Content writing
Writing that starts with the person who does the work.
Most web copy is written by somebody who has never done the job it describes, and it reads that way. This service is the writing itself: the interview, the draft, the checking and the edit that turn what your people know into a page worth ranking and worth quoting.
What makes content writing for SEO different from ordinary copywriting?
Ordinary copywriting persuades someone who is already reading. Writing for search first has to earn the reading: it answers a specific question a person typed, puts that answer near the top in plain words, and supports it with detail only the business could supply.
It is also written to be checked. Facts carry a source, claims stay inside what the business can prove, a named person stands behind the page, and old pages are revised when the facts change instead of being buried under new ones.
How it is produced matters less than whether it helps. Google says it rewards high-quality content however it is produced, and treats pages generated at scale without adding value as spam. A draft nobody reviewed fails that test, whoever or whatever wrote it.
Written and maintained by the VIS Mountain team. Last reviewed . The sources behind it are listed below.
Somebody still has to write the page
A content plan tells you which pages to write. It does not write them. This service is the writing: turning what the people in your business know into pages that answer a real question fully, in words a customer would use.
The difference from ordinary copywriting is where the reader starts. A brochure or an advertisement is read by someone you have already reached. A page written for search is one result among many, opened by someone with a specific question, who leaves in seconds if the answer is not where they expect it. The writing has to resolve the question first and persuade second.
Read the full breakdown: Somebody still has to write the pageHide the full breakdown: Somebody still has to write the page
There is a second audience as well. Search systems and AI assistants read the same page and lift passages from it. They do best with a short, direct answer near the top, headings that say what a section covers, and facts that can be checked. None of that is a trick. It is ordinary clear writing, the kind the federal government's own plain language guidance has asked of its writers since the Plain Writing Act of 2010.
What makes a page worth ranking is rarely the prose. It is the detail: what happens at the appointment, why the price varies, what goes wrong and how you deal with it. That detail lives in the heads of the people who do the work, which is why every page here starts with a conversation and not with a keyword.
It is not for everyone. If nobody in the business can spare time to be asked questions, if the aim is forty pages a month, or if the brief is to say what the business cannot support, this is the wrong service.
How a page actually gets written
The order matters. Most weak pages come from skipping the second step, and most risky ones from skipping the fifth.
Begin with the brief
Each page has one question to answer, a reader in mind and a list of what it must cover. That comes from the content plan. Where there is no plan we write the brief first, because a page with no stated question drifts into saying a little about everything.
Interview the person who does the work
A conversation with the dentist, the technician, the lawyer or the owner, recorded with permission. The useful questions are the unglamorous ones, and the best material usually arrives as an aside.
- What customers misunderstand before they ring
- Why the price or the timeline varies from one job to the next
- What goes wrong, and what you do about it
- What you would advise a member of your own family
Put the answer first
The opening lines answer the question outright, in two or three sentences that still make sense if quoted alone. Explanation comes next and detail after that. Headings are written as the questions people ask, each paragraph carries one idea, and the words are the customer's words, not the trade's.
See the remaining steps: How a page actually gets writtenHide the remaining steps: How a page actually gets written
Add what only you have
Your own prices or ranges where you are willing to publish them, your process, your photographs, your local conditions, and the opinion of the person who does the work. This is the material a competitor cannot copy and a machine cannot invent.
Check every fact
Each number is traced to the publisher's own page, not to an article that quotes it. Claims about results are held to what the business can show. Anything that cannot be verified is cut, and the point is made without it.
Edit for the reader
Cut the throat clearing, the adjectives and every sentence a competitor could also say. Read it aloud. Check it on a phone, where a long paragraph becomes a wall.
Have the expert sign it off
The person who was interviewed reads the draft and corrects it. Where a reader would expect to know who is behind the advice, the page carries that person's name and credentials, which is what Google's guidance on authorship encourages.
Publish, then come back to it
The page is dated honestly and revisited when prices, staff, regulations or the evidence change.
Steps two and seven need someone from your side. Everything else is ours.
What gets lifted, and from where
Search results and AI assistants quote passages. The drawing shows what that means for how a page is written.
