​If you’re like most people, you’re frequently planning future epic changes and life-altering decisions, all fueled by a simple list of goals. While most people will include strategies for getting healthy, improving relationships and upping productivity at work (especially at the beginning of the year), you can also apply link-building resolutions to your SEO content marketing strategy at any point in the year to improve the strength and effectiveness of your content. Here are a few do’s and don’ts to consider when creating your top link-building strategies.

5 Link-Building Strategies You Should Avoid

SEO link-building tactics aren’t just about incorporating a lot of good things, they are also about avoiding strategies that diminish or minimize your efforts. Here are 5 don’ts you should be aware of.

1. Don’t Overlink

More links equal more connections and more credibility, right? While adding links can give your page a boost, adding too many will push it the other way. Google’s ranking algorithm makes sure that the type of links you use affects your place in search results. Neil Patel states that “five quality links from authority sites will weigh more heavily in your favor than ten mediocre links from generic sites.”

2. Don’t Use Paid Links

One part of creating successful SEO link-building strategies is knowing where to put your money. While paid links are okay in some situations, you do want to exercise caution when using them. You must make sure that your source is going to use best practices and follow Google’s webmaster and advertising guidelines, otherwise, it is best to just avoid paid links.

3. Don’t Use Keywords As Anchor Texts

There are certain words that you should avoid using as your anchor text when creating links. While it is okay for some of these to be included in the link, you should never use the following on their own:

• The word “link” or “website”
• The URL
• The name of the company or site
• The domain

Instead, choose a relevant phrase to create your link that will catch the reader’s eye. It’s also important to make sure the anchor text you are using does not contain keywords you are trying to win. You want readers to come to your site when they see that keyword, not be directed elsewhere.

4. Don’t Use Any Form of Manipulation

If you are considering doing something that may be frowned upon and you aren’t sure if Google will penalize you for it, the best idea is to refrain. Trying to “work the system” rarely works with the ever-changing algorithms and constant updates. Taking shortcuts to get to the top usually results in a quick trip to the bottom. A better choice is to follow Google’s rules and go for sustainability rather than speed.

5. Don’t Overlook the Value of Natural Links

While you may be focusing heavily on contacting other bloggers and businesses to trade links, don’t overlook the value of natural links. Higher placement in Google’s search results can mean more natural links by bloggers who are searching. These will come as your page gains credibility, but they shouldn’t be overlooked in your zest for creating reciprocal relationships.

5 Link-Building Strategies You SHOULD Use

Now that you know how to avoid some big link-building potholes, get started on finding the best SEO link-building strategies out there. We have 5 do’s you might want to investigate.

1. Do Learn How to Monitor Your Backlinks

While it may seem obvious, there are actually several marketers who have no idea how to find out who is linking back to them. Educating yourself on this can give you a much clearer idea of where you stand in the blogging world. It will also alert you to the type of posts that generate the most traffic and the sites that are most often linking to you.

2. Do Link in Lists

According to EarnedLinks.com, the top type of content that was linked to was lists, which were linked to 74 percent more than any other type of content. The next most frequent type was infographics. If you want a piece that is shareable, the statistics point to the fact that pictures and lists are the biggest draw for linking. Incorporate this knowledge into your link-building strategies and be sure to mention this to your blog writing service so they can cater to your needs.

3. Do Develop Relationships

Did you write a great post that got mentioned by another blogger? That’s great, but there is more to do now. Rather than just patting yourself on the back and moving on to your next topic, start developing a relationship with this blogger. Start by contacting them, either through email or by phone. You can request additional links, or you can begin building a solid reciprocal relationship by asking to do an interview or allow them to guest blog on your site. This can open up your page to an entirely new audience of devoted followers. Content collaborations are also great opportunities to work with established bloggers. Expert roundup posts can also allow you to mention several bloggers at once and plant the seeds of many reciprocal relationships.

One type of relationship that is often overlooked is the one created with editors. By having an established line of communication with the editors of certain sites, you will be more likely to have your article picked up and republished. Before you contact any blogger or editor, search carefully for the site owner’s name. Using manners and courtesy can get you far when requesting backlinks. Be sure to let them know the exact place you think your link would fit on their site or the topic you think they could guest-blog about.

4. Do Make Your Link Building Content-Based

While you can insert whatever type of links you choose, almost all marketing managers stated that the most effective and popular tactic they used was link building that was based on content. Part of the reason for this is that the sites you link to are more likely to return the favor if the move makes sense, and that is unlikely to happen if your link was not based on content. If you use content writing services, be sure that they are aware of this and create appropriate links.

5. Do Create Client Links

While you generally want to link to reputable companies, linking to your current customers is another great way to expand your client base. Offering incentives for past customers to leave reviews, then posting those to your website and linking back to the author gives you easy links. If they give a testimonial, they may also be interested in sharing their statement on their own website.

Use SEO Link-Building Strategies That Work

While getting sculpted calves or going strictly paleo might top your friends’ yearly resolutions, making better link-building strategies the top of yours can lead to increased traffic, improved relationships and bolstered sales.

The key to finding successful SEO link-building strategies is by creating a plan and following the footsteps of businesses and websites that have seen great success in their SEO link-building tactics. Follow the guidelines that Google suggests and avoid using any linking strategies that result in fewer followers or decreased credibility. By following these strategies, you’ll be on your way to the best year yet for you, your SEO and your entire company.

Contact BKA Content today to see how our white hat link building services can help you get to the next level in your organic marketing efforts!

Ecommerce has never been more relevant in today’s world. With so much competition for online stores, it is essential that you do what you can to stand out from the crowd. But how do you get the upper hand digitally? The key is through content marketing. Content strategy for ecommerce provides an avenue to gain visibility online, augment your search engine ranking and find ways to increase traffic and conversion rates like never before.

What Is Content Strategy for Ecommerce?

Before you can go too far into creating your ecommerce content strategy, you need to have a strong idea of what content for ecommerce actually is. Many people think of blogging and other written information as content, but that isn’t all that’s included in the package. The definition of content has evolved to include more visual items, including videos, audio and infographics.

Content is no longer just there for the search engine algorithms to find, either. Link building and increasing your organic reach remains important; however, content strategy for ecommerce is also about building authority, increasing the awareness of your brand and engaging with your customers. Ultimately, being a master of ecommerce marketing means providing multiple touchpoints to take potential leads through the buying process to convert them into customers.

Types of Ecommerce Content

Over the years, ecommerce content marketing has seen many changes, mainly to keep up with the ever-changing search engine algorithms. Plus, customers shop more with their emotions now than they used to, making customer engagement that much more important. Whether you are starting up a new ecommerce website or looking to re-tool your old one to boost your business, we have eight game-changing types of ecommerce content that you can start using right away. Along with these, we have a few tips that you need to know to create the best website and ecommerce content marketing strategy possible.

A full arsenal of content pieces and media will help you optimize your marketing strategy. Below are some of the best forms of content proven to drive traffic and increase conversion. They work best as part of an integrated content strategy for ecommerce rather than being the sole type of content on your site, so don’t hesitate to use most if not all of them to fuel traffic.

1. Lists

You may be familiar with lists. Sites such as Buzzfeed have made a strong business out of developing articles made from lists.

Use lists to catch the attention of readers. People want to know things, and lists offer a way to digest critical information quickly. These lists can be made from anything related to your ecommerce site, which makes lists a valuable part of your content strategy for ecommerce. Some examples of topics for a list might include:

• The top X uses for a product
• The top reasons someone would buy your product
• The kinds of people that need your product
• The top products in a certain category

The reason lists are so powerful is that they are easy to read, engage audiences and have a high share rate. For ecommerce companies selling business-to-consumer (B2C) products, lists can be a great addition to your ecommerce content strategy.

2. White Papers / eBooks / Definitive Guides

These three types of content all share a similar goal: demonstrating you as an authority on the subject. These pieces of content are usually long, often between 5,000 to 20,000 words and discuss some specialty in length.

White papers and definitive guides might be best served for business-to-business (B2B) products or more technical gadgetry that would require more than just turning on the power button to figure out how to use. E-books, however, can be used for just about any business for any reason. With e-books you can utilize more creativity to produce simpler, more engaging content that can be both entertaining and informative.

To write this long-form content, you conduct research or compile references on the subject to create a guide or eBook that goes into depth and demonstrates that you know what you are talking about.

Once created, you have an automatic resource that customers can turn to. Incorporating an ebook into your content strategy for ecommerce elevates your standing in your field or industry and helps you reach leads and convert them into customers.

3. Comparison Articles for Ecommerce Products

When people are shopping for a specific item, they want to know how the product you’re offering compares to the competition. If your ecommerce store sells multiple brands, create a post that compares certain items among the brands.

It can be done in an impartial way by highlighting the features of each one to allow customers to decide for themselves which to buy. You can even differentiate your targeted audience using these pieces. For instance, if you sell shoes for hiking, trail running and backpacking, you can help a customer decide which one they should get based on the activities they like to do and how each specific shoe helps with that activity.

This type of content fits right into your ecommerce content marketing plan because people are looking for honest reviews/comparisons. They want to be sure that they are investing in the best product for the price you are offering.

And, if your guide is useful and informative, it’s just another way to gain the trust of visitors. Potential clients are more likely to trust sincere advice that can help them, and these kinds of articles can compel them to do just that. Helpful information and a quality customer service experience can encourage them to buy from you in the future, as well.

4. Guest Blogging

One of the most powerful ways to help your content strategy for ecommerce succeed is to gain backlinks to your content. Essentially, when people find your content helpful and share it or link to it within their own content posts, Google recognizes that your piece of content is an “authority” in that space. Guest blogging is one of the very best ways to get backlinks for your content without you having to rely on the masses linking to you first.

Guest blogging involves writing guest blog posts that other sites will let you publish on their site. So instead of posting on your own site, you write a post for free for someone else to publish. Typically, in return for the free content, those sites will allow you a link back to your main site, or better yet, to an actual piece of content you’ve written about a specific product.

Getting Started With Guest Blogging

When it comes to guest blogging there is etiquette and rules that typically have to be followed, usually set up by the site you’re posting on.

You’ll need to create relationships with other site owners and create content that is helpful to their reader base in order to make this work. It can be a bit of a long play, but when it works it can give your content strategy for ecommerce a huge boost.

One word of warning: ignore article directories that let you post content for free without any guidelines whatsoever. Google algorithmic changes have targeted practices like these and will penalize those sites trying to utilize them. Instead, find high-ranking sites associated with your vertical and develop well-written blogs to post on that site. As you build your authority, you may also be able to post on some of the more popular and authoritative sites in your niche.

5. Ecommerce Infographics

Infographics have become extremely popular forms of content. They catch the eye of your readers quickly, making them easy to share on social media and quick to read. However, it is essential that you develop strong, well-thought-out infographics that have information of value to your customers that they cannot find elsewhere.

There are two main lines of thinking when it comes to creating ecommerce infographics:

1. Create more in-depth, data-driven infographics that extend beyond a page or more. In this instance, the infographic IS the content, so no need for supplementary written content
2. Create a smaller infographic that focuses on just a few key points, rather than a combination of so many facts they become too busy and overwhelming. This can be used in tandem with a written article and is one shareable portion of it.

