In the past, many SEO and branding experts said it was imperative that you or your direct partners be the primary writers for your blog. But, the one major reason that actually keeps many bloggers from writing on a regular basis is not being sure what to write or how to write it for their intended audience. Enter the ghostwriters. Many websites have consistent ghostwriters who write most or all of the content for a website owner. What are the benefits and drawbacks to having ghost writers for your blog?
Ghostwriters and SEO
As you know, ghostwriters are nothing new. It's a pretty old profession. They're also nothing new for SEO. In fact, getting someone to get your ideas and messages across that is a great writer and also good at creating content relevant to both your audience and the search engine algorithms is fantastic. It's just very important that you find someone that can both write and can make you look good at the same time.
However, the last thing you want to happen is someone who's really only blogging for you for the sake of getting exposure for themselves. While it's okay to have a guest post or two every once in a while, it's good to keep the blog subjects in house as much as possible. Even if you have to go outside to get it written, you want as many ideas as possible to come from you or someone within your organization.
Also, if you do hire a ghostwriter to write blog posts for you, it’s best to find content writers that know something about your industry or niche. While it’s not a requirement, having someone writing articles that has expert topics related to your website will help you get better content in the end. While a long-time professional writer or expert copywriter can write something that sounds good, experience with your related topics will be better for building authority with your audience.
How Often Should You Use Ghost Writers?
Where do you draw the line between writing everything in your own words versus hiring an outside freelance writer to write for you? There are plenty of people out there happy to write two or three articles a week for you, for a price. While many of these people are often perfectly good writers and have good reputations, you need to keep in mind that you don't want to put the future of your blog or business necessarily in the hands of content creators.
There is a compromise you can make if you want your blog posts with your own name on them to still somewhat come from you. You can hire ghostwriters who take your raw ideas and polish them up into a finished piece. A web content writer who can take your general thoughts and make them SEO-friendly, readable, and relevant to your audience can be a great asset.
Hiring somebody to write an article for you as a blog contributor when you're really stuck is fine. But, if you’re hiring a freelancer as a ghostwriter, and you want to keep the writing style of your articles consistent, you’ll want to find one writer that you trust. Yes, outside bloggers known in your industry can provide some credibility. But, you need to put your names on it, too. It needs to be someone within the blog ownership itself that blogs the most, even if that person has someone ghostwriting for them.
So, it's not a bad idea to have a ghostwriter working for you. But, if you need one consistently, you want it to be someone consistent. Just make sure that your own voice is heard and that your content is useful and searchable. There are ghostwriters that are excellent at this. But still, nothing is better than just putting your own thoughts out there and letting someone tweak it for you.
Need a ghostwriter for your blog or website? See how the Brand Shamans can help you createcustom content for your website or blog!