Website Copywriter Pricing: How Much Does Copywriting Cost?

What is website copywriting?

Compared to traditional copywriting, website copywriting is a whole new field. Unlike copywriting for company manuals, marketing brochures, or other print materials, website copywriting builds content that considers search engines and readers. In other words, it’s an SEO strategy.

What is SEO?

SEO refers to an umbrella of strategies, like copywriting, that improve your online visibility in search results. Like most people, you probably turn to Google, Bing, or Yahoo for information. When you search, you receive a list of results, as well as the option to click to the next page of search results.

With SEO, you want your website to appear on the first page of search results — especially since only 25 percent of users go to the second page of search results. Achieving that goal requires your site to not only feature content relevant to the search but also content optimized for that search.

That’s why your business needs to make copywriting a priority.

If you want to reach your target market, then you need to appear on the first page of search results. For that to happen, you need to either produce optimized website copy in-house or partner with a website copywriting agency, like WebFX.

What does website copywriting include?

When it comes to website copywriting services, there are a ton of options. From product descriptions to blog posts to ad copy, an agency can offer your business a variety of copywriting services. All these services vary in price, however, which is why it’s helpful to break down these services — and their costs.

SEO COPYWRITING (PRICE: $50 - $25,000 PER PAGE)

As one of the most common website copywriting services, SEO copywriting is a service your company should plan to use. What is SEO copywriting, though? Its site copy optimized for search engines, as well as your target audience — and it costs between $50 to $25,000 per page.

SEO copywriting includes almost any kind of page on your site, like the following:

• Blog posts
• Press releases
• Guides
• Sales copy
• Product copy

When an agency optimizes a webpage for search engines, they do more than write the page. They also:

• Research keywords: In this step, your agency researches the searches of your target audience — which you can do with keyword research tools, like keywordtool.io, or manual searches on Google. Based on their findings, they develop webpage ideas for your website.

• Optimize the page for search: Once they have webpage ideas and a list of keywords, your agency starts optimizing a new or existing webpage. While writing your content, they include the keyword throughout the copy naturally. They also make sure your webpage meets technical SEO

• Publish the page: In some cases, your copywriting agency will also publish the page for you. When an agency offers this service, it’s often a bonus because it saves your team the time and hassle of uploading or modifying an existing webpage.

Since SEO copywriting requires an additional skill set, it tends to cost more than traditional copywriting services.

The learning curve that comes with SEO copywriting, however, makes it critical to avoid “cheap” copywriting services for SEO. In almost all cases, companies that pay for low-priced SEO copywriting services receive low-quality copy in return.

That kind of copy can have massive consequences. It’s a direct representation of your company, and its quality can turn-off potential buyers, which hurts your bottom line. Plus, “cheap” SEO copywriting doesn’t achieve the goal of SEO — increasing your ranking in search results.

PPC COPYWRITING (PRICE: $25 TO $350 PER AD)

While many businesses purchase pay-per-click (PPC) advertising services, which include ad copy, others decide to manage their campaign in-house and outsource their ad copy. If you opt to partner with an agency or copywriter for PPC ad copy, prices range from $25 to $350 per ad.

With PPC, you will need to create ad copy for various channels, including:

• Search
• Social media
• Websites
• And more

Like SEO copywriting, this website copywriting service requires more than writing. It also demands:

• Research: A PPC copywriter often invests the time learning about what your PPC campaign promotes, whether it’s a product, service, or sale. That way, they can develop compelling and actionable ad copy that includes not only your designated keyword but also your unique selling points (USPs).

• Optimization: If you’re managing your PPC campaign in-house — and only outsourcing your ad’s copywriting — you should have a list of keywords for your campaign. It’s up to your copywriter to include those keywords in your ad copy, but in a way that’s reader-friendly.

• Testing: For the best results from your PPC campaign, it’s essential to monitor your campaign’s performance and experiment. That’s why it’s helpful if your copywriter provides multiple variations for a single ad copy, as your team can test and see which ones perform best.

