The phrase covers two different jobs that buyers keep merging. One is writing the pages that make up a site: the home page, the service pages, the pages that have to persuade someone to enquire while also being findable. The other is producing a stream of articles aimed at search demand. Both are legitimate, they need different skills, and a writer excellent at one is often ordinary at the other. Decide which you are buying before you brief anyone, because the brief, the rate and the samples you should ask for all change with that answer.
The job has changed, and the good writers know it
For years the trade was partly mechanical: hit a word count, place the phrase a certain number of times, add related terms. That work is now done badly and cheaply by software, and pages built that way perform accordingly. What remains valuable is what a machine cannot supply, which is firsthand knowledge extracted from the people who do the work. Google's guidance on creating helpful, people-first content is explicit that pages should demonstrate genuine experience and expertise rather than be assembled to rank, and its search essentials describe the same standard from the technical side. The practical consequence for a buyer is that the interview matters more than the writing. Ask a candidate how they gather what they do not know: who they interview, how long the call is, what they do with a client who will not make time. Writers who say they research online are describing a process that produces a summary of your competitors. Writers who insist on interviews, and who push back when access is denied, are describing the thing you actually want.
The samples that tell you something
Do not accept a portfolio of screenshots. Ask for three live URLs the writer produced, and for each one, ask what the page was for, what they were told the reader should do next, and where the specific claims came from. Then read them as a customer, not as a buyer of content. Does the service page tell you what the thing costs, or at least how price is determined. Does it say who it is not for. Does it name a real constraint. Copy that never mentions a limitation is copy written by someone who was not allowed near a customer. Second test: ask for a piece the writer produced that did not work and what they concluded. Third: ask for something they wrote in a sector they knew nothing about, since that is the honest measure of their interview and research process. If every sample is from one industry, you are buying a specialist, which is fine, as long as the specialism is yours.
Rates, scope and the hidden cost of revisions
Copywriters price per word, per page or per project, and each hides something different. Per word rewards length, which is exactly the wrong incentive for pages that should be as long as they need to be. Per page is comparable across candidates but only if page complexity is defined, since a home page and a small service page are not the same work. Per project is best for a full site build but needs a scope document listing every page. In all three, the cost that surprises buyers is revision. Ask how many rounds are included, what counts as a round rather than a new brief, and what happens when a stakeholder who was not in the kickoff rewrites everything in round two. Ask also whether research interviews are inside the fee or billed. A rate that looks cheap and excludes interviews is a rate for writing from your competitors' websites, which will read fine and sell nothing. Where copy is bought as part of a wider engagement, digital marketing and seo services usually bundle it, so ask specifically who writes and whether that person will ever speak to your team.
How to brief so the work comes back usable
Most disappointing copy is a briefing failure. Give the writer four things and the hit rate improves immediately. First, the query the page is aimed at and what someone typing it actually wants, so structure follows intent. Second, the single action the reader should take, since a page asking for three things gets none. Third, raw material: recordings or notes from sales calls, the questions customers actually ask, real constraints on your service, real numbers you are willing to publish. Fourth, the approval path, naming who reviews and by when. Then agree what happens with anything the writer cannot substantiate, because a good writer will flag claims rather than invent them, and a brief with no route for that ends with either fiction or a blank space. Finally, ask for the copy in a plain document with headings marked, not pasted straight into the site, so you can review substance before design flatters it.
Questions people ask about seo website copywriter
Should the writer also do keyword research?
Some can and do it well, but they are two skills. Many strong writers work best from a brief prepared by whoever owns the search strategy. If you ask one person to do both, check that the research half is more than exporting a tool's suggestions, by asking how they judge whether a query is worth a page at all.
Is content written with AI assistance acceptable?
What matters is whether the finished page carries genuine, verifiable expertise and is accurate, not the tools used along the way. Ask candidates to be open about their process and how they verify claims. Be wary of anyone whose speed and price only make sense if nothing is being verified, since you own everything the page asserts.
How many pages does a site rewrite need?
Fewer than most agencies propose. Start with the pages that carry commercial intent, the home page and each core service page, get those genuinely good, then decide about supporting articles with evidence in hand. A rewrite plan covering dozens of pages before anything has been measured is a scope built for the invoice.
Who owns the copy?
You should, on payment, in writing, including the right to edit it. Confirm the writer will not reuse the specific text elsewhere. If the engagement is through an agency, ask the same question about the agency's contract, since ownership is occasionally retained where a subcontractor was used and nobody thought to pass the rights along.