Do I Need a Content Creator?

This is an introduction to our upcoming series on content marketing. Stay tuned for Part 2!

A content creator works to bring a face to your company. You offer a product, they offer information. They draw in readers and direct their attention to everything that your business has to offer. They create a pipeline that flows in many different branches– social media, Google results, YouTube searches, to name a few– and funnel those content consumers back to your website.

Obviously, that’s a big job. With the sheer amount of information that exists online, it’s hard to stand out. In fact, there are currently a massive 1.8 billion active websites. That’s an almost impossible number to think about. Let’s narrow it down a little with an example:

Peter’s Pet Grooming

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that you are the proud owner of Peter’s Pet Grooming. You specialize in pampering beloved pooches, especially Poodles and Pomeranians. You’ve had your shop for about 5 years, and you’re starting to see a profit. You make the decision to reinvest that profit and get a website up and running.

Unfortunately for you, when we search up “pet grooming in Minneapolis,” we get back over 800,000 results.

That’s a lot of competition. Granted, some of those results are different pages of the same website. Perhaps a few St. Paul results slipped in. Even keeping that in mind, you’re looking at a massive hurdle just to be seen amongst the masses.

Bad News, Dear Reader…

It gets worse. Google is incredibly picky about who gets onto the coveted first few pages of their results. According to Chikita, an award winning online advertising network, the first page of Google results net 91.5% of traffic shares. Not only are you struggling to be noticed at all amongst 800,000, you’re also burdened with clawing your way to the first page.

Just one more statistic, again from Chikita: the first Google organic search result gets 32.5% of all traffic share. Now, if you’d like, pull out your calculator…

If the first result gets 32.5% of the traffic, that means that the other 800,000 results are getting about 67.5%. “That’s great,” you say, “the majority of traffic shares is still available!” Incorrect. If you’re not on the first page of Google results, you’re looking at about one eight hundred thousandth of a share. Rounding down for the sake of simplifying the problem, it comes out to a big, fat goose egg.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Now, I’ve given you a lot of bad news at this point. You might be feeling pretty hopeless. You might be asking yourself, “What’s the point of spending money on a website if it’s just going to sit on the 8th Google result page and never be seen?”

Alas, there is a solution. Its name is “content creator.” They’ll most likely have a real name, too.

What Does a Content Creator Do?

Content creators create content that has been personalized, analyzed, and optimized according to Google’s standards while still maintaining the identity of your company. The way that they do this is by creatively making use of “keywords” that Google really likes to hear. That could be because a lot of people search for it, or more likely than not, not many people search for it. Imagine with me for a moment:

You’re Peter again. One of the products that you offer is premium puppy pampering packages. Let’s plug that keyword into Google:

Already, you’ve eliminated 200,000 results. Let’s get even more specific. Your puppy pampering packages are only for poodles:

That eliminated an incredible 500,000+ results. People who are looking for your specific service (because remember, you only groom poodles and Pomeranians!) are going to have a much easier time finding you when you’ve cut the search traffic competition by 86%.

Once your content creator has worked with you and with resources like MozPro to nail down keywords for your field and your area, they’ll have to get creative.

Using those keywords, your content creator will write blog posts, social media posts, create infographics, and even videos that are structured in the very specific way that Google wants them to be. This process is called search engine optimization, or SEO.

Hiring a content creator means that you’re looking for someone who meets a very specific set of standards:

1. Flexibility and adaptability. Sometimes, events, accolades, and good news happen unexpectedly. You’re going to want to share with your followers ASAP. Your content creator should be able to do that for you, within reason.
2. Creativity and eloquence. Dry, boring writing is never going to get you the readers you want, and it’s certainly not going to encourage them to follow through to your site. Your content should have personality, no matter what the topic is.
3. Knowledge of SEO best practices. As shown above, writing content is only worth so much if people can’t find it.

Where Do I Find Content Creators?

There’s a lot of options when you’re looking for excellent content.

1. Freelance writers can be found on sites like Upwork and Guru. While most freelancers are going to be professional and efficient, be wary and read the fine print. Make your expectations clear, allow them to make their expectations clear, compromise where needed.
2. If you have the time and talent, you can write for yourself. Not to overemphasize the point, but learning SEO best practices should be a top priority if you take this route. You’ll spend a lot of time creating amazing content. The last thing that you want is for that time to be waster.
3. Work with web developers. Most web development companies, offer monthly content packages along with their services. If you’re investing in marketing and content, it pays dividends to invest a little extra in getting the job done right.