The first step in every project is to understand your requirements. What does your business do? Who are your clients? What is your goal for this copy / project? How does it fit in with your other marketing activity?

That means I always start by interviewing you. I do this via Zoom and record the meeting so that we both have a reference point.

The next step is research. This includes

• interviewing people who know your business and what makes it special: you, your staff, clients, others you work closely with
• reviewing competitor websites, both ones you provide and others we discover
• SEO research, including assessing potential keyword options to determine search volume and how difficult they are to rank for

I then create a first draft and share it with you. You provide feedback either within the document or via phone or Zoom.

I revise and update. We repeat the process until you are happy.

Most projects take 2-4 weeks. Some are faster. Some drag out. If you have a specific deadline, please share at the start of the project so we can work out a detailed timeline.

Here’s a general outline of how that time is used, along with the common causes of delay.

Interview, research and writing a first draft usually takes one or two weeks. It depends on the number of pages required, the complexity of your business and my other workload at the time.

Revision depends on how long it takes for you to respond to the first draft, as well as how much you want to change. My turnaround time before submitting a second or later draft is usually 2 to 4 business days.

Projects may stretch out due to

• Delays in receiving information or feedback from you. This often happens when more than one person in your organisation needs to review and approve the copy. Sometimes a key decision-maker has other more urgent priorities.
• Ensuring legal compliance in heavily regulated industries
• Ensuring technical accuracy in more technical industries
• Changes in the brief – sometimes clients decide midway through a project to focus on a different target market or promote a different range of services.
• Holidays or sickness – either you or me!
• Interference from other projects

If you have another business assisting with your SEO, I would love to speak directly with them (with you present as well) to understand more about what services they are supplying to you.

SEO suppliers may focus on on-page SEO, off-page SEO or both. Website copywriting focuses on on-page SEO plus conversion of visitors to enquiries or sales. To get the best result for you, both I and the SEO company need to be clear what we are doing and where boundaries lie. If I feel there is too much overlap or lack of clarity, I will opt not to work with you. There’s no point in you spending extra money to get no extra value, let alone have to deal with suppliers in conflict with each other!