Blog post costs: you get what you pay for
Like anything in life, if you buy cheap you buy twice. And your website copywriting rates are no different.
A fair marker would be between £500-£600 for a single blog. This may seem steep on the face of it, but a good blog is a worthwhile investment – a tool that will keep generating website visits and leads long into the future.
So what does a high-standard blog look like? It has to do three fundamental things:
- Be simple to read.
- Be helpful.
- Be easy to find on Google.
If your blog achieves each of these, you'll know you're getting value for money on your blog costs.
But when it comes to doing it yourself, the question you need to ask is: do you have enough time?
Let's take a look at each element and see what's involved.
Your blog must be simple to read
If you want, you could read everything you need to know about how to write a blog but the key reading tips are:
Write for a human, not a computer – Try to keep your writing conversational, upbeat and active. Write as you talk, not how you write, this will make reading your blog more enjoyable and feel authentic.
Formatting is important – When faced with a wall of text your reader would do what any person would – run. To help make sure your reader doesn’t leave immediately, use formatting (e.g. paragraphs, subheadings, bullets) to make your content more digestible.
Your blog must be helpful
The reason why someone visits your blog is not to learn your opinion about what it is you do for a living. All they care about is someone helping them solve their problem.
Make it useful – This may sound obvious but it's a point most blogs seem to miss. People go to Google to find whatever they need to help them with their issue. So your blog must, in some way, help them achieve that. If it doesn't then you've wasted an opportunity and created internet chip paper.
Be quick – I mean it. Don't hang about and don't hold back. You have seconds to make an impression, so don't bury the answer they want at the end of the blog. Give it to them upfront, within the first few paragraphs to hook them in. Then, and only then, go into the detail about "how" your product or service is different.
Share the wealth – What good is a blog if you're not going to promote the fact it's useful on social media? If you don't think you need a LinkedIn page read this. If you have one then you'll already know how many active eyeballs there are – 740 million members to be exact.
Use it in your sales process – If your blog is useful to a reader, then you can guarantee it'll be useful to your sales team. After all, your sales team is always answering questions. So instead of your usual limp chase-up email, you could add a relevant blog to help keep your lead engaged and your business top-of-mind.
Your blog must be easy to find on Google
Your blog might be well written, simple to read and incredibly useful. But, if Google can't find it, rank it, categorise it or trust it – you're screwed. So, how can you make sure your blog is easy to find? Well, by investing in your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. Now, SEO is a huge topic, but here are some of the main SEO best practices that will help boost your chances of appearing higher up in Google’s rankings for your topic:
Do your keyword research
This is the process of finding the terms – or keywords – people use to search for stuff online. By using relevant keywords in your blog, the right people will stand a greater chance of finding you in their search results. The best performing keywords are ones that have high search volume and low competition.
Top-Tip:
Use Google Keyword Planner to find lists of keywords for free. Although, you will need to create a Google Ads account to access it. If you're having trouble, feel free to contact one of the team.
Link to other pages on your website
If you can, make sure you include links to other relevant blogs and web pages using the keywords that best describe the page you’re linking to. These links not only act as a signal to Google about the topic of this linked-to page, they help your visitor to continue their research, keeping them on your website for longer.
Link to other websites
Another tip is to include 'high authority' links within it. These are other reputable websites like Wikipedia or the BBC that add credibility to yours. Link to them when quoting a statistic or claim that helps back up your argument.
Summary: how much does website copywriting cost
When it comes to how much you should pay for a blog post it’s the age-old argument of time vs money.
Look at it this way; say you want a new bathroom, and to get one you have two choices:
- Save money and do it yourself.
- Pay a professional and enjoy it faster.
Now, if you’re happy to put in the time and effort to do all the labour, fitting and finishing then fine. You should save your money and do it yourself.
But, if you’re anything like me, you’ll never be able to create the level of finish a pro would and in a fraction of the time too.
So, the choice is yours. If you want to generate leads from your blogs faster then speak to FINALLY – just not about bathrooms!