Hire the Best Content Writers and Copywriters in the UK

One quick question. What checks all the boxes for you when looking to hire the best content writers and copywriters in the UK?

While you’re reflecting on that, I’d like to introduce myself quickly.

I’m James, the founder and team head of Jbcontentlab. I’ve been curating superb content for businesses and brands for the past 10 years and counting.

Got that answer now? Yes, I thought so. It’s somewhat of a long list of boxes to check. If you own a business or run a digital agency, at one point or another, you must have hired a writer or a content service.

But there is a thin line. You might have a few problems if you commit your content needs to a subpar writer, agency or content service.

In this post, I’ll share what you need to look out for when hiring a content writing or copywriting service in the UK. I’ll also point you in the right direction if you’re looking to hire one of the best content writers and copywriting in the UK.

Let’s dive into it.

6 Criteria When Hiring the Best Content Writers and Copywriters in the UK

According to research carried out by Moz and BuzzSumo, 85% of content published on the internet happens to be reductant. Always juggling between writers and often disappointed? It’s because you don’t have standard criteria when hiring.

Here are six criteria to look out for when hiring a content writing service or a freelancer.

1. Quality

Content isn’t king anymore. These days, quality content is the true king. And when I said quality, you’ve got to understand that there is a lot embedded in the word “quality content”.

Quality means the piece written to be relevant to your business and audience. It has to pass the message clearly while sticking with the tone and style of your business or that of a client.

This is really important, whether it’s a blog post, article, newsletter, press release, sales copy or website copy.

As a business or entrepreneur, you have to ensure you’re leaving your content in good hands. The freelance writer or content service has to pay keen attention to details. That’s why they can follow your brief or instructions when provided with little or no hiccups.

Quality also cuts down to proofreading, fact-checking, and SEO, which is the next thing I’ll talk about.

This is an important factor to consider when hiring the best content writers and copywriters for your website.

2. SEO Expertise

What do you understand by the term SEO as a small business owner or entrepreneur?

It’s relatively simple. Search engine optimization is the strategy used to rank your website or content in search engines.

BrightEdge revealed that SEO drives 1,000%+ more traffic compared to organic social media. What does this tell you? SEO is the most cost-effective way to draw in organic traffic to your business website.

You need to understand that regardless of how good your web copy or blog post might sound, it won’t do much good if it isn’t ranking at the top of SERPs. When hiring a freelance copywriter or any content writing service, you need to ask about their SEO experience.

In my experience, they’ll always tell you they have a solid background in SEO. Don’t just take their word for it. Ask them to walk you through their process.

3. Ask for published work samples

There is one major challenge I’ve seen a lot of businesses and hiring managers encounter when hiring a content writing service.

Oftentimes, they can’t tell if the freelancer or content team have a solid SEO strategy. It’s even more difficult if you know so little about SEO yourself.

In addition, if you’d love to know more about SEO, I’ve written a complete guide to search engine optimization. You seriously need to breeze through that.

I’m hitting so hard on SEO here because it’s super important if your business is going to be found on search. One way to go about it is to ask for previous work samples from the agency or freelancer you’re hiring. And I strongly recommend you ask them for published work authored in their name.

What’s the essence of this? It’s to ensure they don’t give you someone else’s work claiming it is theirs just because it’s got no direct author.

That’s just the first step. Let’s move on to the next thing you have to do.

4. See how the targeted keyword is performing on the search

Remember you’ve just received some samples for the freelancer or content service you’re about to hire. The next thing you want to do is see how the targeted keyword is performing on Google.

Now the question is, how do you do this? Don’t worry; it’s easy. I’ll walk you through this with an example very quickly.

Let’s say you’re a B2B business; you reached out to our in-house content team asking for a sample of our work. You’d like us to write some monthly blog posts to subtly promote some of your products.

In response to your request, we could give you some published samples from Aimoutdoors, an outdoor brand in the UK we write for.