Here is an example of the latter group:

Adding this type of content creates variety within your article, making it easier and more interesting to read. Add this to get an edge over your competitors.

Creating Engaging Infographics

As you incorporate infographics into your content strategy for ecommerce, enlist the help of great designers or software to make sure your images really pop. You want them to look professional. Infographics won’t do much for your strategy unless they look attractive and can be easily understood.

Don’t know what to include in your infographics? Start by learning what your customers are looking for. What information to they need? Use data you have gathered yourself or look for other sources that are not well known. Feel free to use other sources as long as you link back to them. The main goal is to offer information that will directly help and educate readers.

6. How To / Product Buying Guides

Another type of ecommerce content that consumers find extremely beneficial are guides for the consumer. These guides are written specifically with the consumer in mind, unlike definitive guides that are written to demonstrate your authority.

These how-to/buying guides point out step by step how to do something or educate a person on a certain item to help make their buying decision that much easier. They are typically easy to understand and written with simple, concise text. Add pictures or videos to mix up content and provide a user-friendly experience.

The other great thing about this type of content is that it scales with the number of products you have. This is a great well to draw from when planning out your ecommerce content strategy.

7. Product Reviews

Another beneficial type of content for an ecommerce website is reviews. You can create impartial reviews for your products in the form of blogs and/or you can ask users to submit their own reviews.

When customers shop for your products, they can use the reviews to help them determine which item is the best to buy. This is often the deciding factor for hesitant shoppers. If they see high ratings and descriptive reviews, they are more likely to trust your brand.

One key ecommerce content strategy is just to find automated ways to constantly ask customers for reviews. Some companies offer a reward for honest reviews from customers. If you have great products, they’ll speak for themselves. And the more reviews you have, the more you’ll be trusted by new customers.

8. Videos

Video content has become extremely popular when it comes to content strategy for ecommerce. There are many types of videos you can make. Some of these ecommerce video ideas include:

• Product videos
• How-to Videos
• Buying Guides
• Comparison Videos
• Webinars

Product videos are especially popular across social media platforms and websites. They give you a chance to show off your products and help people in the decision-making process. Studies have found that shoppers who view videos are nearly 2 times more likely to buy an item than shoppers who don’t. It is also possible to use videos for your how-to or buying guides.

Some companies use videos for webinars, which can be used to teach consumers or other businesses in your industry about certain areas of your business/industry. Also, any piece of written content you create can usually be turned into some form of visual content that can be promoted alongside it as a complementary piece. That way, you’re casting a wider marketing net to catch people who prefer the written word as well as those that prefer a visual introduction.

Developing Your Content Strategy for Ecommerce

Now that you know the types of content you can use, it’s time to make a plan of action. The types of ecommerce content listed above are only tools to use, while your ecommerce content marketing strategy is where you determine how you will put it all together. To really master the practice, you have to know the best ways for distributing and promoting your content, where to post it and how to integrate the different types to work in sync to increase their impact.

Create Goals

The first step is making measurable goals. Without goals, it’s hard to track your progress or move forward effectively. Good goals include some of the following:

• Driving traffic
• Increasing leads
• Raising your conversion rates
• Developing customer engagement
• Raising brand awareness
• Increasing sales

You may have a few different goals, but it is best to prioritize your goals and concentrate on just a few at first. Find what is currently most important to your content strategy for ecommerce, and work towards that. As you do, you’ll recognize that your efforts can positively affect the overall success of your business.

Certain content types work best with different goals. For example, product videos, how-to guides and reviews help with conversion, while comparisons, lists and guest blogging work better at increasing traffic.

Understand Your Target Audience

In addition to your goals, you need to understand your target audience. This involves some market research to help you discover the demographics and behavior patterns of your ideal client.

With this information, create one or more models of your typical buyer to help you develop content that matches their wants and needs. If you want to make an impact on your target market, you have to know them and what they need. You need to show that your products can help their lives specifically.

You also want to consider the buyer’s journey to see where you can have touchpoints to funnel them through to conversion. The buying process should be as simple and user-friendly as possible.

Distribute and Promote

The first places to look to post your ecommerce content are the channels that you own, including your website, social media sites, blog, email list and any other digital marketing channel. To get the most out of these channels, make sure that your content is share-friendly. This means that you use visuals, which increase sharing, as well as optimize it so that it is mobile-friendly and easy to share on all social media sites.

Visuals are an important component for any content strategy for ecommerce, as content with images has 94 percent more views than those that don’t. You’ll also want to include the basic SEO necessities, including headings, meta tags, hyperlinks and anchor text. In addition to your own channels, there are other channels that can help you distribute your content, including paid channels and influence blogs.

Create an Editorial Calendar

Your ecommerce content strategy should also have a detailed editorial calendar, including a rotation of content types to keep it fresh. This will keep you on track as you start pushing out content. Remember: consistency is your best friend. If you want your content strategy to work, posts have to be regular and good quality.

You also want to determine upfront where certain content will be posted and how you plan to share it. Within your strategy, you should also have ideas on how to repurpose your content for greater impact, as well as how you plan to optimize the content for greater reach. Keep an eye on data and how certain posts generate more traffic than others.

Lastly, create milestones for analyzing and deciding when a piece of content needs to be looked at and updated, reworked or completely redone.

Put Your Ecommerce Content Strategy Into Action!

So, in summary, mastering ecommerce content marketing starts with knowing exactly what content is and then developing a strategy based on your goals and target audience. Once you have your initial strategy, however, you are not done. Next comes the actual content creation piece. You either need to write and create the ecommerce content yourself, or you need to team up with an ecommerce writing service or creative agency to help you produce the material to promote.

Lastly, you need to continually check in to see if your content strategy for ecommerce needs to be tweaked to keep up with the ever-evolving nature of digital marketing. As you do this, you can consistently refine your ecommerce content marketing plan to see the major benefits that come from online marketing done right.

If you are a small business owner, one of the biggest challenges you face is figuring out how to grow your small business with marketing online. Here are two online marketing strategies for small businesses that are guaranteed to improve lead generation, traffic and sales. 

Online Marketing Preparation

Before you do any marketing online, make sure that you have a website that is fast and well-designed and that you can make changes to easily. WordPress is one of the best platforms out there as it is SEO friendly and there are several drag-and-drop web builders such as Divi, Elementor, etc., to make updating and changing your website a breeze.

Being able to make changes is essential in order to help your website with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In its basic form, SEO is the practice of optimizing your web pages with targeted keywords that people search for in an effort to help your website rank on search engines.

The Two Main Online Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Small Business

When it comes to online marketing, there are two main ways to drive traffic to your website. The first is via paid traffic such as paid ads. The second is via organic traffic such as search results on Google.

Which one is best? Let’s get into it.

1. Paid Traffic Marketing

Paid traffic, also known as pay per click (PPC), is a method of marketing where you can pay to have ads targeted to your prospective customers in the hopes they will click your ad to land on your website.

There are several platforms that you can use to run ad campaigns including Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Google Ads, Tik Tok, and more.

Pros:

• If you need traffic immediately, this is a great way to get your business/products/services some exposure.
• You have the ability to target specific keywords, audiences, interests, and behaviors depending on the platform you use.
• You can set different campaign goals. For example, you can leverage the platform to help with making conversions (sales) or generating leads.

Cons:

• PPC advertising is expensive! Depending on the platform, you will pay per click or impression. This means that you aren’t paying for conversions, but just for the traffic, which can add up fast.
• Your niche may be really expensive due to the auction bidding system these platforms use.
• These platforms are really complicated and require A/B testing, constant adjustments, as well as creatives that must be updated regularly. Each platform is also different from the other, thus requiring you to master each system individually.
• You have to spend a lot of money to “dial in” your campaigns by testing ad copy, images, videos, and call to action verbiage.
• Running PPC campaigns takes constant maintenance and requires a lot of time and attention to detail.
• PPC is a flash-in-the-pan strategy. The second your budget runs out, your ads stop showing.

2. Organic Traffic Marketing

Organic traffic is achieved via content marketing, which is the practice of writing and optimizing content for SEO around a subset of keywords that you want to rank for on Google.

One of the best ways to accomplish content marketing is by creating informational SEO optimized blog content and publishing it within a blog or articles section on your website.

Over time, Google and other search engines will crawl your content and start ranking it based on keywords and search terms it deems are related to your content.

As your content ranks in Google, users will find it and click it to visit your website – thus exposing them to your business/products/services.

Pros:

• Creating content is much cheaper than doing PPC.
• The content you create stays on your website forever, unlike PPC ads.
• The more content you create, the more keywords you can potentially rank for.
• Content can be considered “evergreen” and can produce traffic for many months/years.
• Blog posts have a compounding effect and can bring in more traffic the longer you blog consistently.
• Blog posts not only provide SEO value and potential organic traffic, but they provide helpful information to your prospective customers, thus building your branding/voice/tone.
• Blog posts help you become an authority in your industry.
• Blog posts can be used to soft-sell your prospective customers on a particular product or service.
• Blog posts can include calls to action to help increase sales, lead generation, etc.

Cons:

• It takes time for Google to index and start ranking content. It is not an immediate effect.
• This strategy is an investment and may take months to start seeing the results, but once the results do come, they are long-lasting.
• Writing content can take time and human resources, which many small businesses have in short supply.

Which Online Marketing Strategy is Better?

Both paid and organic marketing strategies are important and can produce great results. We recommend doing both if you can afford it.

However, if budget is an issue, organic content marketing should always be the priority.

The reason for this is that PPC marketing by nature is meant to be turned on or off. Content marketing, however, is a marathon and once you start, it needs to be nurtured and kept up with in order to produce long-lasting results.

This means that organic content marketing should ALWAYS be a strategy you are implementing, with PPC being a more optional strategy to use for short-term goals such as sales/promotions, etc.

These Online Marketing Strategies Can Grow Your Small Business

If you are wondering how to grow your small business with online marketing, both paid and organic marketing strategies can help you achieve your goals.

While organic content marketing should always be a strategy that is being deployed, paid marketing does have its place to help you meet short-term goals such as seasonal promotions or flash sales.

Both are fantastic ways to market your business online to help get it in front of prospective customers.

Since the re-explosion of content marketing in the 21st century, content creation has quickly evolved into an essential business activity. As with any essential business activity, brands need to determine the most cost-effective way to get it done without compromising quality.

Typically, this means deciding between one of two strategies: Developing an in-house writing team or outsourcing SEO content writing services to a content writing agency.

So what’s the difference between the two and what are the pros and cons of SEO content writing services? We’re here to answer your questions.

Insourcing Versus Outsourcing Content Creation

Quality SEO content writing is the primary driver of traffic, leads, conversions and profit. For these reasons, you probably already have a content marketing strategy in place. (If you don’t, keep reading, as this article can help you save time and money on creating a strategy that works best for you.)

