How to Screen and Hire SEO Writers?

Table of Contents

• Why Hire an Expert SEO Content Writer? 
• What Makes a Good SEO Writer? 
• Conclusion 
• FAQs

If you’re a business wanting to gain visibility online, you know how important SEO content writers are to modern businesses. You may be wondering how to hire writers for your blog, a technical writer, or a content writer for your website. It’s easy to find writers nowadays: they’re all over Google and LinkedIn. But if you want good SEO content writers, you have to set clear expectations and keep some best practices in mind. In this blog, we’re going to cover not just how to hire SEO content writers, but how to recruit the best ones for your brand. 

Why Hire an Expert Seo Content Writer?

Here’s a story about how vital SEO content writers are to a business. The Fred update rolled out in 2017 by Google monitored websites with low-quality content and began to penalize sites that were chasing revenue over user experience. Right after the update, over 100 sites witnessed a drop in traffic by 50% to a whopping 90%. Since then the rules have only gotten tighter.

Good SEO content writers who understand the search engine algorithm and have a great work ethic can bring you amazing results. As stated above, even Google prioritizes quality over quantity. So how do you find SEO content writers that are known for their on-page mastery? What makes them a good fit for your brand? The following explanations are loaded with tips to hire content writers, questions to ask, and practical ways on how to recruit the best content writers.

What Makes a Good SEO writer?

SEO content writers with good on-page expertise are keen on attention to detail and employing the best SEO practices. They also embrace user experience as the driving factor of favorable results. This includes proofreading, formatting, adding relevant visuals and images, etc. They never get tired of feedback and are always looking for ways to offer value to the end-users. 

A good SEO content writer has two core traits, which are as follows:

• On-page mastery
• A keen eye for user experience

Let’s explore these traits further to shed light on how to hire SEO content writers with these skills.

On-page SEO mastery

On-page SEO refers to the organization of various elements on your website to attract search engines and help them understand that your content is specified for a particular niche. This helps the search engine suggest your content to searchers who are looking for the information you have. 

There are various factors that come into play in on-page SEO. Keyword research, a linking strategy, and uploading images in the right size and sequence are all included in this practice.

If you’re looking to hire writers for your blog, or wondering how to hire writers for your website, here’s how you can identify whether they have good on-page SEO knowledge.

When looking for SEO content writers it’s advised to first ask for samples of their previous work. Once you get the samples, ask them to take you through the content and keep your eyes peeled for the below-mentioned clues about on-page SEO.

Focus keywords

One efficient way to identify on-page mastery is to look for focus keywords. While there are many aspects to ranking on the search engine, the amount of keyword research done surely pays off. By studying how they used keywords throughout the text, you will be able to assess their expertise. Also be on the lookout for keywords associated with your niche that they’ve used, so that it makes things easier if they start working for you. 

Title tags

Search engines identify content using title tags to match the headings of your posts to the search intent of users. The intelligent use of title tags is a vital part of any SEO strategy. By organizing relevant headings on a page, your website’s search engine visibility increases. When you’re looking to hire writers for your blog, this strategy is especially useful. Your SEO content writer should know how to use title tags to improve your SEO rankings and drive more traffic to your pages. Here are some ways to notice the intelligent use of title tags.

• Header tags should ideally be made up of no more than 60 characters.
• Subheadings on the page should ideally be in the H2 title case.
• Headings under the subtopics should ideally be in the H3 title case.

If you notice these qualities in your prospective SEO content writer’s samples, you know they are well-versed with implementing title tags and can do the job for you. In case the writer doesn’t have control over the title tags used on a website reference, don’t hesitate to ask them for samples they wrote on their own. Check it out and be sure.

Internal linking

Internal linking boosts traffic and domain value by making it easier for website visitors to navigate a website and its pages. By communicating the relevance of your pages to search engines like Google, your site gains more domain authority. Internal linking also showcases that your site’s pages have detailed resources pertinent to a given topic. 

