Website Content Creation

Website content optimized for search engines is the key to attracting visitors who become customers. People use search engines to find helpful information, so give them online content that will make them come back for more.

Website content may appear in the form of web pages, blog posts, press releases, articles, newsletters, videos and social media comments. You can repurpose content so a press release later becomes a blog post, as well as an online article.

Regardless of the type of content, it must be researched, developed and presented to appeal to human readers and search engines. There is not as much difference as you might imagine.

Your first decision is whether to create content yourself or hire someone to do it. Let’s consider the outsourcing route first.

How to Outsource Website Content Creation

If you don’t have much experience writing, don’t like to do it, or simply don’t have the time to invest, outsourcing is the way to go.

A quick Google search for “website copywriter” or “SEO copywriter” or “content writer” will return more results than you will ever have time to read. So you have a couple of choices – ask friends for referrals or start contacting the more promising companies you find online. Also, look at websites of people you know and ask them who did the writing.

If you don’t have much experience writing, don’t like to do it, or simply don’t have the time to invest, outsourcing is the way to go.

A quick Google search for “website copywriter” or “SEO copywriter” or “content writer” will return more results than you will ever have time to read. So you have a couple of choices – ask friends for referrals or start contacting the more promising companies you find online. Also, look at websites of people you know and ask them who did the writing.

When you find a writer you like, ask for work samples of the type of content you want. Experienced online writers should be able to send you an email with links to samples of their work already published online.

Prices for good writers vary widely, but proven website content writers, such as my friends Andy and Shawn at Quicksilver Copywriters, are more valuable than the general run of freelance writers. You can expect to pay more for their services and get better results.

Writers price their work a variety of ways – by the hour, the page, the word or by the job.

A higher rate does not mean you will pay more. A writer who charges $100 per hour may actually cost less than one who charges $25. Skilled writers work faster and require fewer re-writes.

When I write website content for clients they know the exact cost before I begin because I have a set price for each type of product. The better writers usually offer clear pricing.

Warning: a surprising number of freelance writers, including public relations professionals, do not know how to write SEO content. When you review samples, beware of long headlines and paragraphs of more than two or three sentences. Ask the writer how she does keyword research.

Do-It-Yourself Website Content

The writing process is remarkably similar from one kind of online content to another. Once you know how to research keywords and place them in the story you need only know the proper format for each type of content.

Here’s ThePRDoc’s advice for great online writing:

• Keyword research – always your first step. This page explains a quick and effective keyword research method.
• Keyword placement – include the main keyword or phrase in the 1) title tag (the line that appears at the upper left of the browser just above the website address, 2) the headline, called H1, 3) the first sentence of the article, and 4) three to five more times in a page of 400-700 words.
• Keyword density – this term is losing relevance as search engines evolve. Now, search algorithms consider context and alternate forms of keywords. Just write website content for humans, with due regard to keyword placement, and you should have no problems.

Press Releases as DIY Online Content

If you can write an online press release you can write just about any other type of online content. Good press releases include the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How information vital to other types of content pages. After that it’s a matter of style and formatting.

There are some excellent programs available to help you write professional-caliber press release, even if you have never done it before.

Do-It-Yourself Press Release Writing Tool

John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing site offers a free tool called Instant Press Release to help you write your own. The tool will do a passable job of helping you get the formatting and structure right, but you will need some writing skills.

Learn to Write Great Press Releases with Online PR Made Easy

Because press release writing is fundamental to writing other types of website content, you may find it a good investment in your professional education to learn how to write SEO press releases yourself.

PR and marketing pro Marc Harty has developed some exceptional products to teach these skills. They are used by business owners and marketing professionals alike.

Marc’s Online PR Made Easy teaches a step-by-step process to write and distribute professional-quality, search engine optimized press releases.

Online PR Made Easy includes:

• Quick Start Guide,
• templates for several different types of releases (all formatted for you, just plug in your information),
• more than 20 video tutorials,
• step- by-step process maps, and
• a listing of more than 175 online press release distribution sites.

I recommend Marc’s products because I know PR and I know Marc. He delivers more than you expect, and it works extremely well.

PR Traffic Templates

If you want to get started writing SEO press releases immediately, Marc’s PR Traffic Press Release Templates could provide the boost you need to start getting Page 1 Google results fast.

You get seven optimized press release templates developed for specific types of business publicity, as well as pre-written headline samples covering all release topics. You can modify the headlines to fit your needs.

Marc also includes 23 unique persona descriptions to cast you as market leader, expert, underdog or others, as the situation may call for. He also provides “story starters” to stimulate your thinking, and several examples of published online press releases.

Of course, you can outsource press release writing, too…

If you don’t know of a good online content writer, you may want to use a service such as ereleases.com or Send2Press.com. These are established professional services that deliver your money’s worth.

Expect to pay $200 to $300 for the writing, including at least one revision. You provide the who, what, when, where, why and how, they provide a press release. Distribution costs are extra.

ThePRDoc does accept a limited number of clients for SEO press releases and other website content. We welcome your enquiries via our Contact Us page.

Creating Online Video Content

Please visit our Video Content for Websites page to learn how to create compelling online videos that will help tell your story and build your brand. To see how the two come together go to our Press Release Distribution page. Reputation Management discusses what to do after you have distributed online content to other sites.