Ordinary copywriting and writing for search, side by side
Both are skilled work. They are judged on different things, and a writer trained in one often struggles with the other.
| Item | Ordinary copywriting | Writing for search |
|---|---|---|
| How the reader arrives | Already looking at the advertisement or brochure | Typed a question and is choosing between several results |
| What the opening does | Builds interest before the point | Gives the answer, then earns the rest of the read |
| What it is judged on | Whether it persuades | Whether it resolves the question, and then whether it persuades |
| Evidence | A confident claim is often enough | Facts carry a source a reader can check |
| Who else reads it | Nobody | Search systems and assistants that lift passages |
| After publication | Finished | Revised whenever the facts change |
Persuasion still matters. It simply comes second, to a reader whose question has already been answered.
What is checked before anything is published
A page that ranks is read by more people, competitors and regulators included. It is checked on that assumption.
- Every statistic is traced to the publisher's own page, with its year and, where given, its sample. A number that exists only in other people's articles is removed.
- Results claims are held to what the business can prove. The Federal Trade Commission's standard is that claims must be truthful and evidence-based, and a page promoting your services is advertising.
- Superlatives such as best, leading and number one come out unless there is a basis for them that could be shown to a regulator.
- Prices, hours, insurance accepted and service area are confirmed by the business for this page, not copied from an older one.
- Credentials and licences are written exactly as the issuing body lists them.
See the full checklist: What is checked before anything is publishedHide the full checklist: What is checked before anything is published
- Customer and patient stories have written permission on file. In healthcare that means a formal authorisation, and nothing on the page may reveal that someone is a patient without it.
- Every outbound link goes to a primary source, and the link loads.
- Nothing is lifted from a competitor, a manufacturer's description or a supplier's brochure. Google's spam policies name scraped and stitched together content directly.
The first item does the most work. A page with three numbers a reader can trace is more persuasive than one with ten they cannot.
Updating a page is often the better job
Most established sites do not need more pages. They need the pages they have to be right. A service page written four years ago often carries old prices, a member of staff who has left, and no answer to the questions customers ask now.
A page that has been live for years has a record. It is indexed, other sites may link to it, and it may already sit on the second page of results for the question it half answers. Rewriting it in place, on the same address, keeps that record. A new page starts from nothing and then competes with the old one.
Read the full breakdown: Updating a page is often the better jobHide the full breakdown: Updating a page is often the better job
What counts as an update matters. Google's guidance on helpful content lists changing a page's date to make it seem fresh, when the content has not substantially changed, as a warning sign, and says that adding or removing content to look fresh does not help. A real update changes the substance: corrected facts, better answers, the sections that were missing, and overlapping pages merged into one with a redirect from the page being retired.
A working arrangement usually mixes the two. New pages where there is a genuine gap, and a steady pass through what already exists, worst first.
Where AI drafting fits, and where it does not
Google set out its position in February 2023, and its current documentation says the same thing. Its ranking systems aim to reward original, high-quality content however it is produced, and using AI gives a page no special advantage. It is simply content, judged like any other.
The same guidance is equally plain about the other side. Using automation, AI included, to generate content mainly to manipulate rankings breaks Google's spam policies. The policy on scaled content abuse covers many pages generated without adding value for users, no matter how they are created, and the sites involved can rank lower or drop out of results altogether.
Read the full breakdown: Where AI drafting fits, and where it does notHide the full breakdown: Where AI drafting fits, and where it does not
Our position follows from that. Tools are useful for transcribing an interview, researching a topic, suggesting a structure and catching errors. They are not a source of facts about your business. They cannot know what happens in your treatment room or on your job site, and they cannot take responsibility for a claim.
So nothing is published that a person who knows the subject has not edited, and nothing goes out until a named person at your business has approved the facts. Where a reader would reasonably wonder how a page was produced, Google suggests saying so, and we think that is right.
The rules that apply to the words
A web page that promotes a business is advertising, and the Federal Trade Commission's standard applies to it: claims must be truthful, must not be deceptive or unfair, and must be backed by evidence. A results claim needs its proof before it is published, not after somebody asks.
