Why you should be recruiting a content creator

Before I get started on this article, and I try to convince you as to why you should be recruiting a content creator, I need to make one thing clear – this isn’t a self-promotion for using my services, or indeed those of any other independent SEO consultant or agency. It is the opposite. I’m recommending you don’t use outsourced content creation.

I should also reference why this article has more relevance than ever. I’ve written another blog today, about the latest Google Core Update, and asked the question “What does the latest Google update want?“. You don’t need to read it, but it might be useful if only to find out why you should be paying more attention to content creation than ever before.

Businesses keep ignoring content

You’ve all heard it. Content is important for your website. The frequent publication of it is also important. Unfortunately, the majority of business owners read that and then ignore it. Completely.

As soon as you add in the condition that the content needs to be of good quality, you probably turn off any of the remaining business owners. It is a fatal flaw in their understanding of just how important this information is.

Think about it for a moment. Business owners spend on marketing, they spend on advertising and they spend on countless other aspects of promoting their brand, products and services, but the reality is that few of them consider content creation to be a particularly important element. Most think that updates on the website about the latest sale, or a post to say that Emily has reached her 10 year service award, or perhaps that Joe has retired from the warehouse, are more than sufficient.

Content has never been more important

Let’s get to the crux of it.

Content creation, good quality content creation, has never been more important for your website visibility.

If you choose to ignore that, one of two things is going to happen. You’re either going to miss out on a huge opportunity to improve your visibility and, subsequently, revenues, or you’re going to suffer whilst your competitors sit laughing and rake in the revenues you could have grabbed. If the latter happens, you almost certainly won’t put it down to content creation, because pinning that down as the catalyst will be difficult. However, you can be certain it’ll have been a factor, and probably a significant one.

One of the main reasons so many business owners have misunderstood the value of content creation is because their employees, those responsible for online maintenance, have almost certainly done the same. The view of content creation as something of a chore has lasted far too long and pervaded far too many businesses. It has taken a back seat to almost everything else related to online operations, if not almost everything else in a business!

Ignoring the need for content creation

I’ve witnessed this too many times. A couple of examples spring to mind immediately.

Owners see content as low-value

Approximately 6 years ago, I dealt with a business, a successful one, and vividly recall being asked by one of their Directors about how often they should be updating their website. I redirected the question to one more specific to blog content. They had a relatively new website that they’d invested a lot of money in. I told them that they should be aiming to blog at least once a fortnight, if not once a week.

The response from the Director was one of derision and laughter. She said that they’d aim for once a month, but “couldn’t promise it“. There will be a number of you reading that and saying “Yep, heard that before!“.

The promise comment was particularly amusing. I wasn’t asking her to promise anything. This was directly in the interests of her business, yet she’d clearly decided on a value she attached to content creation. It was so insignificant that she immediately discounted my advice (ironically, advice she was paying for). It is every business owners prerogative to ignore advice, I get that. Not all my advice, or anyone else’s, should be taken by a person that is fundamental in shaping a business and it’s success, but in my experience the most successful business people tend to sit on the advice for a while or ask an additional question such as “Why?”.

The reality was very different to what she said they could do. It began with a blog post per month. That lasted around 4 months. It then became bi-monthly. By the end of year 3, the most recent blog post was 7 months old. They were reaping rewards elsewhere, so perhaps it wasn’t going to be the focal point of business, but the opportunity to strike even more home runs was certainly missed.

The “anyone can write content” approach

More recently, I watched as a Managing Director of a business wanted to take control of their blog posts. Had they been the right person to do so, there’d have been nothing wrong with it. Furthermore, had they written about anything other than sales events to promote their own wares, that would have been an improvement. But no, they posted sporadically and yet again ignored all the advice about frequent publication about good quality content and the impact it could have on Google, and other search engines, rankings.

The fact is that most business leaders don’t see content creation as important because, unless you’ve done it and seen the reward from it, they have formed an opinion that it is nothing more than a necessary evil.

Content creation viewed as a necessary evil

Most view it as something to tell the public you’re alive. Their typical reasoning is that if a news or blog article on a website is more than a few months or a year out of date, people might think you’re no longer trading so they rush something out. It is is usually poor content at best and Google treats it as such.

In another example I was told “Something has to give”. Business owners are busy people and you can’t be doing everything you’d like to. The issue is that they invested in other areas with a dreadful ROI in comparison to that which even the most pessimistic content creation ROI would deliver.

That said, today is different. It was wrong to dismiss content creation beforehand, but it is bordering on crazy to ignore the benefit of content creation as of now.

How frequently should content be published?

Google are actively on the hunt for well-crafted, good quality, content.

Yes, you need a well structured and error-free site if you’re going to get the most from it, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are opportunities better than ever on the horizon. If you curate and publish good content, Google is going to like you more than ever before.

Now for the bad news. Most business owners or MD’s and CEO’s I’ve ever spoken to need to radically change their perception of the word “frequent” where content is concerned.

