Content writer: how to judge the first text you receive

The first text from your content writer arrives, well written and free of errors, and you cannot tell whether it is good. That is an uncomfortable position because a correct text and a useful text are not the same thing, and at a glance they look alike. These checks let you judge it without being an SEO expert.

Four checks

• The swap test. Replace your name with a competitor's. If the text still works without changing anything else, it is generic. A good text contains something only your business can say: a case, a point of view of your own, a fact from your area.
• The question test. Read the title and the first two sentences. Do they answer what someone would type into Google? If you have to reach the third paragraph to know what is being promised, it is badly framed.
• The facts test. Mark every figure, name or concrete claim and ask where it comes from. A serious writer can back it up; if they cannot, it comes out.
• The next-step test. At the end, does the reader know what to do? Get in touch, look at a service, read another article. A text with no way out leads nowhere.

When a text fails a check

When it fails a test, do not discard it straight away: send it back with a specific note ("we need an example of our own here"). The writer's reaction to that first comment will tell you more than the text itself. If they sharpen it, it is worth continuing; if they reply with the same material reordered, it is not.

Keep the checklist

Keep a template of these four checks. The second time, reviewing will take you ten minutes where the first took an hour.

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