For content to achieve all of its touted benefits, you must publish original, informative, helpful and engaging content on a consistent basis — consistent meaning multiple times a week. Whether brands have an existing strategy or not, most can agree that getting to the point where they’re able to publish quality content with the necessary consistency is no easy task. Brands that have been in the content race for a while also know that there are two common ways to get to the finish line:

• Insourcing Content Creation: Brands develop a culture of content within their organization and either hire in-house copywriters or delegate content-related tasks to some or all team members.
• Outsourcing Content Creation: Companies pay freelance copywriters, blogging companies, SEO content writing services or similar third-party entities to write content on their behalf.

Having helped thousands of brands realize their content marketing objectives as an agency, you’d think we’d be biased and say, “Choose us, choose us!” We’re not going to do that. We realize that making the most of your content marketing efforts is not as simple as picking between options one and two. You need to do your homework, weigh the pros and cons of all possible strategies and understand how your final decision aligns with your long-term goals.

Pro: Save On Overhead, Benefits, Overtime, Training and Other Items

At first glance, it may seem like hiring a web content writing agency is more expensive than hiring an in-house copywriter. While pricing structures and fees vary from firm to firm, you can expect to pay anywhere between $25 and $150 per blog post from an agency. Depending on your content needs, that can quickly add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars per month. Before you balk and say “No, thank you,” consider the alternative.

The average salary for an in-house copywriter is $49,982 per year. When you have a full-time employee, you need to offer benefits. Those amount to about $21,625 per year. Add to those figures the cost of hiring ($4,000), payroll taxes ($4,119) and equipment ($2,800), and your “average-priced” copywriter suddenly costs you $82,526 per year.

Even if you were to buy SEO content writing services on the high-end at $150 per article order one article every day, you would still pay less to outsource content creation than if you were to hire an in-house writer.

Balance Your Needs Through Outsourcing

When calculating costs, you also need to factor in content need versus output. According to the results from a recent survey we conducted, the average in-house writer can pump out 87 500-word articles per month. For a small business to stay competitive, the data shows it needs to publish no more than 30 blog posts per month. As a small business, hiring a full-time writer would not be worth the expense.

But what if you are an SEO agency, large enterprise, e-commerce business or some other corporation that requires a large volume of content each month? A single writer would not suffice, but two or more writers would still end up costing you too much. At the end of the day, and if cost is one of your main concerns, outsourcing your content creation to SEO content writing services makes far more financial sense than keeping the work in-house.

Pro: Gain a Fresh Perspective

Though this perk is only available through large SEO content writing services and companies with tens, hundreds or thousands of writers on payroll, it’s a strong one. By working with an agency such as BKA, you gain access to dozens of qualified writers, each of whom has his or her own distinctive writing voice. Each writer also takes unique angles to similar topics, providing each blog or website with much-needed diversity.

While it is true that consistency is crucial to building a loyal following, you don’t want to be so consistent as to bore your audience or, worse, scare off potential readers. Additionally, whereas a single author may get stuck in a rut after writing about the same topic day after day, agency writers often approach each new topic with enthusiasm because the topic is new to them.

Agency writers are also more likely to explore new ideas you or an in-house writer might have overlooked, or to go more in-depth on topics that seem like general knowledge to you but on which your readers may want additional clarification.

Get Specific With SEO Content Writing Services

If you desire a mix of both consistency and diversity, many agencies will allow you to pick your writers based on samples. You can identify writers whose voices align with your brand and isolate those that may be best suited to specific projects.

Finally, though the client onboarding and writing processes vary across agencies, at BKA, we welcome branded style guides. Our writers use these guides to inform their writing and ensure that each deliverable is in line with clients’ expectations.

Pro: Save Time

One of the main reasons business owners outsource content creation to SEO writing companies is that they do not have the time to hire and train new employees. According to Investopedia, it takes, on average, 42 days to find and hire the right candidate to fill a position. Integrating new hires and getting them to the point of 100% productivity can take another six months of training. If you don’t have time for that kind of commitment, you’re not alone.

When you hire SEO content writing services, you can count on the writers to be fully trained and qualified from the get-go. If training is necessary, the agency will take care of it — not you. Not only does this free up time for you to focus on other, more important aspects of your business, but it also allows you to implement your content marketing strategy sooner rather than later. Instead of having to wait six months to see any sort of return on your investment, you can start seeing results within a matter of weeks.

Pro: Scale Your Efforts

Some of the greatest perks of working with a blog writing service are the flexibility and scalability it promises. On the one hand, SEO content writing services have access to several writers — often hundreds — meaning they can meet your content needs at every stage of business growth.

If you’re operating on a small budget, you can negotiate entry-level packages or, if working with BKA Content, order standalone pieces. As your business and budget grow, you can increase your investment without having to worry that the agency won’t have the means to keep up. When business slows, you can scale your efforts back until it picks up again.

Content writing agencies also afford you greater flexibility. Because they work with writers from a variety of backgrounds and with varying levels of experience, you can play around with different content types, including but not limited to blog articles, web pages, landing pages, product descriptions, infographics, recipes, white papers and E-books.

Pro: Get Content On a Consistent Basis

Consistency is key across all aspects of your content marketing strategy. We touched on consistency in terms of style and tone in the “Perspective” section, but a consistent publishing schedule is just as important.

According to Forbes, an inconsistent strategy can confuse visitors and reduce a brand’s value by as much as 20%. On the other hand, consumers view brands that maintain regular strategies as more credible, reliable and trustworthy, and more able to provide a better customer experience.

Several factors may affect a single writer’s ability to maintain a rigorous writing schedule, including meetings, in-office distractions, vacation days, sick days and writer’s block. Because most SEO content writing services have several writers to take on assignments, however, you can have peace of mind that none of these factors will interfere with your content creation schedule. If a writer assigned to your project suddenly falls ill or decides to take an impromptu “personal day,” your account manager can reassign the project to an available writer and ensure it reaches your inbox as promised.

Con: You Get What You Pay For

When it comes to content creation, this old adage rings true. While we at BKA believe that content shouldn’t break the bank, we also know that good writers don’t come cheap. If you do decide to outsource, be wary of agencies or freelancers that offer too-good-to-be-true rates as, chances are, their services are too good to be true.

If a writer or agency agrees to write articles at $5 a pop or to deliver a month’s worth of content for just $200, beware: Either the writer or firm will relegate your project to the bottom of the to-do list, or you will likely receive low-level, hard-to-read, keyword-stuffed and overall bad content.

Con: Lose Expertise

Consumers are smart and incredibly perceptive, especially when it comes to spending money. As a result, most are able to discern between a “fluff” piece written for marketing purposes and a piece written by a real expert. This is especially true in highly technical fields, such as technology, health care, finance and software.

In these types of industries, buyers desire valuable content that delves deep into a given topic with the kind of specificity and accuracy that only a subject matter expert can deliver. SMEs are typically involved in the day-to-day operations of an organization and speak industry lingo naturally, both in their speech and their writing. You cannot fake content from an SME, and, in many cases, you shouldn’t try to.

Another thing to consider when hiring SEO content writing services is a lack of familiarity with your brand. While you can always provide style guides and feedback to get agency writers to the point where they can emulate your brand’s voice, no one will know your brand values quite as well as you or your employees do.

Con: Lose Time

When outsourcing content creation, there are two main problems companies routinely run into that can cause them to lose time. The first is an inability to find a reliable and/or quality content writing agency. For content marketing to be successful, the efforts must be consistent and of value. It may take you a while to find an agency or writer that offers both — possibly longer than the seven or so months it takes to hire and train an in-house writer.

The second challenge you may face involves managing freelance writers. From keeping tabs on productivity to ensuring projects get done to handling payments and tax forms, you will quickly learn that working with contractors requires a whole different set of skills than managing your in-house team.

Con: Get Pushed to the Back Burner

Though a reputable agency has several measures in place to prevent unmanageable workloads, some — especially younger companies — may take on more work than their writers can realistically handle. While there is no way for you to control an agency’s workload, there are aspects you can look at to determine its commitment to deadlines. Those include company age, customer reviews, client roster, portfolio and team roster.

For example, a one-year-old company with two customer reviews and a small portfolio likely has only a handful of writers on staff. On the other hand, a 10-year old agency with several account managers and a client roster that includes well-known brands probably has the means to tackle sizeable projects in a timely fashion. Though you should not discount younger agencies, if you anticipate ordering large amounts of content on a consistent basis, it may make sense to work with more established SEO content writing services.

Con: Struggle To Find a Reliable Agency

In your search for the right agency for your brand, you may discover that not all content writing firms are created equal. Unfortunately, there are several so-called agencies out there that are, in fact, “content mills.” These mills prioritize profits over all else, which is evident in everything from their low-quality writing to poor customer service to complete disregard for client deadlines. You may have to go through one or several bad apples before finding the right fit, but with persistence, you will find it. That said, the same conundrum holds true with in-house writers.

BKA Content: The Best of Both Worlds

At the risk of sounding redundant: Not all SEO content writing services are created equal. You have your freelancers, your content mills, your subscription services and everything in between. While you can learn about the various types of content writing companies here, you can reap the benefits of both an in-house writer and a content writing agency when you choose to work with BKA Content.

Writing Options

At BKA, we offer several tiers of service depending on your content needs, one of which is our managed services model. Under this model, you get access to our thousands of writers, all of whom must undergo a rigorous application process and training period before being granted the freedom to select articles. Once onboarded, writers are either invited to join or try out for “teams” according to their interests, industry knowledge and writing levels.

Managed Accounts

Each team consists of writers who have specialized expertise in certain fields, such as law, medicine and IT. A personable account manager oversees each team to ensure writers complete projects on time and in accordance with clients’ expectations. The same account manager maintains ongoing communication with clients and acts as an intermediary between them and the writers. This model gives you the same level of control you would have with an in-house writer, but without the hassle of actually having to manage the writers yourself.

Scalability

Our solutions are also scalable. From standalone articles to monthly orders to large, one-off batches of high-quality optimized content, we have the team and the resources to tackle it all.

Mindset

Finally, our team cares. We truly do. We understand that for many business owners, the decision to hire an in-house writer over SEO content writing services comes down to relationships and loyalty. They want to know that their writers are just as invested in their bottom lines as they are. We get it, because here at BKA Content, we prioritize relationships, too.

Though our team is mostly virtual, we strive to maintain a family atmosphere and one in which everyone feels appreciated. At the end of the day, we believe that it is this value that enables us to deliver a better content experience time and time again.

Ready To Hire SEO Content Writing Services?

If you’re ready to partner with BKA Content, or if you want to give our SEO content writing services a test run, browse our Content Shop to learn more about our self-service options. Or, you can reach out to us directly to learn more about our managed services option.

Of all the business responsibilities to outsource, most experts can agree that article content creation tops the list. You need content to compete online for search engine rankings, and a lot of it.

Unfortunately, to create even just a single article that performs well, you need to dedicate about four hours to article writing efforts. And you need to do that approximately 11 times a month! In the words of Sweet Brown, Ain’t nobody got time for that. Enter the need for article writing services.

Why Use an Article Writing Service Instead of Going the DIY Route?