While ad copy has a much shorter word count than website copy, it can come with a high price tag. With PPC copywriting, however, you get what you pay for — and that can have a direct impact on the performance of your PPC campaign.

If you’re looking for PPC copywriting services, it’s important to know that a lot of agencies do not offer it as a standalone service. Instead, they include it as a part of their PPC management services. For a lot of agencies, including WebFX, this decision allows us to provide you with the best results possible.

EMAIL COPYWRITING (PRICE: $35 to $2000 PER EMAIL)

With a tremendous return on investment (ROI) of $44 for every $1, a lot of businesses invest in email marketing. While emails are generally briefer than a page on your website, they’re an excellent tool for nurturing valuable leads. That’s why the average cost for this copywriting service ranges from $100 to $2000 per email.

A copywriter or agency can produce several types of emails, including:

• Welcome
• Offer
• Survey
• Newsletter

When you hire an agency for email copywriting, you can expect the following:

• In-depth research: Like any copywriting service, an email copywriter should research your industry, products, and business in-depth. They should also ask about the goal of your email marketing campaign, which helps them produce copy targeted to your subscribers and their position in your buying funnel.

• Reader optimization: Your emails should also consider users’ habits. People skim when browsing online content, whether via a website or email. That’s why copywriters produce short paragraphs of content, as well as use bold or italic formatting to emphasize text.

• Email testing: In most cases, your copywriter or agency will also preview or test your email before it sends. This proactive step ensures that when your email launches, it’s free of grammatical and graphical errors.

Due to the frequency of email marketing, it’s helpful to partner with a copywriter or copywriting agency. That way, your company avoids the hassle of hiring a different writer every time. Instead, you have a consistent writer that knows and understands your business, which leads to better copy.

Like PPC and SEO copywriting, the quality of your email copywriting will often coordinate to the price. That doesn’t mean your company should pay $2000 per email, but that there’s a significant difference in quality when purchasing copywriting services for $35 versus $115, for example.

Website copywriting pricing

Ready to learn more website copywriting prices for SEO, PPC, and email? Check out our breakdown below:

SEO COPYWRITING PRICING

If you’re investing in SEO copywriting, which costs between $100 to $25,000 per page, you have several page types you can purchase. In most cases, agencies and copywriters price these pages differently, which is why you can find prices for each of these page types in this handy table.

PPC COPYWRITING PRICING

In comparison to SEO copywriting, PPC copywriting prices are generally universal. The reason why most copywriters and copywriting agencies charge a single rate for PPC ad copy — versus a rate dependent on the platform and ad type — is because the word counts are usually similar.

For a quick refresher, average prices for PPC copywriter pricing is$25 to $350.

EMAIL COPYWRITING PRICING

If you’re using email copywriting services, which cost between $35 to $2000, there are a few email types. While prices for these emails vary widely, you can reference our website copywriting pricing table below to gauge how much your company should pay for professional email copywriting services.

5 factors that determine copywriting rates in 2020

With website copywriting rates ranging from $25 to $25,000, there are a lot of questions about what determines copywriting prices in ~PHP~. While your content can have an impact on what you pay, features exclusive to your writer or agency have the most influence.

The five factors that affect website copywriter pricing today include:

1. EXPERIENCE

When it comes to copywriting, experience pays. Copywriters with years — or even decades — of experience almost always have higher website copywriting rates than copywriters with less experience. This pricing factor makes sense, as an experienced copywriter often delivers significantly better copy.

A lot of companies, however, ignore this pricing factor.

While price is a critical factor to consider, it’s dangerous to make it your deciding factor. Businesses that choose their copywriter or agency because they offer “cheap” rates are rarely satisfied. They receive low-quality copy that forces them to rehire another copywriter or agency, which doesn’t help them save any money.

Prevent this pitfall by noting the experience of copywriters and agencies that you interview. You can even limit your interview pool to copywriters or agencies with a certain amount of experience, like five years or more, to eliminate the temptation of low prices.

In most cases, you’ll notice a price difference between the following experience levels:

• Less than five years
• Five years or more
• More than 10 years

For reference, WebFX offers more than 20 years of experience — plus, our client retention rate is over 90 percent.

