With people grasping at AI to reduce costs, many sites struggle to be noticed by Google as they produce content that search engines label “spammy”. If anything, this has meant that the introduction of AI writers has led to the skills of a high-quality writer being an even more valuable resource. So, how can you ensure you hire an SEO content writer who will offer a great ROI without spending months trawling through online job boards?

This article offers ten proven strategies to help you get the new hire you need. In fact, they’re so effective that the writer of this very article was brought on board after we leveraged them!

So, continue reading to explore how you can boost your content strategy by ensuring the person you contract fits the bill.

1. Hire an SEO Content Writer With Proven Success

One of the most important things you need to do with a freelance SEO copywriter is see whether their work is worth its salt. So long as the individual isn’t a junior writer, they should be able to tell you about any successful work they’ve engaged with. You can often use this information to determine how well they would do with any work you can offer them.

Ask if their previous content has measurably boosted a client’s SEO rankings. This information may not always be available, but they may have examples that could prove their expertise.

Often, they may still have a relationship with other clients. Proof of long-term interaction such as this goes a long way to show that they produce consistent work of high quality. It also shows they have a professional rapport with others, which should continue when working with you.

2. Ensure They’re Adaptable to Different Styles

When you hire an SEO copywriter you need to know that they can write in a style that matches your brand. If your brand uses several voices, understanding how adaptable the writer is can be even more important.

Ensure the writer can work with many different forms of content, including:

• Blogs
• Landing pages
• Emails
• Social media posts
• Press releases

Each of these will have different nuances, but someone who uses the above to prove the versatility while maintaining a brand voice is a real asset.

Due to the evolving nature of SEO, you also want to ask them how they have incorporated new SEO trends into their work. These may be due to algorithm changes or simple content trends and memes. Such adaptability ensures that any new hire can remain current while keeping your content competitive.

If you want to test this, ask the applicant how they would write the same sentence in many different ways. Query how they would word the section based on the target audience, website sections, or other differentiators. This ability to switch between formal and casual tones, or adapt to your brand’s voice could be a game changer in an oversaturated SEO industry.

3. Check Their Portfolio For Matching Experience

Make sure to go through the writer’s portfolio to search for projects and blogs that have a similar brand, service, or product to your own. This way you can assess how well their voice fits the work you are likely to ask of them.

If you investigate them, but everything they have seems to have a similar tone, it may indicate they have issues with switching their voice. As such, make sure to analyze their past SEO copywriting services carefully.

4. Leverage Professional Networks to Find References

If you haven’t yet found the perfect set of candidates, remember many locations can help over and above a simple job board.

Options for these can include:

• LinkedIn profiles
• Content marketing and SEO forums
• Recommendations from industry peers
• Professional writing groups on Facebook or Slack
• SEO and content marketing conferences

Leveraging all these options can help you develop professional connections. They can also give you insights into copywriting and grant you more topics to discuss when interviewing candidates.

Having all these locations to hand also grants you a much wider net with which to find talent who can help you achieve higher search engine rankings.

5. Ensure They Understand SEO Best Practices

When talking to the candidate, check if they understand how to integrate primary and secondary keywords into their work. See if they can do this naturally, especially when given keywords with awkward grammar.

While this is a basic requirement for the role, it goes beyond that. New writers often dip their toes into copywriting and may have high-quality writing in a portfolio unrelated to SEO. As such, if you are also interviewing new or junior candidates, you should learn whether they have done their research.

You also want to check the same to check their skills related to:

• Meta descriptions
• URL structure
• Meta titles
• Use of headers to separate sections
• Bullet points to break up text (like this!)
• Internal and external link expectations

Make sure they also understand your stance toward the use of AI, whether that is:

• AI content is ok
• AI planning is ok
• AI research is ok
• All or none of the above

As many search engines are marking AI content as “spammy”, this is growing more significant with each update.

Finally, you will want to learn whether the writer can analyze content pages using Google Search Console or Google Analytics. If you focus on other search engines or social media platforms, ask about these sites’ analytics pages instead. If they can, this means you can delegate even more responsibility to them when it comes to your content strategy.

6. Give Them a Paid Writing Test

One of the most clear-cut ways to test someone’s ability is to give them a writing test before you bring them on. The results of this can inform you of how good the applicant is at:

• General writing
• SEO copywriting
• Naturally incorporating keywords
• Developing a logical copy flow and structure
• Matching your tone and brand voice
• Proofreading and self-editing
• Following content guidelines

You shouldn’t expect them to match your guidelines perfectly the first time. Instead, it should give you a good baseline of how much teaching and onboarding you will need to do. 

Another thing you can also do is, if you bring them on board, use it as their first piece of delegated work and ask them to complete it so it does not go to waste. With a simple contract for a single piece of work, you can leverage every other paid test and get them to use it as a template for future work.

Regardless of whether you hire them, ensure that you pay them for work completed as you would a full-time hire. Not only is this respectful of people’s time but it also attracts high-quality talent. If you inform them beforehand of the payment, an individual can put aside time to write. 

7. Evaluate Their Response to Feedback

After asking someone to perform a test, it’s time to discover whether open and honest feedback will make or break the candidate.

Provide constructive criticism and see how they react. If they are open to such commentary, this will give you a good idea of what they will be like to work with long-term. It will also show whether they have an adaptable mindset and are open to personal growth.

In some cases, they may have genuine responses that refute your comments. These are not likely to be out of disrespect but will show they have carefully considered their use of language in their writing. Of course, be aware of which proverbial hills they intend to defend, as depending on which ones they hold to, it may cause friction later.

Assume the best candidate has “strong opinions, loosely held”. They should be able to defend their work confidently but will accept your opinions and demands when you set clear expectations. This kind of demeanor can help you build a strong professional relationship.

Get Ahead: Partner With an SEO Copywriting Specialist

When you hire an SEO content writer, the success of your choice can have a huge impact on your rankings and organic reach. 

Rose & Cactus SEO is at the forefront of SEO consultancy and offers everything from content production to a full audit of your site. We can guide you through the search engine optimization process to provide the best chance of seeing a significant boost in site visits.

Bring your content strategy up to par with the rest of your industry. Request a consultation today and learn more about how we can help you see measurable results.