Do you value your customers? Then value your content.

Countless sites will sell you cheap SEO content – and also provide writing gigs to struggling freelancers. But spending $10 on your web content sells everyone short…especially your customers. Here’s why you should care – and what to do instead.

Scour any media job board and you’re sure to come across dozens of postings for “SEO content writers” – often from unnamed companies asking writers to produce 400-word articles for as little as $5 or $10 apiece. 

If you’re not a starving writer, you may think these low-paying freelance gigs aren’t your problem. But if you have a website that relies on search traffic, think again.

Why? Because let’s be honest: Great writers don’t do great work for $5.

Those articles aren’t going to offer unique, well-researched information. They won’t fit with an established brand voice or style. Heck, half the time they won’t even make sense, because they’re pasted together in a hurry by someone who doesn’t know any better or who doesn’t have time to care.

All they offer are keywords – the terms people search when using search engines like Google. And while that might be enough to bring visitors to your site, it doesn’t really give them a reason to stay.

Quality costs more than $5

Honestly, I feel bad for the green writer or laid-off journalist tempted to make a go of it with these crummy gigs. After all, making ends meet as a web-based writer can be tough, and pumping out dozens of articles a day doesn’t sound like a fun way to do it.

But most of all, I feel bad for the website visitors – those innocent folks who think they’re getting the perfect Google result, only to find a site filled with keyword-stuffed garbage that neither provides actual answers to their needs nor is an engaging read. What a waste of their time.

Which is why cheap content is a waste of yours, too. When you devalue your content and look at it as a quick fix for SEO traffic, you’re setting yourself up for user frustration. And no matter what you’re selling – products, ideas, causes, whatever – no one’s buying it if you frustrate them with irrelevant crap.

Good content can be good for SEO, too.

Great web content is an investment. It’s a commitment. And it’s certainly not all about gaming Google. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create engaging, useful website experiences that are keyword-rich and designed for search, too.

To do it, you need a strategy – a content strategy, that is – well before anyone puts pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard). This means that all website content should be written with an understanding of not just which keywords are popular, but also the bigger picture of how people will use your content after it’s written, and what you want to get out of it.

From user needs and organizational goals to content organization and prioritization, metadata, brand voice, naming and nomenclature, editorial calendars and more, content strategy ensures that your SEO efforts aren’t on an island, but firmly rooted on your website’s mainland.

Best of all, when you incorporate SEO into your content strategy, you don’t have to hire SEO writers – even if they are cheap. Instead, those talented writers you rely on for everything else can easily produce copy that attracts visitors from search engines while simultaneously engaging them in your site's content, answering their needs, keeping your brand voice intact – and, ultimately, driving them to buy your product or support your cause.

Now, isn’t that worth more than $5?

About the Author: Sara Wachter-Boettcher

As a content strategist and web writer, Sara is responsible for crafting online content that meets users' needs while achieving marketing goals. She is responsible for content research, developing content recommendations and editorial strategy, and online copywriting. Sara graduated cum laude from the University of Oregon with a bachelor's in journalism and German.

View more blog posts from Sara Wachter-Boettcher >

Contact Sara

<< back to blog