Before we get into the benefits of outsourcing article writing, let’s first look at the cold, hard facts of blogging:

• The most popular blog post length is between 500 and 1,000 words. The average blog post length is 1,050 words. However, articles with 2,000+ words are the most likely to generate “strong results.”
• The average blog post/article takes 3.5 hours to write. However, the same study that came up with this average shows that twice as many article writers as previous years spend 6+ hours on a single post.
• Publishing articles two to four times a week produces the most results in terms of both traffic and conversions.
• 11+ posts per month is the magic number.
• Brands that post 16 blog articles a month see 3.5 times more traffic than those that post just once a week.

Assuming you want to compete, and assuming you can spin an article in 3.5 hours, you’re looking at almost an entire workweek dedicated to writing. (Cue Sweet Brown again.) In fact, because content creation does require such a significant time investment, 70% of brands outsource article writing to an article writing service. Here are 12 reasons you should be outsourcing, too.

Did you know that 70% of brands outsource their article writing? Here's why you should too ... #ContentMarketing #Marketing
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The Benefits of Article Writing Services

As you’ll see below, there are many other benefits of a content writing company that go beyond just bandwidth.

1. You Will Save Time Using an Article Writing Service

As you can glean from the stats above, content creation requires a lot of time. Research, writing and posting articles at the consistency necessary to see results is a full-time job, and that’s before you take into consideration other content marketing efforts, such as keyword research, optimization and promoting posts.

As a business owner, you likely agree that time is your most precious resource. There’s barely enough time in the day as is for you to concentrate on your core business responsibilities, much less to take on the job of a content writer. When you outsource SEO article writing, you can still have as much input as you want in the type and tone of the articles you purchase, but with more freedom to focus on other, just-as-important areas of your business.

2. You will Get More Consistency Using the Same Article Writers

Sure, you can hammer out 500-word blog posts whenever you have some free time. However, sporadic content marketing efforts have little to no real impact. When you invest in article writing services, however, you can ensure you get the copy you need to maintain consistently strong content marketing efforts.

The best copywriting agencies have a team of skilled writers on staff who can produce large amounts of copy in relatively little time. Depending on the size and scope of a project, the turnaround time for a large project for a single copywriter is about a week. The turnaround time for an agency with a team of writers can be as quick as two days. When you buy SEO articles instead of trying to create them yourself, you can get the content you need to keep up with an effective content marketing calendar.

3. You Can Save Money Paying per Project

The average salary for a full-time, in-house content writer in the United States is $50,000. However, as you very well know, employees cost more than just their annual salary. In addition to regular pay, you also have to factor in the overhead cost of maintaining a full-time writer. That includes expenses associated with IT, equipment, equipment maintenance, specialized training and employee benefits, to name a few.

When you buy articles online, you have to worry about paying for the content and nothing else. The article writing agency takes care of paying the writers and any other associated expenses while you have peace of mind that the money you do invest will yield a substantial ROI.

4. You Will Have More Flexibility per Article Writing Project

Content creation is a form of marketing, and like with all marketing, you need to be able to scale your efforts up and down based on the season, the economic climate and your needs. For instance, if you own a pool toy business, it may not make much sense for you to invest in content writing during the fall and winter months. However, as winter gives way to spring, you will need to push out content frequently and consistently to remain competitive in the search engines.

When you hire a single, in-house writer, you can’t scale your efforts up or down as needs dictate. However, when you outsource your SEO article writing, you can invest in just enough content to stay relevant during the off-season, then ramp up your efforts considerably during the peak season. Additionally, if your business experiences an unexpected lull, you can adjust your article content orders based on your available budget. This is something you cannot do with a full-time writer.

Outsourced article writing services also allow you to more easily adapt to your changing content needs. You will definitely need blogs on a regular basis, but at some point, you may decide that your website needs a content overhaul.

Or maybe your audience has expressed a desire for more in-depth resources, such as an e-book or whitepaper. A single, in-house writer would not be able to keep up with your blogging schedule and complete multiple other projects. An article writing company, however, would be able to.

5. You Get the Benefit of Experienced Article Writers

You may know how to write, but you are likely not a professional writer, and that is OK. What this means, though, is that you may not have a firm understanding of SEO writing best practices and standardization. An SEO article writing service does.

Professional article writers who have experience in writing content for the web understand web writing best practices. They know SEO. They know what makes a great headline. They know how to structure content for maximum effectiveness, and they know what tone of voice works best for different audiences.

A reputable SEO content writing agency will ensure that your articles are well-written, informed and designed for maximum engagement. It will ensure all writers adhere to strict standards and that the copy those writers produce is consistent in tone, style and quality. Finally, an article writing company will put your copy through several quality checks and revisions so that, when the article content does make its way into your inbox, it’s nothing short of perfect.

6. You Can Access a Wide Range of Content

We touched on this point briefly in number four, but it’s worth highlighting separately: When you invest in article writing services, you can experiment with multiple types of content. While your blog and website content will remain the foundation of your content marketing strategy, other types of content can help you expand your reach and maximize your blogging efforts.

A common example of content that helps to optimize is that of social media posts. Social media marketing offers multiple benefits, the two biggest of which are extended reach and increased engagement with your audience.

When you post an article to your blog, the only people who will read it are those who either happen across your website or who find your article through a Google search. When you post a link to your article on, say, Facebook and LinkedIn, along with a quick blurb on what it is about, you can reach audiences that would otherwise never have given two thoughts to the topic. That is the beauty of social media. When you work with a copywriting agency, you can order social media posts in bulk or as add-ons to long-form articles.

Social media content is just one example of the different types of content you can play with. Once you establish consistent article writing and blogging efforts, you may decide that you want to impress your audience with a whitepaper, or that your best-selling products need their own landing pages. You may decide you need to redo your website, or that your business can benefit from weekly email newsletters. These are all types of content a writing agency can produce for you.

Additional types of content you can order include meta descriptions and title tags, press releases, product descriptions, Amazon descriptions, video scripts and page rewrites. You may even have access to high-quality stock imagery when you work with a reputable content writing company.

7. You Can Access Writers With Experience Across Multiple Industries

B2B businesses and agencies often find that they cater to multiple types of businesses. For instance, an insurance agency may sell policies to construction companies, fire departments and fisheries. A website development company may want to attract businesses in the medical, legal and dentistry fields.

The best type of content identifies the readers’ unique pain points, speaks their lingo and empathizes with them. It can be hard to create this type of article content with little to no actual knowledge of the industry to which the content is directed.

When you outsource your content creation to an article writing service, you get access to a number of different content writers from diverse backgrounds. The writing agency can assess your needs and find writers who are most suited to discuss the topic of your choosing in the most thoughtful and authentic manner. This ensures that you publish content that resonates with your target audience in the best possible way.

8. You Can Benefit From Fresh Ideas From Writers

So, you sell toilets … Though a necessity, the toilet is not exactly an exciting product. And anything that is exciting about it has probably been said before. It has a remote controlled bidet? Awesome! It’s a single piece? Great. It’s elongated? What does that even mean?

Though you’re the industry expert, you may not understand how to best sell your product to your target audience. Everyone knows they need a toilet, but most people are willing to settle for the cheapest one. What can you say about your commodes that will make readers want to splurge?

You might not know, but a content writer may. Whether discussing the history of the toilet, how to purchase a toilet or gift ideas for people who spend a lot of time in the lavatory, a creative article writer can take a dull or tired topic and give it a fresh perspective.

Regardless of the industry you’re in, you may discover that you’ve run out of things to say about your product or service. If you do have an in-house copywriter, you may have noticed that his or her writing has become flat and uninspired. If that’s the case, hand off your SEO article writing to a content agency that employs several writers.

Each writer can offer a unique perspective on the same topic. For instance (and not to obsess over toilets), one writer may write about finding the best toilet for your design scheme, while another may focus on toilet features that maximize comfort. The point is, when you buy articles from a writing service, you can count on them being varied in nature and to keep your blog from becoming stale.

9. You Can Maintain Your Enthusiasm For Content Marketing

SEO article writing requires more than just the ability to write. From researching topics to writing, and from deciding which type of content to use to how and when to publish your articles, you may quickly discover that the whole process is draining from start to finish. And, you’ll just have to do it all over again the next day or week.

The whole process can make you wary of writing, but it can also make you wary of your marketing itself. By outsourcing the content creation process, you can conserve your energy — and therefore, maintain your enthusiasm — for your own company marketing.

Moreover, because professional article writers can lend a fresh perspective to your offerings, you can gain renewed passion and excitement for them every time you read a newly written piece. Just as importantly, so too can your customers.

10. You Can Strengthen Your Content Marketing Strategy (or Help You Develop One)

So, you have a full-time content writer whom you love … great! Keep her on payroll. However, no matter how skilled your writer is, she can only do so much on her own. When you pair her capabilities with those of an article writing service, you can drastically increase the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy.

One of the greatest benefits of investing in the best article writing services is that it helps you strengthen your content marketing strategy, or motivate you to develop one if you haven’t already. Agencies are in the business of creating articles and web content that works. They keep up with best practices and follow the trends. They use their knowledge to produce content that converts on your behalf which, in turn, keeps you coming back.

If your SEO article writer is best at building relationships through content, let her keep doing that. An article writing company can do everything else strong copy is supposed to do, such as increase search engine rankings, generate more traffic and boost conversions. By combining your existing efforts with content writing services, you can do more than you thought possible.

11. You Can Easily Measure the ROI of Your Article Writing Investment

Measuring the return-on-investment of outsourced services is easy, as they either make you more money than you spend or they don’t. How can you tell, though, if your content is making you money? Some things you can look for to gauge the effectiveness of purchased article writing services include the following:

• A surge in traffic to your website
• The number of times a piece of content has been shared or engaged with
• The number of views a particular piece of content gets, along with the number of subsequent conversions
• An uptick in online sales and/or revenue since you started to buy articles

High quality content writing services specialize in the production of content that converts and that helps businesses meet their goals. One thing to consider, however, is that article writing doesn’t typically increase traffic, shares and sales overnight. Content marketing is usually the long play. Plan on 6 to 12 months of creating content, updating content, reoptimizing content and sharing that content to start seeing real results.

If you work with a reputable content writing agency with a long track record of helping small, medium and large businesses succeed online, chances are you will receive content that increases leads and that converts.

12. You Gain a Trusted Article Marketing Partner

When you buy SEO articles from the right writing agency, you can develop a longstanding and dependable relationship with it. Partnering with the best article writing service over the long-term is hugely beneficial, as it means that, over time, it will deliver more authentic content that truly resonates with your target audience.

This is because the article writers are able to get to know your business, your industry and your unique preferences, enabling those writers to write more authentically and with a higher level of enthusiasm.

Moreover, when your trusted content writing agency becomes an extension of your business, you can have peace of mind that it, too, views your company as an extension of it. A content writing service wants you to succeed so it can succeed, which means it will get the job done well and on time, every time, and that it will go above and beyond to meet your expectations. Though rare, business relationships such as these are invaluable.

How To Buy SEO Article Writing Services Online

You’re sold. We knew you would be. Now that you know you want to buy articles, what’s next? While you can find a comprehensive how-to guide here, we’ve decided to provide a condensed framework below:

Determine a Budget For Content Writing

The easiest way to begin shopping for SEO article writing services is to determine your budget. How much can you reasonably spend on content writing each month? How much should you be spending? This number should give you a good starting point.

