A What question

What content creation services does an SEO company provide?

4 min read Cites 3 sources

The services fall into a small set of deliverables: informational pages such as guides and blog posts, service and landing pages, product and category copy for online stores, updates to pages you already have, and the titles and descriptions that go with each page. Some companies write all of these, some write only to a brief you supply, and some only advise you on what to write. Whatever the mix, two questions come before price: whether each deliverable is defined in writing, and whether the content meets what Google describes as helpful, reliable, people-first content.

Informational pages

Guides and blog posts answer the questions people ask while they are researching, before they are ready to buy. The test for each one is what it adds. Google’s self-assessment questions include: “Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?” and “If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources, and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?” Ask the company what each planned piece will contain that the pages already ranking for the topic do not.

Be wary of a plan specified mainly in words per piece. Google asks site owners: “Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count?” Its answer, in the same line, is “(No, we don’t.)” A word count tells you how long a piece will be, not what it will add.

Service and landing pages

These pages describe what you sell and are written to turn a visitor into an inquiry or a sale. For a local business, that can mean a page for each core service or each area you serve. Area pages need care. Google’s spam policies give, as an example of doorway abuse, “Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.” Each area page should carry information that belongs to that area; if the planned pages differ only by the name of the town, ask what they are for. The facts on them, such as what you offer, where, and on what terms, can only come from you, so expect to supply that information and to check every draft for accuracy. The company’s part is the structure, the wording, and matching each page to the searches it is meant to serve.

Product and category copy

For online stores, the company may write or rewrite product descriptions and category page text. If that copy is generated with AI and your product data also goes to Google Merchant Center, Google’s guidance on generative AI content points to Merchant Center’s own rule: “AI-generated product data such as title and description attributes must be specified separately and labeled as AI-generated.” Ask how the company handles that before it rewrites a catalog.

Updates to existing pages

Not all content work is new writing. A company may update outdated information, expand thin sections, restructure headings, and rewrite copy that is not doing its job. What counts is the change to the substance. One of Google’s self-assessment questions is: “Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?” A refresh deliverable should therefore come with a note of what was changed on each page, not just a new date.

Titles and descriptions

Each new or updated page comes with its title and meta description, which shape how the page is listed in search results. These are delivered with the page they belong to, and they get the same review as the page itself.

If the company uses AI to write

Ask directly whether and how the company uses generative AI. Google’s guidance says generative AI “can be particularly useful when researching a topic, and to add structure to original content.” It also says that using such tools “to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate Google’s spam policy on scaled content abuse.” It sets the review standard plainly: “It is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing.” It adds that the same review applies to metadata: title elements, meta descriptions, structured data, and the alternative text for images. So the useful question is who checks the facts in each piece before it reaches your site, and how.

Authorship is worth settling at the same time. Google’s helpful content guidance asks: “Do pages carry a byline, where one might be expected?” Decide whose name appears on the content the company writes for you, and make sure that person can stand behind it.

Content terms to get in writing

Before you sign, have the company state which content types it will produce, how many pieces of each, on what schedule, how many revision rounds are included, whether it publishes to your site or hands over files, how it uses AI and who checks the facts, and who owns the finished content when the engagement ends. If a company cannot describe its content work in those terms, ask for that detail before you commit.

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