Web Content Writing, Architecture, and Costs

Kristof Maret

13 years ago

The web content must be served by a flawless site architecture, otherwise the text optimization does not return its full performance

I have suffered this year from experiences that left me stunned at first, bitter at second and which leads me to the writing of this article.

The first of them concerns 650-word texts that I had worked on in an SEO logic but also in the architecture of the portal to be redesigned. These texts were sliced without my knowledge into series of 4 articles of 150 words by the project manager of the commissioning agency. In doing so, the optimization work carried out was totally ruined… while I was paid specifically for this expertise.

Another time, I was led (in several steps) to compose content whose final structural logic was anti-SEO, after having wanted to dialogue with the head of the agency and explain that we were going straight into the wall, he refused any exchange and withdrew the contract from me in the name of the sacrosanct “the client is always right”.

It’s true, the client is always right, but if he hires the services of a consultant in a field he knows nothing about, he should at least take the trouble to listen to him.

This experience encourages me to make you aware of the importance of the necessary adequacy of the content and the architecture of the site that will support and promote it. You will thus better understand the logic of the costs incurred that I will discuss in the 3rd part.

Web Content and Architecture

To go high you need good equipment and structure

What is wrongly called or reduced to the word “navigation” hides an essential part of the design of the site, which is the architecture of the portal. It is what enhances and “rotates” your content.

Indeed, beyond the type of menu and its look (to which I attach a very relative importance… vertical… horizontal… who cares!) There is a whole structure that supports the site and a mechanism that works in the “background of the task” and participates in the reinforcement of themes and keywords.

If the structure of the web portal is not designed with SEO in mind, the texts will not have the same weight, not the same scope in the positioning of the site… It’s a bit like giving the best running shoes to a lame runner.

Many web writers completely avoid this aspect, which is essential, not to say determining, because they don’t know the rules of natural referencing – bloggers or piss-copies, they blacken pages that fascinate their readers, I’m sure… when they have readers.

Even more are the web designers whose only concern is,

or the aesthetics of the site (the site will be flashy but empty),
or the accumulation, by copy-paste, of poorly digested content straight from Wikipedia pages, a clumsy sleight of hand that fools no one… Especially not Google

SEO architecture and content, the example of press releases.

Many webmasters and “SEOs” use promotional article publication sites called “press releases” as a word spillway whose only links pointing to the client’s site are important.

They copy and paste the same text from the different sites.
They spin their content, making it indigestible at will.
They even totally neglect the SEO tags of these articles.

However, and I am not the only one to rely on this parameter (read L Bourelly , the art of internal linking) which says

My main hobbyhorse in SEO optimization concerns the architecture or internal linking of links.

An optimized text published on an SEO-configured site is incredibly effective!

Here are examples of publications whose articles are not only there for backlinks pointing to the main site but which provide, on the targeted queries, additional visibility to the client who ordered them (the texts).
These sites publish few articles but impose a certain level of requirement, thus favoring those who take the trouble to write with a concern for quality.

Web copywriter or SEO copywriter?

Not all web content needs to be optimized. A well-made blog, for example, finds its readership by the quality of the comments made, its dissemination/propagation or its recommendations via social media, its subscriptions to the RSS feed, etc.

On the other hand, any commercial site should be built on optimized foundation pages served by a solid architecture because its success depends a lot on its visibility in search engine results.

Impact on content costs

People often start by asking
me “how much does web content cost”?

The answer is:

– “A certain price”

An overview of this “certain price” can be found on the pricing idea page of this site (those for web-optimized writing can be found at the bottom of the page).
They correspond to the “union” rate of the profession, just a little below the salaries of journalists.

Why “idea” of rates?

Because it is impossible to draw up a quote, a quote, without an overall vision of the project and invoicing “by word” or “by character” is not applicable in a rational way in all cases. It is therefore necessary to meet the client, to evaluate his project with him and to mention what could be done or improved by suggesting this or that other type of content, in the context of content marketing or not, this variant or a different approach to the problem.

The services that a web writer can provide are very varied, for example, on a text, I can intervene in the following areas:

SEO writing without basic input
Optimized writing with documentation provided
Content reformulation
Text optimization for search engines
Non-optimized writing
Letter of Sale
Blogging
Syntax and spelling correction

There are many parameters to take into account:

Will you entrust me with the writing of a page? of ten? or 40?
… The documentation time will thus be distributed and the bill will be proportionally reduced.
Will you give me a draft?
… Any leads about your work? What are your specificities? Or should I write 100% of the content from documented research?
Will the texts you order from me be 120 words? 300 or 1500?
In the first case, I won’t be able to optimize them SEO for lack of material, while in the third, there is a good chance that your articles will be placed on the first page by the sole virtue of their writing skills. (see examples cited)
Do you want SEO-optimized content or impeccably written text with impeccable syntax and spelling?
The time I devote to the first has nothing to do with the time that is enough to produce the second. The time spent on a text, as everyone knows, determines the amount of the bill.

Web writing is an investment that should be considered as such in the construction of your website