Last Thursday, we had a lively write-up about finding a balance between your expertise and that of your freelance copywriter. This is an extremely important part of hiring a freelance copywriter. If you want to make the most out of that exchange anyway.
On the one hand, you most definitely don’t want to be bullied around by said individual. About anything. And, for the record, “anything” includes the website copy you’re paying your freelance copywriter to write.
It also includes any blog posts, advertisements or other material you’re paying for.
What it comes down to is this: If you’re paying someone to do a specific, agreed-upon job for you, then you should be the boss.
However….
If you’re paying someone to do a specific, agreed-upon job for you, it’s probably because they know how to do the job. And you don’t.
That’s not meant to be snotty or disparaging. After all, we freelance copywriters probably couldn’t do your job either. And you do.
You know how to create products or offer services that your clients want or need. So if you’re a doctor, you know how the human body is supposed to work, the signs to look for if it’s not operating at full capacity, and the treatments needed to counteract those troubles.
If you’re a lawyer, you know the ins and outs of whatever branch of law you specialize in. You also know how to apply it to its best advantage for those who seek your help.
If you’re in construction, you know what elements to use with what equipment under what conditions in order to foster the sturdiest results. And if you’re a dog walker, then you understand how to manage the worst of canine tendencies and encourage the best.
Exactly as you should.
But do you understand the most effective ways to string written words together? Ways that will make your business look like a worthwhile expenditure?
That was the topic of last week’s Professional Writing Tip. If you haven’t read it already, you can look it over here. Though, as it admitted, engaging copy isn’t the only thing a worthwhile freelance copywriter keeps in mind.
There’s also SEO, which stands for “search engine optimization.” This is the way that search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo Search, etc., connect people to websites and web articles they’re interested in accessing.
You may very well have heard about it. You may even know what it is.
But do you know how to implement it?
Whoever designed your business website in the first place should have already taken this into significant consideration. They should have infused it with behind-the-scenes keywords to fit your business and what people might need from it.
Yet that alone probably isn’t going to boost you to Page 1 of search engine results. Because of the internet’s extreme saturation, your site needs to have those same keywords reinforced across as many pages as possible.
This is something any freelance copywriter worth her salt understands and does her best to implement.
She’ll also understand that this keyword reinforcement needs to be done strategically through headers, first lines and emphasized text. And – going back to last week’s Professional Writing Tip again – it needs to be done engagingly.
If this is something you understand intimately on your own – if you’re only hiring a freelance copywriter because you lack the time, not the expertise – then, in all seriousness, feel free to override all of her suggestions.
If you don’t though and you take that same tack, you’re quite simply not getting as much out of the exchange as you should.