So you’ve decided your company or client needs outside help with content creation: what now?  Knowing you need help and bringing in the Pros (see what we did there?) are excellent steps, but do you know what defines high-quality outsourced content?  Here are a few important qualities to look for when seeking outsourced content creation and professional writing for your company or one of your web design clients.  Content with these qualities will keep your clients happy and customers clicking.

1. Superb SEO Strategy

Well-written content is not enough to drive traffic and increase conversion rates.  Make sure your outsourced content provider is up on best practices for search engine optimization.  The rules are constantly changing, and the Pros know how to engage readers, drive traffic, and convert visits for increased sales and customer engagement.

2. Clicks-to-Conversion

Speaking of conversion, remember that increased readers and page views are not enough. The point is to get your site’s visitors to do something: sign up for a newsletter, request a consultation or quote, or even make a purchase. Make sure your outsourced content is dynamic enough to do just that, or you’re just as well-off writing your own articles.

3. Consistent Quality

The Internet is jam-packed with junk; everywhere you turn there are ample opportunities to trudge through poorly-written material cranked out in content generation mills by armies of outsourced writer-drones.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking more words are the answer, especially they’re words of poor quality.  Hold your content creators to a higher standard, and expect quality to be in direct relation to professionalism.  You definitely get what you pay for in this instance.

4. Say No to Text Walls

In our media-driven society, online content has to move at the speed of the average Internet user, likely a guy or gal with a relatively short attention span.  Unless your business is a literary journal, huge walls of unbroken text are probably not going to do the trick for your readers. Make sure your content creators know how to integrate impactful visuals with content and break up long text passages with bullets, subheadings, and lists that keep the eye moving and the reader clicking through your pages.

5. Savvy Style

Clean copy, good grammar, and a lack of textual errors are all important. But more important is the element of style, which is usually missing from online content. Choose a company that will give your content flair, not just meet your bottom line.