Clients Can Get Cute, Fluffy Copywriting From ChatGPT. Use This SEO Technique to Prove Your Worth.
And give companies a positive return on their marketing spend
Photo by Anete Lusina on Pexels
Do you want to be a freelance writer?
Let’s start with the bad news: it’s like a warzone out there. Freelancers are throwing themselves into battle, and companies are cutting back. Lots of writers are worried.
The good news is you can beat 99% of freelancers.
I’ve been able to consistently land clients over the past two years — even when hundreds of writers have applied for a job:
Screenshot from my LinkedIn
I’m now making the sort of money I used to dream about.
But here’s a brutal truth: Cute, fluffy writing doesn’t cut it anymore. There’s ChatGPT for that. Companies and leaders are looking for a return on their marketing spend.
So my formula for success is simple:
I write content that drives REAL results for clients, such as keyword rankings on Google, increased site traffic, and increased sales — and prove there’s a positive return on investment (ROI) when working with me.
Let’s break this down.
A template you can steal
Let’s say you want to offer content writing for tech companies. You have experience in this niche and can write high-quality blogs that people want to read.
Step one is to identify which keywords you can realistically rank for at the top of Google. To do this, you must analyse the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) of the keyword/s you want to rank for.
For example, let’s say you’ve been hired by a tech recruiting company, and their website has a Domain Authority (DA) of 56. (More on this shortly.) The company’s leadership team wants to rank for keywords about Python, such as “Python developer job description”.
Quick side note: Domain authority is a helpful measure that lets you compare how well websites are ranking on Google search at a glance. The range goes from 0–100, and the closer to 100 a website is, the better. For reference, BBC has a DA of 92, whilst my personal site has a DA of 22.
Using a tool like Google Keyword Planner, which is free to use, we can see that “python developer job description” is searched between 100–1K times on average every month in the United States:
Screenshot from Google Keyword Planner
However, when we search for “python developer job description” on Google, we can see that there are some big names in the recruiting space at the top of the results page.
Their sites also have DAs greater than 56 — the DA of our client’s site:
Screenshot from SERP
Sidenote: You can use a free Chrome extension like MozBar to display DA on the SERP.
This tells us that it’s going to be difficult for our client’s site to rank above these existing sites. Our highest achievable rank is probably position #6.
We need to look at different keywords.
Using Google Keyword Planner again, we can see there are variations of “python developer job description”, such as “python lead job description”. Although this keyword doesn’t have as many monthly average searches (10–100), it’s worth exploring:
Sidenote: Ranking at the top of Google for a keyword that’s only searched 10 times a month is better than ranking on page two of Google for a keyword that’s searched thousands of times a month. Why?
Ask yourself this: when was the last time you went to page two of Google search results? Exactly. Anything less than page one of Google is a graveyard of broken dreams.
When we check out the SERP, the results look promising. The content on the top-ranking sites isn’t detailed, and they don’t optimise for this keyword.
The site that’s ranking in position #2 for the keyword “python lead job description” is actually optimising for the keyword “senior python developer job description”:
Screenshot from the website ranking in position #2 for the keyword “python lead job description” | Just by looking at the URL, main heading, and the first paragraph of text, we can see this page is optimising for the keyword “senior python developer job description”.
So even though some of these current top-ranking sites have a DA greater than 56, I think our highest achievable rank is position #1.
Spoiler alert: I’ve done this before!
Screenshot of a document I pulled together for one of my clients
The top-ranking result for the keyword “python lead job description” (at the time of writing this article) is one I wrote for my client back in April:
Screenshot from Google SERP
This keyword is threaded into the article in all the important places, including the URL, the title tag, the main heading (H1), and throughout the content:
Screenshot of the article I wrote for my client | The yellow squares show how I’ve optimised this page for the keyword “python lead job description”
Assuming a website has the all-clear from a technical SEO point of view, this ranking process is incredibly effective. I use it all the time with my clients.
There’s too much in SEO to cover in one article. If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, you may want to check out my SEO Bootcamp Course.
Our content is ranking at the top of Google Search. So what?
Now it’s time to prove to clients that spending money to get these rankings is worth it. Here’s how.
Let’s stick with the example above. We know that the keyword is searched 10–100 times per month in the US. Let’s be conservative and say it’s 10. Now let’s assume that the click-through rate for ranking at the top of Google is 35%.
What does this mean?
It means 35 out of 100 people who search for something on Google click the top result. Estimates for this click-through rate vary widely, but I’d say 35% is also conservative.
Okay, so if we take our monthly search volume (10) and multiply this by the click-through rate (0.35), we know that 3.5 people visit the website from the keyword “python lead job description”.
Obviously, we can’t get half a person.
Let’s round it up to 4.
Now things get juicy. If we know the conversion rate of website visitors who turn into paying customers is 2%, and the lifetime value of a customer is $10,000 (one paying customer is worth a lot in tech recruiting), the value of this ranking keyword is:
4 x 0.02 x 10,000 = $800
This means our blog post that’s ranking at the top of Google Search is worth $800 — assuming the keyword continues to rank in position #1.
But it gets better.
Our calculations don’t account for other keywords the blog might be ranking for. If the blog ranks for similar keywords with similar monthly search volumes, it would be worth even more.
The return on investment (ROI) of the blog increases.
Suddenly, spending $500 on a 1,000-word blog post makes business sense. The blog generates a positive ROI by ranking in position #1 for this single keyword. It’s expected to generate $800 a month, so a client should be happy to pay $500.
Heck, even if they spent $1,000 on the article, they’d make their money back in less than 2 months!
I go through calculations like this with clients all the time. You can use these calculations to prove your worth. I also regularly update clients on their keyword rankings.
Backlinks — another way to prove your worth
If you can write content that other websites want to link to (known as backlinks), clients will adore you.
A backlink looks like this:
Screenshot from my website | The backlink with “Medium.com” as the anchor text points to my Medium profile
Backlinks are valuable.
This is because Google favours websites that other sites want to link to. The links act as votes of confidence and improve a website’s overall authority.
You can think of backlinks like pumping fuel from Website A (the site that’s doing the linking) to Website B (your site):
Screenshot from my SEO Bootcamp Course with Zero To Mastery
And if you can write content that high (DA) sites link to?
Well — that’s the holy grail!
I wrote a blog about using ChatGPT for SEO success, and one of the biggest SEO blogs in the world recently linked to it:
Screenshot by author
This link will boost my client’s overall DA, making it easier for their site to rank for other relevant keywords.
Takeaways
AI anxiety is on the rise, and lots of writers are scared about losing their jobs.
I get it. I have the same feelings from time to time, and I’m doing my best to make hay whilst the sun shines. But I strongly believe writers who can write high-quality, SEO-optimised articles that generate real business results will win this game.
So focus on writing posts that generate a positive ROI for your clients — not just fluffy, cute content — and companies will want to work with you. They know their marketing budget is in safe hands.
You’ve got the template.
Go get it!
Want to ditch the 9–5? Get my free 19-page guide: Everything I Did to Quit My 9–5 Job & Transition Into Profitable, Sustainable Solopreneuring :)