Though your own budget will serve as the ultimate guide when it comes to narrowing down your options, you should pay attention to what your competitors are doing. How much do they spend a month? What’s the industry average? How often do they post? If you want your investment to pay off, you should at least make sure the article content you purchase keeps you competitive.

Assess Your Content Needs

Just as important as determining your budget is determining your content needs. You may find an affordable article writing service that you like but realize that it employs only a handful of writers for dozens of clients. This won’t help you, especially if you hope to maintain a consistent content schedule. Maybe the writing agency specializes only in blogging and social media, which won’t do you any good when you finally undertake that website redesign you’ve been planning.

Make sure the article writing company has the capabilities to meet your unique content goals, whatever they may be. You should also account for scalability, as there’s a good chance that in the future, you will want to increase your content marketing efforts.

Test Out an Article Writing Company’s Services

Armed with your budget and an idea of how much content you will need, narrow down your options to article writing agencies you can afford and that can meet your needs. Review websites online, read through samples and request quotes to further narrow down your top choices to two or three content writing agencies. Order a test article from each. You can’t know what a writer or agency can really do for you until he or she writes a piece specifically for your brand.

When ordering the test piece, make sure it’s one you will publish. This guarantees you’ll review it with a critical eye and treat the whole process as if you’ve already hired the writing firm.

Equip Your New Writing Partner With the Tools To Succeed

Once you’ve found ‘The One’, your job isn’t over yet. To ensure that an article writing service delivers content that speaks to your brand, engages readers and converts, equip the writing company with all the right materials. This includes information about your business, existing marketing materials, samples, links to authoritative industry sites, an outline, suggested topics and a style guide.

Investing in Article Writing Services: Time to Test the Waters

Investing in SEO article writing services is necessary, but we totally get it if you’re hesitant to drop money on a writing agency you’ve never worked with before. Our self-service content ordering makes it easy for businesses to test the waters and to scale their article writing efforts to be in line with their needs and budget. Learn more or jump right in and use our blog writing services today.

Blogging can be a powerful tool for any brand trying to increase brand visibility and audience engagement. It is a centerpiece of both search engine optimization and content marketing. However, learning how to write a good blog post isn’t easy. For many brands, hiring blog writing companies to manage content creation is the right choice.

If you are exploring some of your SEO blog writing options, you may notice that there can be highly varied pricing, contract structures and quality. This is partially because there are many different types of blog writers. Understanding more about these types will help you to make a more informed decision about who to hire for your brand.

Why the Type of Blog Writing Company You Work With Matters

You may wonder why you even need to know each type. That may seem like minutia if you already know the pricing and have seen samples for a few potential vendors. However, understanding the type of company you are dealing with can help you to predict the results more accurately.

For example, some companies are simply marketplaces for brands and freelancers to find each other. So, you may see samples that are completely unrelated to the writer you end up working with. Additionally, some company types have account managers while others don’t.

If you want a long-term, reliable relationship with a blog writing team, you need to know the right type of company to look for. Ultimately, understanding the different options will help you get the return on investment you are seeking.

6 Types of Blog Writing Companies

In this article, we will examine six types of blog writing companies: databases, freelance marketplaces, subscription writers, individuals, brokers and managed writing services. Like most things in life, blog writers can be categorized in many different ways. However, the following six types will give you a framework to better analyze your options. We’ll start with the ones we think stand out.

1) Blog Subscription Services

This first type is sort of a new phenomenon among blog writing services. You pay a certain amount per month and get a preset number of blog posts each month. Some providers offer different billing cycles, but the principle is the same either way.

This can be a really reliable and cost-effective option for small businesses that have a need for consistent blog content but don’t have the time or know-how to do it themselves. Finding a blog subscription service that will do the keyword research, topic ideation and content writing for you means you have one less marketing task to worry about.

What To Expect From Blog Subscription Packages

Typically, these services offer professional writing backed by a support team of account managers and other client services professionals. Therefore, the process tends to be better defined and more reliable than the above types of companies.

The pricing for blog subscription services tends to be relatively favorable compared to ordering individual pieces. It will likely be more costly than the most cut-rate marketplaces and brokers. However, the quality of writing will be significantly higher than that of brokers and many freelancers.

BKA Content provides subscription plans that can help you to get the most from your blogging efforts. This includes content strategy, topic creation, proofreading, and most importantly, professional writers who know how to write a good blog. The following are the highlights of blog writing subscriptions:

• Consistent flow of blog posts at a predictable price.
• Long-term work with a reliable team including people to help you with topic planning and content strategy.
• Relatively inflexible arrangement that won’t fit a team with inconsistent order size.

2) Managed Content Writing Services

Additionally, there are managed services from blog writing companies. These are sometimes available as an alternative option from the same companies that provide subscription services. For example, BKA Content offers not only a subscription option, but also managed services and a self-service ordering system. This gives you the flexibility you need to find the writing arrangement that works for your business.

What To Expect From Managed Services

With managed services, you get the benefit of having individualized project management. These blog writing companies can help you with an in-depth and comprehensive approach to maintaining your blog. This is a strong fit for brands that are spending at least $1,000 per month on blog writing and content. If you have a smaller need, you will likely be better served by a self-service option or a lower-volume subscription.

Blog writing can deliver impressive results for your business and can be a significant driver of digital marketing growth. However, to achieve those results, you need a strategy and execution that can cut through the noise. If you’re needing high volumes of content on a consistent basis, you likely have a team creating your content strategy and goals, but you may not have the writers to create your content. This is where a managed service is most beneficial. With a large number of trained writers, managed service content writing companies can scale your content writing needs in a short amount of time at a fraction of the cost it would take you to hire enough writers yourself.

Larger brands and those that are very dedicated to blog content marketing should strongly consider managed services. The following are some of the key characteristics of this option:

• Individualized project management.
• Strong, consistent results from professional writers and experienced content marketers.
• Typically requires larger volumes to be cost-effective.

These services can be of great benefit to you. At BKA Content, not only do we offer managed services for all business sizes, but we also offer a blog subscription plan to make outsourcing easy.

3) Blog Databases

Some blog writing providers are primarily a database of pre-written blog posts created by professional writers. There are often thousands of articles available at any given time. They are organized by topic and keywords. All you need to do is find some blog posts you like, select them and purchase the rights. In many cases, you are assured that you have the sole rights to the content. So, you won’t find that your competitors have also purchased and published the same item.

What To Expect From Blog Databases

This is a very affordable option and much faster than having content custom written. As long as there is a blog post that works for you, all you need to do is buy it. You could potentially be done in minutes.

However, the main drawback is obvious: the content wasn’t made for your brand. You will likely find a few blogs that are very relevant for your business, some that are more loosely related and many that are simply not helpful. If you want to use your blog to its fullest potential, you should skip this option. It just cannot offer enough reliably high-quality and relevant content. Additionally, it is not uncommon that you will need to make some modifications to the content to make it work for your brand.

Overall, these databases can be a starting point for some brands, especially those that need something quick and inexpensive. These are the highlights you need to know:

• The content is pre-written and generic for the given topic.
• There are a lot of options, but they won’t be specific for your brand.
• Some content needs to be adapted to make it usable on your blog.

4) Freelance Writing Marketplaces

Another option that attracts a lot of new brands is freelance writing marketplaces. These are blog writing companies that facilitate brands and freelance writers finding each other. The companies themselves do not provide any writing service and, depending on the service, may not validate the writers’ abilities.

What To Expect From Freelance Writing Marketplaces

This is a relatively fast option because there are often many writers available. Additionally, the rates are often low because the freelancers may be bidding against each other. The process typically involves posting a job on the marketplace. The freelancers then submit their proposals to your job. Finally, you can pick the freelancer you want to work with.

The main drawback of this type of website is that the quality can be highly variable. Plus, many of the low bids are coming from writers competing more on price than quality. In some cases, you may even get bids from writers who are not fluent in the main language for your audience. There are some excellent writers working through these platforms. Nonetheless, many brands struggle to find the consistency and quality they are looking for.

Another issue is that there is a higher risk of plagiarism and double selling of content. The lack of moderation may mean that you are buying something that isn’t completely unique and original. These are some highlights to know:

• Easy access to a broad pool of freelancers at relatively low rates.
• You submit a job, receive proposals from writers and select the writer(s) you want to work with.
• Quality is often inconsistent and not managed by the platform. Typically, there are no editors or account managers to help you get the results you want.

5) Generalist Marketing/SEO Companies

There are many marketing agencies, especially those that specialize in SEO, that provide blog writing and other content marketing services. These are typically reliable outfits with strong knowledge of how to identify and engage with your audience. They will often have dedicated account managers to help you with your marketing needs. Additionally, they will often work with a consistent set of writers.

However, these agencies are not specialists in content marketing or blog writing. So, the results may not be optimal for this type of marketing. Additionally, in many cases, the writers may be performing other marketing tasks.

What To Expect From Marketing Agencies

There are marketing agencies that have either well-established internal blog writing teams or that outsource to specialist agencies. These are people that know how to write a good blog. So, there are certainly cases in which you can get top-tier blog writing from a generalist marketing agency. However, there are also cases in which you will get unsatisfactory results.

The best thing you can do when getting blog writing through your general marketing agency is to ask about who will be doing the writing. These are some of the key facts you need to know about generalist marketers:

• Marketing companies tend to have a strong understanding of the fundamentals of marketing including how to identify and engage with audiences.
• Many agencies do not have dedicated writers or blogging specialists.
• Your results may vary significantly depending on who produces the blog posts for the marketing agency.

6) Individual Writers

Of course, you can always hire an individual to write your blog posts for you. Although this is working with a freelancer, it is quite different than going through a marketplace. First, you will be working with the same writer or small group of writers on a regular basis. Second, you will interact directly with them. This can lead to better communication and improved results.

What To Expect From Individual Writers

In many cases, hiring an individual writer can be a lot like having a professional writer on your staff. You have consistent communication and can build an understanding of each other and your process over time. You will generally get good results and high-quality writing.

The main drawback of hiring an individual writer or group of writers is that you are reliant on that person or group. If working with one person, you have no immediate backup in the event that they are sick or unavailable. If you have a sudden increase in workflow, you don’t have much scalability. Furthermore, the person will likely be a writing expert but may not be skilled at helping you strategize your blog, depending on the individual’s experience.

For brands that want to work with the same person continuously, this can be a good option. Here are the most important characteristics:

• A single person or group that your brand continues to work with for an extended time.
• Easier communication thanks to the long-term relationship.
• No fallback options if the person is unavailable or not an expert in a particular area.

Get Help With Your Blogging Today

Finding the right writer can make an enormous difference to your content marketing results. By understanding the different types of blog writing companies, you can more easily select the option that aligns with your business. If you are just getting started, a freelancer or self-service company may be great. Larger brands can benefit from subscriptions and managed services.

