. Authority/credibility
2. Messaging/value proposition
3. Risk reversal
4. Social proof
5. User experience

To find out what the issue is, you can experiment by making small changes in your content writing in each of these areas and gauging the subsequent performance. When ordering content from a writing service, you can provide special instructions regarding the changes you want to make. The project managers and contracted freelance writers should be able to accommodate you.

10. Expertise

Website content writing services that specialize in creating SEO articles and blogs have expertise that comes from experience. The skilled writers who they contract bring their collective knowledge base with them and then work with writing trainers and managers who have been involved in the field for some time.

As a result, they know what makes for high quality SEO content and are able to steer writers in the right direction. The content writing company and contracted freelance writers also frequently have experience creating content in related industries that can apply to your order.

11. Flexibility

Most businesses can benefit from outsourcing their SEO content writing. This includes large companies, midsize businesses, small businesses and startups. If you are a digital marketing agency, having a third-party website content writing service is a MUST. However, different businesses have various needs when it comes to the writing services they require.

Some content writing agencies cater only to specific business needs, while others offer flexible options to accommodate a wide range of clients. In either case, you are likely to find a website content writing service that offers exactly what you need.

Keep reading below to find out how the flexibility of professional content writing services translates to different business needs.

What Service Options Do Website Content Writing Services Offer?

Flexible options typically pertain first to how you order your content and then to how you pay for it. Keep in mind that not every professional content writing service will offer all of these options.

Self-Service Content Ordering

If you order shorter, one-time projects on an occasional basis, you may want to choose a self-service method of ordering article content. This option lets you choose the type of content you want to order and the word count. The best website content writing services don’t require a retainer and will let you pay for exactly what you need and nothing more.

This type of content ordering also gives you the ability to customize each SEO article with add-ons and other options that may include the following:

• Stock photos
• SEO Keyword Research
• Meta descriptions
• Social media posts
• Title tags
• Editing/Proofreading
• Blog Post Uploading

The self-service method for ordering SEO articles is a cost-effective option for companies that have minimal or sporadic content writing needs. We’d define that as a company that only spends $1,000 or less on content creation per month.

Managed Content Writing Services

On the other hand, if you order large volumes of content on an ongoing basis, you may benefit from managed content writing services. These services may be more expensive depending on which website content writing service you’re looking at. Managed services allow you to manage big one-time projects, consistent content marketing campaigns without having to increase the work on your end.

Here are some of the specific benefits that managed content writing has over self-service ordering:

• Volume discounts for ordering in bulk
• Custom ordering and delivery of SEO content
• Custom style guide for your unique voice
• Dedicated Account Manager – one point of contact for efficient communication
• Dedicated teams of writers/editors for consistent style in article writing
• Custom turn times for content on demand
• Potential API connectivity for large projects

If you are interested in managed services, you should know that many, though not all, website content writing companies will charge you retainer fees to access them (BKA Content does not). These can range from $2,500 to $10,000 a month.

Here at BKA, we don’t charge anything extra to utilize our managed writing service. If you’re spending $1000 or more a month on content writing, we throw in the management/customization and extra control for free.

How Much Do Website Content Writing Services Cost?

Writing companies may also offer different pricing structures for SEO content. Depending on the professional writing service you choose to work with, you may be able to pay by the word, by the article, or by the hour.

Hourly Article Writing Rates vs. Pay Per Word Article Writing Rates

As a company ordering articles on a pay-per-hour basis, you do not always know whether a content writer is keeping an accurate tally of the time it takes to complete the assignment. Whether accidentally or on purpose, a writer may artificially inflate the figure – or there may be initial setup time that wasn’t accounted for in the initial quote. While there are unique projects that may require an hourly rate to get done, the best article writing services don’t need to resort to that for most projects at scale.

Typically, paying per word or per article is the safest way to know your true cost beforehand. As a client, you know what you will pay for the content upfront, with no surprises down the road. This allows for easier budgeting when trying to come up with a monthly cost for article writing costs.

Are There Downsides To Working With a Website Content Writing Service?

While a content writing agency will do its best to accommodate your needs, there are potentially some disadvantages to working with one as opposed to hiring in-house writers.

• To a certain extent, outsourcing your content creation means giving up a measure of control over the final product. You can mitigate this by giving detailed instructions and keeping the lines of communication open between you and your point of contact at the company.
• Another potential downside is the lack of inside knowledge about your industry. This is particularly true if it is extremely specialized. While contracted writers bring a wealth of knowledge of various industries to the table, experience in your particular niche may be slim.

This does not mean that you can’t use professional writing services, but it does mean that there may be a learning curve while writers and staff members learn the necessary knowledge about your industry. If you feel that you can’t invest the time, you may be better off hiring your own in-house writers.

Be aware that hiring in-house writers brings challenges that extend beyond that of just finding someone with the right writing experience. You then incur the additional overhead of equipment, employees, benefits, taxes and office space. Not to mention the initial finding, vetting, hiring and management of those writers in the first place.

This is where quality website content writing services bring a lot of convenience, knowing the writers have already been vetted for experience, ability and price points have been set.

Outsource to Reputable Website Content Writing Services!

Most companies, both large and small, find that the benefits of hiring a content writing agency far outweigh the drawbacks. Knowing what to expect can help you make an informed decision about whether outsourcing article writing would be of value to your business.