How I Work
My 10-step content writing process
When you use my professional web copywriting services, you’ll receive clear, interesting, persuasive and search engine optimised content for your website.
That’s the end result. But how do we get there? What’s involved in this process?
This page explains what I need from you and what you can expect of me.
10 Steps to write/rewrite & optimise your web content
1. Send me an email & tell me what you need.
Include as much information as possible. For content writing projects, you can start by answering these questions:
- What website is it for? Provide the URL (live site) or a description (new site).
- How many pages do you need me to write? If possible, provide page names/topics.
- Roughly how long do you want the pages to be?
- Is it writing from scratch or rewriting/editing existing content?
- New content: Will you provide enough information to write the content or is research needed?
- Editing/rewriting jobs: What are the reasons the content needs redoing?
- Who is your target market (demographics) and where are they located (geographic target area)?
- Do you want the content optimised? Do you know the target SEO keywords or need a quote for keyword research?
- What is your timeframe? Please also indicate if there’s an absolute deadline.
The above checklist doesn’t apply to website reviews, traditional copywriting or editing jobs, social media, web consulting and training. For those projects, simply explain what you’re after and I may get back to you with more specific questions about your requirements.
2. I email you a Proposal & Quote and my standard Terms & Conditions.
If I don’t have enough information to prepare a quote, I will email you back with questions and I’ll send you a quote once I have the answers. My Quote includes the exact scope of the work and how much it will cost. My standard Terms & Conditions document sets out exactly what is included and protects both you and me in case of any misunderstanding. I require a 50% deposit of the estimated total fee before starting any project (this is standard practice). I will also give you an indication of when I can start and how long I think the job will approximately take.
3. You accept the Quote and T&Cs.
If you’re happy, you email me to say you would like to hire me for your project and confirm you accept the Quote and T&Cs. You can either scan and email the signed Terms & Conditions document or simply confirm in an email you accept them.
4. I email you an invoice for the deposit.
If I don’t have it yet, I may ask you for your or your company’s full name and address to put on the invoice, but I will send the invoice (for the 50% deposit) via email only.
5. You pay the deposit.
For the 50% down payment, I prefer a direct deposit into my company bank account in Australia. I do not accept cheques, but for a small surcharge (to cover fees), I do accept payment via PayPal or credit card (also via PayPal).
6. I confirm receipt and request further input from you.
You would have already emailed me some information to receive a quote, but I am likely to need further input at this point to actually do the writing. Please send me everything you think may help me to understand your business, products and services and to help me write good content for your website.
Relevant further information could include:
(not everything may be relevant for all projects)
- Link to your current website, access to your draft new website on a test server or a screenshot/mock-up of your web design.
- Overview of all pages you need written with dot points of what each page needs to cover.
- Your USP (unique selling proposition), i.e. your ‘competitive edge’, what sets your offerings apart from others.
- The most important or most popular services/products that you want me to highlight (mostly for the homepage).
- Digital copies of relevant marketing materials, company brochures or publications that may be useful.
- List of SEO keywords and phrases you want to target (combinations of words you’d like your website to be found for if typed into Google).
- Links to the websites of your direct competitors, if you know who they are.
7. I start writing your web content.
I will consider how best to present your business. I’ll write clear, professional and persuasive web copy in chunks that are easy to digest, and use important SEO keywords throughout the content and in suggested META page Title and Description tags. Throughout the process, I will remain in touch with you and I will ask you questions if anything is not entirely clear. I will not write content based on assumptions but will clarify things with you to ensure I get it right the first time.
8. I will email you the draft content.
Unless we have made other arrangements, I send clients the content in a Word document.
9. You review the content, email me your feedback and I make revisions if needed.
All my clients so far have been very happy with the copy I have written for them, but sometimes I’m asked to change or tweak a few things here and there. Two rounds of revision are included in my services. I ask my clients to use the “track changes” feature and enter their feedback and suggested changes in the same Word document. That makes the reviewing and editing process quick and painless. I will revise the content based on your feedback and email it back to you for a final review. You need to provide your feedback within 7 days, or with large projects within 14 days, for me to make the changes, so that the subject matter is still reasonably fresh in my mind.
10. Final step: I close the project and send you the final invoice.
I will close the project and send you the final invoice 7 days (for small projects) or 14 days (larger projects) after I’ve sent you the content, or earlier if no changes are needed or revisions are completed sooner. Payment of the outstanding amount is due 7 days after the date of this final invoice.
What’s next? This is usually where you incorporate the final content and SEO tags on your website, or give it to your webmaster to upload it for you. I love it when clients alert me when the new content is up so I can see the final result.
Want to know more?
I usually provide a fixed-price quote, but you can get an indication of pricing on my rates page.
My clients often comment on how easy it was to work with me. You may like to read some of my client testimonials.
Need help with your SEO website content? Please send me an email with as much information as you can give me as per item no. 1 above.