Why You Shouldn't Outsource SEO Copywriting to India

As a disclaimer, I'd like to point out that I recognize that as an SEO copywriter myself, I'm naturally biased against internationally outsourced content writing. Yes, of course copywriters in India and the Philippines have a tendency to "steal" business away from professionals like myself. Yes, Indian and Filipino writers are able to charge 1/10th of what I charge due to the differences in our respective countries' currency values.

But that's not why I believe outsourcing SEO copywriting overseas is a very, very bad idea.

For example.

A prospective sent me a sample of SEO articles he'd purchased (and regretted) from an SEO company as part of a package deal. The content was sold to him as "high quality SEO content", and he THOUGHT he was getting a bargain.

The articles were very similar to other "high quality SEO" articles another client of mine had purchased (and, again, regretted) from India for $5 per 500 word article. I've seen plenty of this kind of outsourced SEO content - never in search engine results, mind you - and it never fails to irritate me.

Still, I can understand why SEO companies and businesses think outsourcing their SEO copywriting in this way is a good idea. At $5 per 500 word article with guaranteed quality writing and optimized linkbacks, how could it go wrong?

Just like this:

"Considering how the global economy is faring these days, saving as much money as possible is not just an option. If before, a one-dollar difference does not warrant a second glance, now, even the amount of half a dollar is valued. This is why, more often than not, most people opt to do things their own rather than hiring a professional. Granted that the task may require most of their time during weekends, if it will be cheaper, then it is fine."

I'm not making this up.

Silly phrasing and substanceless subject matter aside, there are far more sinister flaws in this so-called "SEO content". Not only do these articles often fail to meet basic SEO criteria for keyword density, but they also use strategies which, if executed in bulk, could actually cause the website to be penalized in search engine results.

Keyword density. Can you tell what this particular article's main keywords are from the above paragraph? No, you can't, because there aren't any. That's right, an entire 80 word paragraph and not a single keyword.

Keyword density for main keywords inconsistent, at best. In the above mentioned article, density for the main keyword is below 1%. To make a solid impact (without getting too spammy), SEO articles need to target a keyword density between 2.5%-6%. Density aside, the keywords in these articles are often too general or improperly formatted (e.g. using "checks" rather than "ink for printing checks" and "MICRtoner" instead of "MICR toner").

No longtail keywords. Notably, the article focuses on only root keyword phrases without incorporating any longtail variations. Embedding main keywords into longtail variations is a tactic I've found to be effective for drawing traffic for the often-ignored lontail search query when drawing traffic for smaller, more competitive terms would be impossible. Thanks to low keyword density, lack of longtail keywords and lack of content value, these articles will likely never see the light of search engine results pages.

Too many links. Links are too numerous and the anchor text used is unvaried. Articles used for link building purposes should use between 2-6 links; more will put the article at risk of being flagged as spam - because it IS spam. It looks like the SEO copywriter hyperlinked every keyword in the article, bringing the average number of links to 10-20 per article.

Unvaried anchor text. The lack of variation in these links is cause for major concern. As SEO guru Tim Grice points out, Google is now giving more weight to "natural" links with varied anchor text. Websites with 100s or 1,000s of incoming links all using the exact same anchor text phrasing appear highly automated to Google. Consequently, these sites have been getting pushed farther down in the search engine results pages in favor of sites with a wider variety of deep and varied anchor text links. In short: fewer links can be better, if those links appear more natural. There's nothing natural about the links in these outsourced articles.

The Moral of the Story

Internationally outsourced SEO copywriting may be a lot cheaper, but the quality is simply not there. From a content standpoint, these articles are full of nicely phrased, disorganized fluff which provides no true value to the readers. From an SEO standpoint, these articles contain a critical lack of genuine SEO savvy which could end up wasting your money at best and hurting your website's rankings at worst.

Stuffing keywords into an article about nothing is not SEO copywriting. A true professional SEO copywriter has invested significant time into understanding the finer nuances of SEO and how successful SEO copy works; he or she takes the time to perform keyword research, outline a content strategy and leverage longtail keywords and varied anchor text. And yes, professional SEO copywriters like to be compensated for their work.

As with any other business investment, you get what you pay for. If you pay $5 for an SEO article, that's exactly what you're going to get.

Unfortunately for my prospective client, he paid far more than $5 per article once his SEO firm was finished marking them up. This brings us to the issue of purchasing re-marketed SEO content from SEO companies.

SEO companies are in the business to make money, and professional US-based SEO copywriters like me can be expensive. What better way to cut costs than to hire international ESL copywriters for $5 per page?

To be fair, not all SEO companies remarket this kind of crap to their clients - but there are plenty out there that do. If you're purchasing content from an SEO company, be sure to ask exactly where and whom that content is coming from. Investigate to see what the company's "high quality SEO articles" really are. SEO copywriting guru @HeatherLloyd has some great tips for determining whether or not your SEO firm is qualified to provide you with SEO content.