Whatever your content needs, BKA Content likely has a good solution for you. All our blog posts, web pages and other content are written by professional writers who know how to write a good blog post. Plus, our account managers will guide you to find the right structure and strategy for your brand’s unique needs.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of the digital marketing mix. It is one of the most reliable ways to increase your brand’s organic visibility online. This has the added benefit of multiplying the impact of other channels. When your business is easy to find, your marketing efforts are more effective. From on-page optimizations to SEO article writing, a good strategy can give your brand a valuable boost.

Keywords are at the heart of all SEO optimization. These words and phrases are how you can target certain search terms that your audience may enter into Google or another search engine. Finding the best keywords to suit your strategy and budget takes time, effort and research. Whether you hire a full-service consultant, buy keyword articles or do it all yourself, understanding keywords and how to find them can help you better guide your brand’s marketing.

Fortunately, you can find many SEO keyword research tools to help you choose the best keywords to include in your content writing, meta tags and more. Of course, picking through all the SEO research tools out there to find the right one for your needs can be difficult. That’s why we’re here to help.

The Top 10 SEO Keyword Research Tools (According to Us)

The following 10 SEO article writing tools are among the best available for keyword research. There is no option that is the right choice for everyone in all circumstances. Nonetheless, if you use any of the following, you will be setting your SEO keyword research off on the right foot.

1. SEMrush

SEMrush is a comprehensive suite of SEO article writing tools for researching keywords and analyzing competitors. It is one of the most popular SEO research tools on the market because of the in-depth data it delivers.

If you want to learn which keywords you are currently ranking for, you can search your URL in SEMrush’s organic research tab. On this page, you can see the traffic you are earning and an estimated value of that traffic. Additionally, you can click to view your positions for different keywords. This will let you know how effective your SEO article writing and other activities are. You may also discover new keywords that you are ranking for without targeting.

The same works for examining competitor’s websites. This is a great way to find some keywords that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

You can also get a keyword gap report. This shows you keywords that many of your competitors are ranking for but that you aren’t currently targeting.

Pros: SEMrush has a lot of features, including some very in-depth insight such as keyword difficulty. It is also easy to get started with simple reports, such as the keyword gaps.

Cons: SEMrush’s SEO research tools don’t come free. The Pro plan is the most budget-friendly and starts at $83 per month if billed annually.

Verdict: This should be a top consideration for anyone who isn’t sweating every penny of the SEO budget. It offers a lot and can be the linchpin of a mature and effective SEO strategy. For 20% off of annual plans, you can sign up for SEMRush here.

2. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is almost the total opposite of SEMrush. It is very simple, with only limited features. However, it is available completely for free provided that you have an AdWords account.

This SEO keyword research tool benefits significantly from being produced by Google. It is one of the most accurate sources of information about keywords and SEO on the market. Even the most expensive paid tools struggle to offer the same level of precise information.

Using the keyword research tool, you can get suggested keywords based on ones you may already be using. You can also research keywords to see insights such as keyword search volume. If you intend to also use your SEO keywords for a paid ad campaign, you can get an estimate of the necessary bid to get your ad seen.

Pros: Google Keyword Planner is highly accurate with the few features it offers. It is also available for free for anyone with an AdWords account (which is also free to create).

Cons: This tool is relatively bare bones. Nearly all research tools can offer the same features and more.

Verdict: For anything beyond the most basic SEO strategy, you will likely need something more feature-rich than Google Keyword Planner. Nonetheless, it is so accurate that you could use this SEO article writing tool in conjunction with others to help plan your SEO keywords.

3. Serpstat

If you want more than just keyword research, Serpstat should be on your radar. It is a full SEO suite that combines keyword research, website analytics, SERP analysis, rank tracking and more.

Compared to similar SEO research tools, Serpstat is more oriented to individual page analysis. You can define missing keywords on a page-by-page basis or for an entire URL. It has tools for analyzing competitors as well as seeing how your pages are ranking. The unique “tree view” helps you find the search terms for which have nearly reached the top 10 search engine results page. This can help you refocus your article writing.

One of the best features in Serpstat is its filter. You can set parameters to drill down your research and find exactly what you are looking for. SEO keyword research can often involve a lot of data, so having this effective filtering functionality is very helpful.

Pros: Serpstat has a great user interface and a lot of functionality. The pricing starts at $55 per month when billed annually. This is relatively affordable among paid SEO research tools.

Cons: The site audit functionality does not offer many unique insights. It also does not have any tools for social media data.

Verdict: Overall, Serpstat offers a lot for a good price. Its keyword analysis is particularly good.

4. Majestic

Majestic is another full-suite SEO tool. It helps you track your site’s search engine health over time.

It includes keyword functionality in the most basic plan. The more advanced options have special features for bulk research and API integration.

You can research competitors on individual keywords. It also highlights keywords and phrases that you could easily target. Many users appreciate the backlink history tools (Pro and API), custom reports and the keyword checker.

This is an excellent choice if you want to do more than just keyword research. It can help you with everything from planning your content writing to optimizing your backlinks.

Pros: Majestic has a lot to offer, including a particularly strong onsite analysis report. It also provides very easy-to-use keyword research tools.

Cons: Some users have reported missing data on some SEO reports. Additionally, anyone wanting to use the API may struggle with its reliability.

Verdict: Starting at under $42 per month, Majestic has a lot to offer at a reasonable price. However, it is more difficult to get started with than some other tools. Some prior expertise may be required.

5. Keyword Tool

For delving into keywords, this is one of the best keyword research tool options available. The very aptly named Keyword Tool can offer in-depth insights into keywords. Unlike with many of the other tools on this list, you can easily view reports for Google, YouTube, Amazon, Bing, social media and more.

In a sense, Keyword Tool is like an upgraded version of Google Keyword Planner. It does not have a full set of SEO research tools. However, it focuses almost exclusively on keyword research and does that very well.

The user experience is very simple. Additionally, you can get up to 750 keywords for free. The pro version offers even more results and more in-depth data. Using the Google Autocomplete API, Keyword Tool will suggest dozens or hundreds of long-tail keywords for a given topic. It also uses Google Suggest to find other relevant keywords.

Pros: This is one of the most user-friendly SEO article writing tools on the list. It is also very focused on keyword research. If you need keywords to fuel your SEO article writing, this may be the tool for you.

Cons: It is weak on competitor analysis, and the Pro Basic plan does not include cost-per-click data. Additionally, it is relatively expensive for the number of features.

Verdict: Starting at $69 per month, Keyword Tool is surprisingly expensive for its feature set. However, it has some of the best data within its limited scope.

6. Long Tail Pro

Increasingly, long-tail keywords are becoming the darling of the SEO world. They tend to be less competitive and are more likely to convert than shorter keywords. Long Tail Pro focuses on this trend. It is a great way to find high-value keywords to incorporate into your content writing.

Long Tail Pro offers valuable SEO research tools for niche keywords based on seed keywords. The metrics provided are detailed and useful. The program also offers smart recommendations to help you find high-end organic traffic sources. Long Tail Pro can perform over 2,500 SERP look-ups per day.

The user interface is well-designed and easy to understand. Overall, this tool provides a great user experience for both advanced and novice users.

Pros: You can get keyword suggestions in bulk with useful scoring. The data is very accurate and easy to use.

Cons: There are limits to the amount of research you can do. The pricing is based around this and starts at $207.90 per year.

Verdict: This is a valuable SEO research tool if you want to delve into long-tail keywords. Few tools are as user-friendly and as effective for this subset of SEO.

7. SpyFu

As the name suggests, SpyFu is focused on analyzing competitors and their SEO strategies. It is widely considered to be one of the best keyword research tools for this purpose. If you are working in a saturated niche, SpyFu will help you uncover valuable and relatively untapped keywords to target.

SpyFu is accessible enough for average users to jump in. However, it also has sufficient data and detail for advanced SEOs to use. Additionally, it offers ongoing site monitoring.

This article writing tool isn’t limited to SEO. It also has some valuable insights for PPC ads and variations on campaigns. Let your competitors optimize your campaigns for you by analyzing their work and finding gaps that you can exploit. It is like letting other businesses do your search engine marketing testing for you.

Pros: SpyFu offers a deep feature set, valuable reports and good support. It also starts at a reasonable price ($33 per month billed annually).

Cons: It is less optimized for independent keyword research. If you aren’t looking at competitors, this tool may fall a little short.

Verdict: This is an excellent choice with a lot of value for its price. It is especially well-suited for businesses in competitive spaces.

8. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is generally viewed as one of the top SEO research tools for professional search engine optimizers. Given that the name is a reference to HTML code, it is probably no surprise that this tool is a little more technical than some of the others on this list. Nonetheless, once you have the hang of it, Ahrefs has a lot to offer.

The data reported by Ahrefs is very accurate, and the scoring provides valuable insight. Additionally, there are helpful metrics for improving click-through rates. You’ll also find in-depth SERP analysis to help you locate keywords that are easy to improve.

Like many other suites on this list, Ahrefs does not offer its keyword explorer separately. Instead, you will get access to the entire set of Ahrefs tools. These include site audits, site explorer, rank tracker and more. There is even a content explorer to help you optimize your content writing.

Pros: Ahrefs has among the best feature sets in the business. There is an immense amount of data to mine and analyze.

Cons: The keyword tools are limited in the lowest tier plan. Additionally, Ahrefs does not hold users’ hands. This requires some time to learn.

Verdict: If you buy articles from an experienced SEO team, there is a reasonable chance they are using this tool. It is the go-to for a good reason. However, it is not the best option for beginners. Pricing starts at $82 per month billed annually.

9. KWFinder

KWFinder is all about finding keywords. (What a surprise!) It has fewer features than some of the other SEO research tools on this list. Instead, the developers chose to focus almost exclusively on keyword discovery. For this job, it is a very good tool.

As you start your SEO article writing, KWFinder can help you to discover useful keywords with detailed suggestions and ad hoc searches. It also provides SERP-specific tools that will empower you to discover how to improve your rankings.

This is a good tool for competitor keyword analysis. It includes filtering that will eliminate keyword results that aren’t going to be profitable for you.

Pros: The keyword tools are very strong and provide plenty of actionable and useful information. You can explore keyword variants, long tails and domain keywords.

Cons: If you ever want to expand beyond keywords, this is not the right tool for you. It has limited features for anything beyond keyword-specific queries.

Verdict: For planning the keywords in your content writing strategy, this can be a great choice. With pricing starting at under $30 per month, it is affordable. Just don’t expect a full suite of features.

10. Moz Keyword Explorer

Moz has firmly established itself as a go-to resource for learning about SEO. Many people use their guides to help start their first SEO article writing efforts. So, it is probably no surprise that the Moz Keyword Explorer delivers some excellent functionality.

This SEO article writing tool offers two unique data points that set it apart from some others on this list. The first is the organic CTR score. This is a relative scoring of the number of clicks you can expect to receive. The second is the priority score. By combining and analyzing factors such as CTR, volume and difficulty, Moz provides scoring to help you find the best terms for your needs.

Users can get started with Moz Keyword Explorer for free with 10 queries per month. Upgrading to Moz Pro, starting at $99 per month, will provide significantly more queries (up to 30,000 for the top plan).

Pros: Moz Keyword Explorer provides some very helpful metrics that aren’t available elsewhere. Additionally, the Moz Pro plan comes with many other features.