Health, money and safety raise the bar twice over. Google says its systems give more weight to signs of experience, expertise and trust on topics that could affect a person's health, financial stability or safety. And a practice's own obligations follow it onto the page: a patient story needs the patient's written authorisation, and no case example, caption or reply may reveal that somebody is a patient without it. The practice is responsible for its own compliance, and the regulator's guidance is listed with the sources for this page.
Read the full breakdown: The rules that apply to the wordsHide the full breakdown: The rules that apply to the words
Legal and financial writing sits under professional rules about how services and results may be described. We write inside them, and anything close to the line goes to your compliance contact first.
We are not lawyers. We will flag a sentence we think is a problem and suggest a version that says only what can be supported.
We do not publish a price for this piece of work on its own, because the right scope depends on what already exists. What is published is the bundle pricing: 2,400, 3,600 or 4,800 dollars a month depending on which channels are running. You can read the full breakdown on the pricing page, and you will get an exact number in writing before anything starts.
How this connects to the rest
Writing follows SEO content strategy. The strategy decides which questions deserve a page and in what order, and this service produces the pages. Without a plan, good writing gets spent on the wrong subjects.
It depends on technical SEO. A well written page on a site that cannot be crawled or indexed properly is read by nobody, which is why the technical work comes first.
It supplies answer engine optimization, which is largely a matter of how clearly a page answers the question it was written for.
Generative engine optimization asks the same of a page, with more weight on facts that can be checked and a business whose details agree everywhere.
It gives link building something to work with, because other sites link to pages that say something, and it feeds local SEO through the service and location pages that carry most enquiries.
And it borrows its voice from brand messaging, so a page written this month sounds like the business that answers the phone.
Pick the page that matters most and let us interview you.
Choose the service page that ought to bring in the most work and does not. One conversation with the person who does that work usually shows what the page has been missing.
Straight answers.
Who writes the pages?
A person, after talking to someone in your business who does the work. The writer's job is to ask what a customer would ask, and to keep asking until the answers are specific.
Your expert then reads the draft and corrects it. Nothing is published until a named person on your side has approved the facts.
Do you use AI to write?
Tools are used for research, transcription and structure. They are not used as a source of facts about your business, and no page is published without a person who knows the subject editing it.
Google says it rewards high-quality content however it is produced, and treats pages generated at scale without adding value as spam. Both halves point the same way: the test is whether the page helps, and an unreviewed draft rarely does.
How long should a page be?
As long as the question needs. Google says in its own guidance that it has no preferred word count, so writing to a number is wasted effort.
A page on what to do about a knocked out tooth should be short and fast. A page helping someone choose between two kinds of implant can run long, because that reader wants the detail.
What do you need from us?
Time with the person who knows the subject, the facts only you hold, such as prices, process and credentials, and someone with the authority to approve a draft.
Drafts waiting for approval are the most common reason content stalls, so a named reviewer matters more than anything we do.
Should old pages be rewritten or replaced?
Usually rewritten, on the same address. An existing page is already indexed and may have links pointing at it, and a new page would start from nothing and compete with it.
Replacement makes sense when the old page answers the wrong question entirely. In that case it is retired with a redirect to the page that takes over.
How do we know the writing worked?
By what the page does over the following months: whether it appears for the question it answers, whether enquiries arrive through it, and whether your team stops answering the same question on the phone.
No writer controls rankings, and anyone who promises a position is guessing. What can be controlled is whether the page is the most useful answer available, and that is what we work on.
Where this comes from.
Primary documentation and published research behind the guidance on this page.
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Google Search Central (opens in a new tab)
- Google spam policies for web search (opens in a new tab)Link spam, scaled content abuse and site reputation abuse.
- Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content, Google Search Central, 2023 (opens in a new tab)High-quality content is rewarded however it is produced, and automation aimed at rankings is spam.
- Plain language guide series, Digital.gov (opens in a new tab)The United States government's guidance on writing the public can understand, formerly at plainlanguage.gov.
- FTC truth in advertising (opens in a new tab)
- HIPAA and marketing, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (opens in a new tab)
Talk to the team
A short call, a look at how the business currently shows up, and a straight answer on what we would do first.