First blog: A Guide to the Best Camping Lanterns and Headlamps

Second blog: Choosing the Right Jetboil Stove: A Comprehensive Comparison Guide

Aside from giving the sample a good read, you want to see how the primary keywords are ranking.

For the first one, since the brand is a local business in the UK, you can search for the keyword “best camping headlamps and lanterns in the UK”.

You can see from the screenshot the business is ranking in the top spot for that keyword on Google at the time I wrote the piece for them. I had to point that out because that could change if the content is not outdated for SEO from time to time.

Always look up another varying keyword for that targeted term, like “best camping headlamp in the UK”, to see if they’re ranking.

You want to do the same thing with the second sample they’ve provided. You could search for the keywords “How do I know the right Jetboil stove to buy?”

The rule of thumb is to look up search terms around the primary keyword a customer might use when searching on Google.

This is what you have to do to know if the freelancer or content writing service you’re about to hire has a solid SEO strategy.

It’s also important to remember that it’s not all about SEO here but the quality of content as well.

5. Cost/rate

Alright, let’s have a word about the budget. Content plays a huge role in getting across to potential customers and building awareness.

If you’re a business or entrepreneur working with a budget, you have to take the rate of the writer or content writing service into consideration.

Many freelancers, agencies, and in-house teams work at a flat rate or an hourly fee. Hire someone who aligns with your preferred method so there are no issues later on.

You need to ask yourself, are you hiring long-term, short term or a one-time gig? This should help you get the right rate at which you’re comfortable paying overtime.

I’d chip in here that you go for quality over content, and of course, quality content isn’t cheap but not outright expensive.

At Jbcontentlab, we prefer a flat rate for our SEO content writing, copywriting and link-building services. This way, it’s crystal clear what you’re paying, plus it helps with bookkeeping on our end and yours.

6. Reasonable turnaround

When hiring, one little detail you also have to pay attention to is turnaround time. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to hire a freelancer or a team that needs a week to deliver a 1000-word post.

It’s good you know when you expect every piece to avoid surprises.

In my experience, a sales copy or website copywriting will usually require more time. This is because of the technicality involved, the business in question and sometimes content length.

You have to consider this, especially if you intend to post a number of blogs weekly or monthly.

Best Content writers and copywriters in the UK

Writing quality content to reach potential customers as a business owner can be a real pain in the neck.

According to Search Engine Journal, quality content, page experience, and links are Google’s top three rank factors.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s not about coming up with a few topics for your content creation. It’s a lot more than that. You’ve got to ask yourself, can I pass the message across the way a professional copywriter would? What do I know about keyword research?

When I’m done writing the piece, will it rank at the top of search engines? Can I make the copy convert? Is my sales copy skill anywhere close to nine out of 10?

Even if I did check all those boxes, do I have the time to handle this on my own months in and out?

These are some questions you’d have to ask yourself. If your answer is a solid YES to all that, you don’t need content writing services.

But if that isn’t you, we’d love to help you.

At Jbcontentlab, we provide one of the best content writing services in the UK and the US.

Our in-house team handles all aspects of your content writing needs at an affordable rate with a great turnaround.

And when I said ”all aspects”, I actually meant it with our expertise cutting across:

• Articles

• Blog posts

• Press releases

• Landing Pages

• White papers

• Case studies

• Website content copywriting

• Sales copywriting

• Email marketing copy

• eBook writing

• Product category descriptions

We check all of the boxes when it comes to quality, SEO expertise, pocket-friendly rates, robust portfolio, and quick turnaround.

Final thoughts

With everything I’ve shared, it’s clear there are a few factors or questions you need to ask yourself when hiring copywriters and content writers.

It’s also obvious that the best content writing service can do a lot of good for your website.

An exceptional content team delivers quality content every time. By that, I mean content that connects easily with your audience, drives organic traffic and converts.

So, if you want to outrank your competitors and increase conversion, send us a message today let’s handle your content marketing.