Cons: Moz is relatively expensive compared to others on this list. It is also not quite as intuitive as a few competitors.

Verdict: You won’t go wrong with Moz if you have the budget for the pro version. This is a great SEO research tool backed by some of the top experts in the field. It can help fuel your SEO article writing strategy.

Implement Your Content Strategy With SEO Article Writing Tools

Once you have done the research to plan out your content writing strategy, you are ready to start putting it into place. Use these SEO research tools to help you find, create and monitor the keyword phrases you want to target in your campaigns. Consistently creating high-quality blogs, articles and other SEO optimized content can help you realize the full potential of your keyword research. In many cases, it is a good idea to buy articles from expert writers to get the best possible results.

BKA Content provides SEO article writing services that will help you create and execute an effective strategy. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your brand thrive online.

Most businesses cringe when they think about all of the content they need to create to be able to compete online. Thankfully, there are solutions such as using a professional ghostwriter that can make content creation extremely hands-off and easy.

But how do you know if you should use professional ghostwriting services for your content creation needs?

What is a Professional Ghostwriter?

First, it’s important to know the definition of a ghostwriter. What is a ghostwriter? If you ask any kid that grew up watching tv in the 90’s they’ll tell you it’s a literal ghost who communicates to teenagers through words and letters to help them solve crimes, mysteries and capers.  For everyone else, the ghostwriter definition is much more believable and useful.

Ghostwriter Definition

So what is the actual ghostwriter meaning?

According to Wikipedia, a ghostwriter is someone who is hired to write texts, literary works of journalistic pieces where the official author credit is given to someone else. While you may be familiar with the term in relation to celebrities, politicians and executives needing a ghostwriter to help write an autobiography, speech or script, ghostwriters are found in nearly every part of business and almost every industry. Few business owners have the time or literary skill to craft the amount of content they need to market their business online effectively. This is where getting help from professional ghostwriting services can come in extremely handy.

Do You Need a Ghostwriter?

One of the easiest ways to know if you could benefit from using a ghostwriting service is by determining the different types of content you need created. If you have more than one or two types of content needed (which, honestly, every business SHOULD be incorporating a few different types of content in their campaigns), you’ll quickly find that you may not have the literary skill set to complete them all yourself. For instance, Press Releases have a very distinct format and writing tone. Similarly, copywriting needs to use as few words as possible to inform, persuade and convert a potential customer.

If you don’t have the writing skills to craft compelling, engaging and high-quality content on your own, you’re missing out on some huge marketing opportunities. Or worse, you’re losing those opportunities because of poorly written content that already exists on your website. The best ghostwriting services help you to meet all of your content writing needs and can benefit your business on multiple levels.

Professional Ghostwriters Create Different Types of Content

The good news is that you can usually find ghostwriting services for any and all forms of content. Whether you’re looking specifically for an ebook ghostwriter or just a general business ghostwriter, they’re out there. Some examples of content that ghostwriting services can provide include:

• Articles
• Blog Posts
• Landing Pages
• White Papers
• Press Releases
• Ebooks
• Location Pages
• Recipes
• Video Scripts
• Quizzes
• Technical Writing
• Creative Writing
• Meta Descriptions
• Title Tags
• Product Descriptions
• Amazon Descriptions
• Web Pages
• Other Online Writing

Did you see any content types on the list that you need? Maybe you need some help creating thousands of product descriptions for your catalog of SKUs. Or maybe you’re looking for a white paper ghostwriter to help build out some high-level explanations of products or services you offer. No matter what your content writing needs are, you could absolutely benefit from using a ghostwriting company.

Why Use Ghostwriting Services?

So, why use a ghostwriter? There are many reasons why professional ghostwriters are used every day by hundreds of thousands of businesses across the world.

Professional Ghostwriters Save Time

Coming up with keywords, topic ideas, and a content schedule takes enough of a content marketer or business owner’s time, which leaves very little for the actual writing of the content. Most content marketers and business owners just don’t have any extra time to give to content writing, on top of their other marketing campaigns, which is why most companies struggle with putting out enough content.

By using a professional ghostwriter, you can offload all of the writing responsibility to someone else, thus giving you more time to strategize while also getting a lot of content written in order to feed your campaigns.

Professional Ghostwriting Services Save Money

When you think about the salaries and benefits you pay your employees, having to add more employees to handle your content gets really expensive really fast. Add overhead, equipment, taxes and management costs and you can see where we’re going with this.

By outsourcing content to a ghostwriting service, you can avoid all of those extra costs by just being able to pay for the content when you need it. We’ve conducted research and written a white paper on the savings of outsourcing content creation vs keeping it in-house. Take a look at the savings of using ghostwriting services when weighing the ghostwriter cost versus in-house writer costs based on different content volume needs:

Outsourcing to Ghostwriting Companies is the Best Way to Scale

If you need any type of consistent volume when it comes to content creation, outsourcing writing to a ghostwriting service really is the only way to create a lot of content while also staying within budget.

Not only do you save money by not having to hire hundreds of employees, but by utilizing an outsourced army of writers, you can get large amounts of content written within very short periods of time. What might have taken you and a few employees weeks and months to create can take mere days by utilizing a content creation service.

Outsourcing also makes volume fluctuations extremely easy. If you were to hire in-house writers, you have to keep them on the payroll even if you have nothing for them to do. With an outsourced writing service, you can order large or little amounts of content, which is perfect for companies that see seasonal fluctuations in their content creation campaigns.

Professional Ghostwriting Services Have Other Benefits

The benefits of quality ghostwriting services extend beyond just the actual time and money it would take to hire writers in-house or do it yourself. In fact, some of the major benefits can have long-lasting and far-reaching effects on the overall longevity of your business.

1. Experts in SEO Optimization

A good ghostwriter understands SEO best practices and will incorporate them into the content. Making sure that keywords flow naturally, headers are concise and that the content provides value will help your content to rank in the major search engines, thus increasing potential traffic to your site. You may not see these results right away, but if the ghostwriting is done right and your content marketing strategy is sound – a single piece of content can bring in tons of traffic and revenue over the course of multiple years. Talk about a great ROI!

2. You Get Full Rights to the Content

When you hire a ghostwriter, they give you full rights to the content meaning that you can publish the content under your name. This is extremely valuable especially if you are using the content for branding or for business purposes so that you can have full control of how the content is used. This allows you to become an authority in the industry without having to meticulously put all the words together.

Some of the best ghostwriting examples of this include dedicated business owners and content marketers that are willing to put together a list of bullet points and major talking points to cover in the piece. The project then becomes more collaborative and ensures you get the message across that you had originally intended.

3. They Offer a Fresh Writing Perspective

The longer you work in an industry, the harder it gets to think of fresh ideas and perspectives on certain topics. Having access to hundreds of ghostwriters helps to eliminate this problem since each writer can bring a new approach to a seemingly old subject.

Not only that, for large businesses that need expertise across many areas or geographical locations, using ghostwriting services allows you to tap into the diversity of hundreds of writers from different locales with varying industries of expertise. With the right management, this can be an extremely effective workforce to have supporting you behind the scenes.

4. They Provide Efficient Production

Since writing is a ghostwriter’s life, their ability to create high-quality content quickly is how they make money. This means that you can get much better production from a professional ghostwriter than you can with a full-time employee. Also, in reference to scale – there is no other way to scale content creation as quickly without using ghostwriting services.

When You Shouldn’t Use A Professional Ghostwriter

Like anything else, not everything is cut and dry. There are still some reasons why you probably shouldn’t spend too much time and money looking for a ghostwriter or ghostwriting service and just bring someone on in-house or do it yourself instead.

Specific Niches and Complex Industries

For instance, if you work in a very specific niche, such as mechanical engineering or genome development, finding a professional ghostwriter who is competent in these areas of expertise is going to be nearly impossible (or extremely expensive). Expecting a ghostwriter to be able to write about intensely complex industries or processes can sometimes be unrealistic and is one reason why having an in-house specialist write the content may make sense.

However, for most everything else, hiring ghostwriting companies with competent professional ghostwriters should be more than adequate to get you the high-quality content that you need in order to boost your content marketing campaigns.

How Much Does A Professional Ghostwriter Cost?

To find out the typical ghostwriter cost, you have to take into consideration where you’re looking for them.

Ghostwriter costs depend largely on the method you choose to find a professional ghostwriter and the level of writing you need. The main methods for finding a ghostwriter includes trying:

• Freelance Work Sites
• Professional Ghostwriting Services (Content Creation Services)
• Individual Advertising

Most ghostwriters typically list their rates as cent per word, which can also be higher or lower per word based on the type of content needing to be written. Depending on where you look, ghostwriting rates per word may be anywhere from 1 cent to a dollar per word!

Thankfully, there are content creation services that can help you to avoid the hassle and negotiation of independent freelance writers by giving you access to their network of professional ghostwriters and categorizing different content writing levels.

Pros of Using Ghostwriting Services

While not all content creation services are created equal, they can make the hiring of a professional ghostwriter much easier. The way they do this is by vetting and hand-selecting ghostwriters that meet their requirements in order to create a base quality standard. This saves you time from having to hand-select a freelance writer and then hope that they will meet your quality standards.

If the content creation service offers account management, this can simplify your life even further as you only need to talk to your account manager about your project, and then they will create a team of writers to fulfill your project. This is the best way to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to using professional ghostwriters.

Cons of Not Using Ghostwriting Companies

I know that was a weird way to say it – but it’s a benefit that makes the most sense in the form of a con, haha. So here goes:

When looking to find and manage freelance ghostwriters on your own as opposed to writing the content yourself you are saving yourself some actual writing time. However,  you do have to spend a good chunk of time sifting through the credentials of different freelance writers, communicating with each writer individually, negotiating pricing for each project and then managing all of the writers, turn times and projects simultaneously. You essentially are acting as a ghostwriting company yourself and you take on all the vetting, hiring, managing, paying and accountability of the writers you’re in charge of.

We Offer the Best Professional Ghostwriting Services On the Web!

So if you’re still wondering, “Should I hire a ghostwriter?”, the answer is it can’t hurt to try! Here at BKA Content, we know that we have some of the best ghostwriters around. We hand select each of our writers who then go through our rigorous testing and training process to ensure that they meet our high-quality standards. At BKA, we have a 99.84% content approval rating, meaning that we get content right the first time!

On top of having amazing teams of writers, we also offer account management free of charge to make the ordering and delivery process as simple as possible. This means that you will have one point of contact for all of your content needs, thus eliminating the need to speak to ghostwriters individually. This saves you a ton of time so that you can use your time to strategize, research and carry out your online marketing campaigns.

Try our professional ghostwriting services today!

If you are a writer, and are interested in writing for us here at BKA, learn how to apply!

​When it comes to discussing content marketing trends and statistics, marketers are quick to bust out their graphs and point to things like automation and sales funnels and geo targeting. While each of these items are undoubtedly valuable, you may not have the time or the inclination to decipher the meaning behind all that jargon. We get it. But, because we want to help you create more effective content, we decided to sift through the data and find actionable content writing tips and trends you or your SEO copywriting services can implement today to begin seeing results tomorrow. We’ve shared them with you below.