2. BACKGROUND

Your copywriter’s background may also influence the price of copywriting.

If you’re in a technical industry, like medical or manufacturing, it’s essential to partner with a copywriter that understands your industry and products or services.

Even for non-technical industries, like retail, it’s critical to have a copywriter that “gets” your market.

Depending on your industry, the background of a copywriter can have a tremendous impact on your website copywriting rates. In most instances, companies in a technical industry often have to pay more for copywriting services than businesses in a non-technical market.

Without a copywriter that understands your industry, business, and product, it’s difficult to create content that reaches and resonates with your target audience. Even if the copywriter does a stellar job optimizing your copy for search, it won’t matter if it doesn’t connect with readers.

For example, say you’re a paving company and publish a service page for your residential paving services. It sounds like it’s written by a first-timer, however. That kind of content, which should emphasize your expertise, makes readers hesitate when it comes to trusting your business.

You need copy that gives readers confidence and encourages them to trust your website and content. That’s why it’s critical to partner with a copywriter that has a background in your industry. For many companies, that’s a challenge due to their market.

Partnering with a copywriting agency like WebFX, however, resolves that issue. Since we have a dedicated team of copywriters, we can match you with a writer that has a background in your field. The result is better copy, better traffic, and better sales.

3. FREELANCER VS. AGENCY

The price differences between copywriting freelancers and copywriting agencies are often noticeable. In most cases, copywriting agencies maintain higher website copywriting rates than a freelancer. That’s why many businesses hire freelance writers initially.

While this decision does offer upfront savings, it can introduce additional work for your team. For example, you’ll need to research, find, and interview candidates — and if they decide it’s a once-and-done project, you go through the whole process all over again.

Additional issues that can come with freelance copywriters include:

• They fail to deliver your content on time or at all
• They stop responding to emails or messages
• They take a long time to finish projects
• They return projects with extensive errors or issues

If you’re serious about developing routine content for your website or updating webpages across your site, partner with a copywriting agency. While they may cost more, they save your company money in the long-term. Plus, they eliminate the issues that come with freelance writers.

For reference, copywriting agencies typically charge a few hundred dollars more than a freelancer — but it’s well worth the investment.

4. WORD COUNT

The word count of a copywriting task impacts your prices the most. A 1200-word article will cost more than a 500-word article because it requires more time and research to write. That’s why many copywriters and copywriting agencies scale their prices by word count.

While your word count has a tremendous influence on your website copywriter pricing, it’s a factor outside your control. Publish a 60-word page for your residential pavement services and it won’t provide readers with the information they need to make a purchase decision.

For readers, as well as search engines, your team needs to provide comprehensive content. This content answers the questions of your site visitors, which helps it rank for relevant searches in search results. Even better, this kind of copy can increase conversion rates and sales on your site.

It’s critical to mention, however, that a higher word count doesn’t equal better content.

Any agency can deliver a 500- or 3000-word article, but only a few agencies optimize that content for readers and search engines. If you content doesn’t consider the search intent of readers, it won’t appear at the top of search results. When that happens, your company doesn’t see results, like more traffic or new leads.

For the best results, partner with a trusted agency that offers quality services, like WebFX.

Not only do we write compelling, user-targeted copy but we also develop it with one of the industry’s most advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms available, IBM Watson. Combined with our exclusive marketing software, MarketingCloudFX, IBM Watson helps your content achieve real results.

Even though your company has less control over this pricing factor than others, it’s important to know about it. Understanding how word counts impact your website copywriting rates can help your team explain to company decision makers why one piece of content costs more than another.

5. DEADLINE

In some instances, your business may have a sudden need for new or updated content on your site. When you have a rush due date, it’s natural to expect higher prices. Rates for expedited copy vary, but it can cost your company hundreds of dollars.

For the best website copywriter prices, try to avoid a rushed deadline. If you have a tight deadline, you can write a version in-house as a temporary fix and then hire a copywriter or copywriting agency to complete the final draft. It’s a strategy that saves your company money and meets your deadline.