An internal linking strategy tells Google that your site is easy to navigate with an interactive user experience design. As stated above, user experience is a huge bonus for any website. To know how to hire SEO content writers, a key metric to look out for is their internal linking practices. By noticing whether the writer has used proper anchor texts and chosen relevant links, you’ll be sure they will apply these practices to your content as well. Proper internal linking keeps the reader well-informed and gives them a clear direction to explore more of your website.

Long-form content

On average, the word count of all Google first-page results is 1800+, which means that long-form content ranks higher. Google is fond of in-depth information and its algorithm updates are based on ranking valuable resources in terms of informational value and user experience. For Google, writing long-form content shows that you’re appealing to high-intent searchers, providing detailed resolutions to their search queries. Among the tips to hire content writers, checking for long-form content samples is a must to establish that they can churn out valuable content for you too.

Keyword ranking knowledge

Especially when you want to know how to hire a technical writer or how to hire a content writer for your website, their experience in ranking for competitive keywords speaks a lot about their on-page mastery. Keyword rankings are the ultimate test of the SEO content writer’s ability to drive search engine traffic to your website. The harder it is to rank for a keyword, the better it is when your SEO content writer has experience ranking high in a sea of search volume.

The other important aspect of assessing the quality of SEO content writers is their ability to write well and in a manner that engages people. They should be able to keep visitors reading the content on a page for several minutes or hours, which increases the chance of conversions. 

After all, the key purpose of driving traffic to your web pages is to get visitors to take action in favor of your business objectives.

A keen eye for user experience

Let’s move on to the second and most crucial trait of a good SEO content writer: user experience. Keeping readers on your page for longer durations is a factor that contributes to better search engine rankings. Shortlisting SEO content writers with keen attention to the user experience are among the top tips to hire content writers. That’s because your ideal SEO content writer should be able to not only optimize your content to rank higher but retain the attention of visitors with clever user experience hacks. Here’s how you know that your future SEO writer has what it takes.

Captivating headlines and introductions

Writers should be able to use different types of headlines and opening statements to evoke a reader’s curiosity. By studying their samples, if you notice something interesting about the way they present an intro or headline, they know their work pretty well. It’s about vocabulary and clever ideation. If they fail to do so, then you might as well be looking for another prospect. 

Immersive visuals

When writing about complex tech concepts, solution diagrams about how a technology architecture functions is a clear example of immersive visuals. Your SEO content writer should be able to use relevant images that cohesively explain concepts throughout the content. This shows their research skill and attention to user experiences. 

Images with text and pointers usually have arrows and text elements that explain an image in context to the topic being discussed. Such images are useful when explaining a process or construct of a concept. A self-explanatory image can also be used wisely to inform and educate readers. As long as the SEO content writer doesn’t stray from the main purpose of the blog, these images can win over readers. In general, if you’re looking for solutions on how to hire writers for your blog, their clever use of images and visuals is always a good indicator. 

Citations and references

On your hunt to find out how to hire SEO content writers, you should look out for those with impeccable research skills. The use of citations, references, and external resources is a great way to assess this criterion.

The writer should be able to link studies or statistics used in their argument effectively. This gives users faith in the writer’s skills and improves the linking strategy of your website. 

Use of examples

The use of examples and illustrations makes life easier for the reader. Especially when you want to know how to hire a technical writer, look out for the way they use examples. An SEO content writer who knows how to explain their ideas with relevant examples makes the reading process experience fun and engaging. 

To know how to check for this criterion in your prospect’s samples, just hit Ctrl + F on Windows or Command + F on Mac and search for words like “illustration,” “example,” “instance,” etc. This technique is effective because writers often use these words while citing examples.

Conclusion

Shortlisting the perfect candidate to take up your SEO writing work should have the above-mentioned skills at their disposal. A good SEO content writer will give your content better search engine rankings. Good writers are everywhere, and just like any other industry, the golden rule is that you get what you pay for. 

That said, good SEO writers have the ability to drive voluminous search traffic to your website pages. They often work for clients who can afford the quality they offer. So, if you’re looking to rank higher on search engines, these are the tips to hire a content writer that can do it best. 

Now that you have an idea of how to hire SEO content writers, let us know what you think about these tips in the comments below.

FAQs