How to test a content writer

When you make a call for writers, you are likely to get loads of applications. How do you distinguish the good and the bad? What skillset should you look out for? What kind of test should each writer undergo before becoming a part of your team? You will get the answers to these questions in this article.

Who is a Good Writer?

This is probably the first question to ask – who is a good writer? A good writer and a bad writer are poles apart. They have nothing in common. While good writers offer comprehensive and high-quality content at a reliable pace, bad writers frequently offer confusing content at an unreliable pace. Here are other qualities of a good writer:

They pay attention to detail

Excellence, they say, is in the details. The difference between a good blog post and a great one is attention to detail. Good writers leave no stone unturned. They pay attention to every tiny detail like punctuation, grammar, opening hook, etc.

They can break down complex ideas into simple terms

The best copies are easy to comprehend. Good writers put the mental capacity of the target audience into consideration and create high-quality content for them. For instance, blog posts crafted for teenagers must be void of technical jargon. Those crafted for professionals may be a little more technical.

They are open to external edits and suggestions

Blog posts undergo rigorous pruning here and there before they are published. Good writers constantly re-evaluate their work. They are also open to constructive criticisms from other writers and editors.

Tests for Selecting a Good Content Writer

Content creation is key to digital success. This is why you should prioritize it and recruit the best brains.

Here are a few tests for selecting the best content writer.

1. Editing a Sample

Ask the writers to edit a piece of writing or a blog post. This test helps to know if a writer can spot an error and rephrase sentences. It also tells if the writer is attentive to details or not.

2. Create a Google Scavenger Hunt

Create about ten questions for each writer. Let them research and provide answers to the questions. This will reveal the capacity of each writer to research authority sites and create an informative blog post from their findings.

3. Fill In The Blank Spaces

Write a few sentences with blank spaces in between. Writers are expected to fill in the appropriate words. This lets you know if a writer knows the difference between words like “I’m” and “am”. Select writers that fill in the blanks correctly.

4. Rewrite Headlines

Writing captivating headlines is an important skill for content writers. Give the writers a string of uninteresting headlines. Ask them to convert the headlines into short and captivating headlines. This will help you test your writers’ headline writing skills.

5. Summarize a Text

Create a long text and ask writers to summarize it. This helps you to know if the writer can comprehend a new idea and communicate it efficiently.

Hiring Writers for SEO Content Writing

Search engine optimization is the art of making your website better for search engines. If you are interested in increasing organic traffic to your web page and outranking other sites on the search engine results page, SEO writing will help.

Writing for SEO requires more than the ability to write.

It requires knowledge of search engines, on page optimization, search engine algorithms, meta descriptions, keyword research and optimization, internal links, meta tags, etc.

Skills of an SEO content writer

When choosing an SEO content writer for search engine optimization, in addition to the tests already mentioned above, look out for the ability to:

Understand the target audience and write content for them

Simply put, the target audience are your potential customers. Writing for SEO requires an understanding of the target audience. Only then can the writer create SEO friendly content for them.

Work With the Laid Out SEO strategy

An SEO strategy is a comprehensive plan to improve the search engine rankings of your web pages. A well researched SEO content strategy helps you stay organized while optimizing content until it appears on the first page of search engines like google.

A good SEO writer should be able to work with various SEO strategies. For example, if you require local SEO, the writer should be able to weave local KWs into the content.

Use Keywords

When seeking an SEO copywriter, select one that knows how to leverage relevant keywords for your website. He should also be able to use keyword phrases naturally within a text.

Such candidate will help you boost SEO traffic, build domain authority, identify opportunities for optimizing your content to attract more traffic to your offers, and convert them to loyal customers.

An SEO content writer should be skillful in making keyword research as well as adding relevant keywords to web content and blog posts. S/he must understand when to use long tail keywords or seed keyword, and how to avoid keyword stuffing.

Understand Ranking factors

Search engines have their ranking factors. Crucial ranking factors for Google include search intent of your content, website loading speed, domain authority, quality of your content, etc. An understanding of these factors can help you drive more organic traffic.

Write Meta descriptions

A meta description is a snippet of text that summarizes a page content. The ideal SEO writer should be able to write a simple and compelling meta description.

Understand Google analytics

Since Google is by far the largest search engine in the world, an understanding of google analytics is important. It is a web analytics service that allows you to track and analyze your site’s traffic.

Conclusion

Before adding an SEO writer or content writer to your content marketing team, you need to be sure of their ability to deliver promptly.

This article has shown you some of the skills and qualities to look out for while trying to hire a content writer. Using this as a guideline, you will be better positioned to choose writers that help you grow your SEO.