By Michelle Hurley
It is becoming increasingly common for businesses to exist solely online. Gone are the days of needing a physical brick and mortar location.
In fact, in the 2021 holiday season, US consumers spent $204B online.
To be ‘seen’ online, you can pay to boost ads on social media or opt to fork over a fortune for search engine sponsors.
An alternative, which is becoming increasingly popular, is to hire a content writer to create content for your website or social pages. This has multiple benefits and may produce a larger return on investment than some other strategies.
Legitimize Your Business
When a customer visits a website he or she does a very quick assessment of the website. Things they may look for may include ease of navigation, a professional appearance, and legitimate content.
By hiring a content writer, you ensure that the language being presented to your customers is grammatically accurate as well as engaging.
This writer can help to rewrite sections of your website that may be constant over time to be more appealing to customers both in appearance and content.
Bypassing this at first glance assessment, you get over the first hump of losing a potential customer due to them not thinking your business is legitimate.
This helps to keep your ‘bounce rate’ lower. That is when someone comes to your page and immediately leaves without exploring additional pages.
Keep Your Customer Engaged with Content
Now that you have them remotely interested in your page, you want to keep them there and have them return in the future.
Research has shown that about 98% of customers will not make a purchase on their first visit to a website.
An easy way to do this is through content writing. This is writing that is related to the subject matter of your business but also provides the customer with information that is valuable to them in some way.
For example, if you are an online clothing retailer, you may provide some content about the latest fashion trends.
This content can be organized in a blog format with regular posts or can live somewhere else on your website. The key is to keep the content updated and engaging.
The customer should feel that they are receiving knowledge from you that they might be missing out on otherwise.
Once this content has been generated and is available on your website, you can promote it to your customers via e-mail or social posts as well.
In this way, your investment can be utilized in multiple ways to generate business.
Improving your Search Engine Ranking
Google and other search engines use algorithms to produce their search results. Part of these formulas relies on identifying keywords or phrases in websites that match the user’s search.
When you create content, an experienced content writer knows to include keywords that people may be searching for. These will vary based on the business but should always be considered.
Google constantly updates the criteria they use to produce results in order to provide their users with high quality results.
Of course, Google is never going to share the exact parameters they use but they do offer tips for best practices for blogging and creating content that will result in your page being found in search results more often.
Some of these include:
Having clear and descriptive titles
Using high quality links
Using a published blog feed
Using these practices will score points for your page and bump you up in the search results without having to pay anything.
Go with the Pros
Using an experienced content writer may help you achieve these goals if you do not have the time or writing aptitude to do it yourself.
A good content writer will be familiar with best practices and know how to generate engaging content to make your business shine online. Hiring someone to create content allows you to focus on running your business.
Google Analytics allows you to review your web traffic statistics regularly so you can monitor to see if your efforts are making a difference. They provide detailed reports and graphs that may be difficult for a first time user to interpret.
A professional content writer may also have the added experience of being able to review these metrics with you.
Of course, any other marketing strategies that are being utilized simultaneously may make it difficult to identify the cause of any change in metrics.
By having an awareness of what the site’s baseline is, you can see the change over time.
In a Nutshell
Hiring a content writer is a multifaceted approach to improving your online business presence. Not only will you add legitimacy to your business, but you will create valuable content for your customers that will also improve your search engine results.
True professionals with experience know best practices and will be able to generate measurable results.
That’s what we are at Colwell Creative Content. We’d love to show you what a professional touch can do for your business website. Contact us today!