Evaluate: What Are Your Top Goals for Content Writing?

Before you can fully appreciate the value of the content writing tips we’re about to share, you may first want to understand your company’s top goals for content marketing. Not sure where to start? While increasing traffic and driving conversions are important, they’re actually not top priorities. Here’s what they are:

• Increase Brand Awareness: Strong, engaging and informative content can position your brand as a knowledgeable and helpful resource and showcase its expertise. Even if a reader doesn’t have the intent to buy now, high-quality content can help keep your brand top-of-mind for his or her future needs.
• Build Trust: This is a big content writing tip: the more you publish valuable content that is of high caliber, the more your audience will begin to trust you. Content serves as a way to connect with your audience over the internet, build relationships with each member and encourage brand loyalty.
• Engage: Content humanizes your brand, and the conversations it ignites enable you to engage with members of your audience in the digital realm. As you respond to comments, share your opinions and talk to your readers (as opposed to talking at them), customers will begin to see the people behind your brand — and people like to buy from people.
• Educate: Individuals turn to content to find answers or solutions to their most pressing questions, concerns and problems. Content that delivers is highly sought after and will continue to work for you long after you hit “Publish.”
• Recruit: Strong content writing — meaning, content that is thoughtful, informed and honest — attracts thoughtful, informed and honest readers. Those are the types of readers you want working for you. Though your content may not serve as an outright job posting, it can position your brand as a company that people want to work for.

What You Can Expect

If you write with these goals in mind — and not with the goals of increasing traffic and converting — education and recruitment will come naturally. One of our best things you can do is be genuine with your readers in everything you do.  Moreover, by aligning the right content marketing goals with the following SEO content writing tips and tricks, you can breathe life into your content and forge real connections with your audience.

Create Next Level Content With These 7 Content Writing Tips

Bearing the above goals in mind, you may wonder what you can do to create content that resonates with your audience and maximizes your content writing efforts. Current data and trends suggest that you do the following.

1. Create a Content Style Guide

Content writing tips are needed just as much when outsourcing. SEO copywriting services often employ dozens if not hundreds of writers, all of whom have their own unique writing styles. While diversity is great in that it allows for more flexibility when it comes to the types of content the agency can take on, it can lead to an eclectic batch of content if you’re not careful.

Take the time to create a thorough yet easy-to-understand style guide. Set out rules for everything from formatting to visuals to messaging. You should also provide guidance on the tone, voice and language you would like writers to use when discussing certain topics.

Stay Consistent

This is an important step to take, even if you work with in-house writers. By taking the time to detail your preferences and expectations, you can ensure that all the content you pay for is consistent in its messaging and aligns with your brand’s values. Consistency is crucial to accomplishing the goal of raising brand awareness.

2. Build a User Persona

Here’s your next content writing tip: your target audience for each piece of content you write or order for your content marketing plan will differ based on which stage of the buying life cycle a person is in. For instance, this article assumes you already have a content strategy in place and that you utilize SEO copywriting services. This article targets potential writers, while this one is geared toward attracting small or growing businesses that have yet to explore the world of outsourced content writing services and all the benefits they offer. Each of these personas might be interested in what we have to say and offer, but the individual articles would not appeal to all three.

Developing user personas help you better understand your audience. Writing content without a specific audience in mind can be challenging and confusing. A persona is a breakdown of the interests and needs observed of a specific target market. It helps you see them for who they are and what they need to know.

Remember Your Priorities

The best content writing tips help you keep the audience in focus. Having this in mind will make your content stronger and more engaging. You can make many personas and target them differently by using topics and relaying information that they would be interested in. Having a user persona as your guide can help you target to real people, not just the ones you are imagining in your head.

Try to identify four or five segments of your target audience. From there, map out their pain points and determine where they’re at in the buyer journey. Build your content around that.

3. Develop Topic Clusters

We offer SEO copywriting services. It’s all we do. Yet, by merely glancing at our home page, we can find numerous themes that are worth exploring. Take recipe writing, for instance.

We can probably write a dozen articles about writing recipes, such as how to use recipe writing in your content marketing strategy, the importance of recipe writing for food-based brands, the elements of an effective recipe post, best examples of recipe content marketing … You get the picture. Each article we create would center around a single piece of pillar content: A recipe writing page.

Stick To What You Know

Developing topic clusters is about picking a single topic and exhausting it. Why write so much about a single topic?  Doing so ensures you deliver as much value to your readers as possible on topics that interest them. They’ll come to you (the expert) to know more about that topic, and they’ll trust your extensive knowledge above other sources that only have one or two articles about that topic.

It also helps boost your SEO, as it makes interlinking easier, filtering quicker and crawling faster. As part of your content marketing strategy, focusing on pillar content or big foundational articles is a priority. From there, you can build off these articles by linking back to them and watch the SEO magic start to happen.

4. Take Your Time

These SEO content writing tips and tricks may seem like common sense, but it’s important to really apply these concepts to your strategy. Content marketing is a game of endurance, not speed. Though this sentiment applies to all aspects of content marketing, it’s particularly important to bear in mind when writing blog posts or purchasing them from SEO copywriting services.

The data says that it takes the average writer 3.5 hours to write a blog post. The average blog post length is 1,151 words, though articles of 2,000+ words yield the strongest results. Though 3.5 hours may seem like a decent amount of time to churn out 1,000-2,000 words, when you factor in the time it takes to research, gather relevant information and condense it without sacrificing clarity or value, you’re looking at far more than three hours. Case in point: It’s taken four hours to get to this point (1,000 words), and I still have three more tips to discuss.

Thoroughness Is Key

Consumers today crave detailed content that takes a deep dive into the topic or subtopic of interest. They want research, tips, suggestions, opinions and how-tos. After reading an article, they want to feel like an expert. To give them that type of content, you should be spending six or more hours on a single article — not the one to four hours that is the average. In fact, data supports this assertion, showing that bloggers who spend six or more hours on each individual article are 38% more likely to report stronger results.

Bloggers who spend 6+ hours on an article are 38% more likely to report stronger results. #ContentMarketing #Marketing
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So, what’s the takeaway? Take your time, use it well and incorporate these content writing tips and tricks in each piece of content. But if you’re not feeling up to the task, skip the time and effort by hiring content writers to do the work for you.

5. Master the Headline

The headline is likely the first thing your target audience will see of your content, which is reason enough to make it a good one. However, if you’re someone who typically slaps on a headline as an afterthought (don’t be embarrassed if you are — many people are guilty of this), the data may encourage you to change your ways:

• 80% of people will read your headline, but only 20% will click.
• The overwhelming majority of Americans believe the headlines they read.
• Articles that use clickbait-style headlines, or headlines that are misleading, give brands a bad reputation.

The good news is that creating a click-worthy headline that is engaging and that accurately represents your article and your brand’s values is simple when you use the following SEO content writing tips:

• Create a sense of urgency.
• Make sure your headline addresses customers’ pain points.
• Include numbers.
• Cite a statistic.
• Pose your headline as a question.
• Make sure your headline is relevant to your topic.

Neil Patel expands on this list and explains how to create clickable headlines in detail. If you want your 6+ hours of writing (or your investment in content writing services) to pay off, his how-to guide is worth the read.

Did you know that 80% of people will read your headline , but only 20% will click? #ContentMarketing #Marketing
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6. Invest in (Real) Editing

At BKA, we believe that behind every piece of WOW-worthy content is an editor who can’t help but to correct people on Facebook and to call out family members for the wrong use of “your/you’re” in a sentence. It seems the people share our sentiment.

According to Usabilty.gov, bad grammar and sloppy editing negatively impact a brand’s credibility, and 42% of readers say that spelling and grammar errors give them a negative perception of a brand. What do we suggest as our next content writing tip? Don’t skip out on the editing.

The Point Of Editing

A professional editor not only makes sure that your article is free of grammatical errors but also ensures that the delivery is flawless. As a bonus, edited content can also set you apart from the competition.

It pains us to say that too many writers neglect to follow these content writing tips. As many as 41% of writers edit their own work, while another 28% informally show it to a family member or friend. Yet, brands that use formal editors report 38% better results. If you want to one-up your competition, it seems that all you have to do is invest in editing services.

Our SEO copywriting services come with the option of thorough edits, but if you don’t want to pay for the add-on service, there are dozens of free online editing tools. Grammarly is like the jack-of-all-trades editing tool in that it checks for spelling and grammar errors, plagiarism, fluency, clarity, vocabulary, variety and conciseness. It even allows you to set goals, such as user intent, style, audience, emotion and domain.

Though the basic version is free, if you want to access Grammarly’s advanced features, you pay just $39.95 a month. This is a small price to pay for comprehensive editing services. Keep in mind, however, that grammar and spelling checkers can never adequately replace the services of a human editor. An extra set of expert eyes is far more valuable than what most people realize.

7. Repurpose Old Content and Make It Evergreen

Though great content has the potential to work for you for years into the future, evergreen content doesn’t just happen. Even the most hard-hitting content goes through five stages:

• The spike phase when you first publish the article
• Next, is the trough phase where growth becomes sluggish
• Followed by the growth phase as the piece gains traction
• Then, the plateau phase when growth begins to level out
• Finished by the decay phase when traffic starts to taper off

Content can decay for a number of reasons, including an increase in competition, irrelevant keywords and poor content quality. Whatever the reason, the good news is that content doesn’t have to stay in or even go through the decay phase.

How To Prevent Content Decay

These next SEO content writing tips can you’re your content stay alive. As your content begins to plateau, breathe some new life into it by doing any of the following:

• Expand on it.
• Refresh the keywords.
• Merge old content with new content.
• Optimize your content for semantic search. Use synonyms and other variations of your keywords, incorporate user-generated content and write using your audience’s natural language.
• Optimize your content to meet today’s consumer’s expectations and best practices. Check page load speed, meta and title tags, keyword usage and URL slugs.
• Repurpose old content into a different format, such as an infographic or video.

If you don’t see the benefit of paying a content writing services company to refresh old content, consider this: Brands that update old content regularly report two times more success in their content marketing efforts than brands that don’t update content. So, if you have a piece of content, or several, that have undergone a decline in recent years, revisit it to see what you can do to bring it back to life.

Brands that update old content regularly report 2x more success in their content marketing efforts than brands that don’t update content. #ContentMarketing #Marketing
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Start Creating Bigger and Better Content

Content marketing rules and best practices are ever-changing, making content writing a daunting task. However, a look back at content over the years shows that the most successful marketers go above and beyond the call of duty to create content that resonates with their readers. That’s what these content writing tips and tricks are all about. Going above and beyond simply entails doing what others don’t or won’t do:

1. Creating a style guide
2. Developing a user persona
3. Developing topic clusters
4. Exercising patience
5. Mastering the headline
6. Investing in editing
7. Repurposing old content

Going the extra mile with content marketing in today’s saturated online landscape can work wonders to set you apart from the competition, build trust and encourage brand loyalty. Use our SEO content writing tips to raise your content to the next level and start seeing results. If you don’t have the time or the resources to create content that does this, look into our content writing services.