Frequent does not mean once a month, or even twice a month. Frequent means 3-4 times a week if not daily. You’ll find all manner of advice about this online, and it is varied to say the least, but the reality is that the more you publish, the more you’re going to get out of this opportunity. It’s the classic “The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it” scenario.

You’ll even find some sites recommending 2 or more pieces of new content every single day.

Think about this for a moment. Google is telling you what it wants, and thousands of sites across the internet are telling you that your interpretation of ‘frequent’ is insufficient. It is time to reassess your approach to content creation and re-evaluate the value it brings to your business.

What will you get for frequent content?

That value will be visibility. It will be ranking increases. It will be higher visitor numbers.

You’d be right to say there are no guarantees, but in light of the most recent core update comments from Google, you’d also be wrong to ignore the potential.

Google is actively saying that it is seeking to promote sites that produce high quality and original content. Consequently, the more of it you produce, the greater the effect is likely to be (granted, there are some caveats that could be applied to that, but you get the idea).

Do you know why you should be recruiting a content creator by now?

Let’s imagine that this makes a business owner or CEO buy into the need to produce more frequent good quality content. Why not outsource the work?

In-house or outsourced content creator?

When it comes to content creation, nobody will be able to research, curate, write and publish content better than an in-house employee. They get closer to the business, products, people and resources. They get to understand the sector they’re operating in better and they own a single project that they can focus on – the company they work for and not multiple clients.

If you recruit well, you can match the skills of an outsourced content creator.

The cost of an in-house content creator

That brings us to the cost of recruitment. It goes beyond that of a salary and I’m happy to acknowledge that. Advertising, sifting through applications (and having the knowledge to do so properly for the right skills), onboarding and so on, they all add up, as do the risks of absence, the cost of annual leave days, etc.

Then you have the salary itself. Taking that into account and all of the above associated costs, how many days of skilled content creation could you outsource for that? My answer would be considerably fewer. Perhaps half, and we’re not even considering the value/ROI of the better quality content you should target from an in-house content creator.

Why not use an outsourced content creator?

I have nothing whatsoever against outsourced content creation. It can serve a very useful purpose, particularly if you want a piece of content on a subject you’re not very familiar with.

It is a skill I have a lot of respect for, and those that can turn it into self-employed income are highly prized, but I feel that the tide is turning for in-house content creators. I believe it would be folly not not heed the comments from Google about content and the frequency of publication will always favour an in-house content creator.

Furthermore, if you want to establish a consistent tone of voice about your brand, they’ll never compete with an in-house content creator that can establish the writing style but still get content quickly from fellow employees and pivot content when they need to. Ask anyone that works in an outsourced trade and they’ll all say the same – the biggest delay is waiting for the client to come back to you. Delays cost businesses money, and sometimes it is money you don’t receive because you weren’t able to react quickly enough.

You should also find that a good quality content creator is perfectly possible to recruit in most parts of the UK. It is a sector where stable income isn’t always guaranteed, and University graduates in English or similar subjects often look for content creation work.

What is the ROI of content creation?

Avidly, a Hubspot Solutions Partner, calculated the ROI on content marketing to be in the region of 185%.

I’m going to put a caveat on that – I think it is low. I say that because they included a hefty investment on promoting the content and, in light of Google’s recent announcement, I’m not convinced it would need to be as large as they used in their example.

Ask yourself this question:

How would your business be transformed if you could recruit a single position that would lift your website visibility and traffic to levels far above those you’ve experienced?

In my opinion, today, that in-house position needs to be a content creator.

It goes without saying that the ROI needs to be tracked. You’ve got to put metrics in place to gauge the success, but you’ve also got to allow time for it to begin having an impact.

Tip: Get content indexed quickly by Google

A quick tip for any CEO or business leader reading this would be to ensure your content creator uses Google Search Console to submit the URL of the content they produce, immediately. You don’t need to wait for Google to visit and index the newly created content.

You can submit it and request indexing. I did the same last week on 8 landing pages for a client website, and they were all on Page 1 of SERPS (Google rankings) the following day.

Of those URL’s submitted, 3 were ranking in positions 1 to 3. I should warn that the rankings of those landing pages is entirely down to structure and content, it has nothing to do with the speed of submission. The point is that there was virtually no waiting for those rankings to be realised.

Have I convinced you why you should be recruiting a content creator?

In conclusion, you’ll rarely find a more opportune time than to make an internal appointment of a single person that could directly impact your Google rankings and online visibility as much as now.

You’ve had all the recommendations and warnings from Google in the past. They’ve now put even greater emphasis on quality, original, content. You also now know what the definition of “frequent” is.

The link is at the head of this article to the Google statement, and you can search for “How often should I post new content to my website” if you want to, and sift through page after page of mind-boggling numbers – but if you post daily you’ll have a better chance of increased visibility than if you post every other day, it isn’t nuclear physics.

If you’ve any comments, particularly if you’re a CEO, business owner, SEO professional or content creator, I’m always open to feedback and answering any questions.