Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Website Writer
💰 $ - $
🎯 Role Definition
A Website Writer is responsible for planning, writing, editing, and optimizing web-native content that improves organic search performance, drives conversions, and strengthens brand voice across product pages, blog posts, landing pages, email templates, and help center articles. This role combines editorial discipline, SEO best practices, content strategy, and close collaboration with designers, developers, product managers, and SEO specialists to create content that is discoverable, usable, and aligned to business KPIs.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Junior Content Writer
- Copywriter or SEO Copywriter
- Content Marketing Coordinator
Advancement To:
- Senior Website Writer / Senior Content Strategist
- Content Manager / Content Lead
- SEO Content Manager or Head of Content
Lateral Moves:
- UX Writer / Product Content Designer
- Content Marketing Manager
- Editorial Manager
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Research, plan, and write clear, engaging, and SEO-optimized website copy across homepages, product pages, landing pages, blog posts, help center articles, and promotional microsites, ensuring content aligns with brand voice and UX guidelines.
- Conduct keyword research and intent analysis using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner to inform topic selection, on-page optimization, and content structure.
- Optimize existing website content for organic search performance by rewriting meta titles and descriptions, improving header structure (H1–H3), and implementing internal linking strategies to increase visibility and click-through rates.
- Draft persuasive, conversion-focused landing page copy and calls-to-action (CTAs) designed to improve lead generation, trial sign-ups, or product purchases, and collaborate with CRO specialists to test variations.
- Create and maintain a scalable, prioritized content roadmap and editorial calendar in collaboration with marketing, product, and growth teams to support launches, campaigns, and seasonal promotions.
- Implement on-page technical SEO recommendations in partnership with developers, including schema markup, canonical tags, URL optimization, and page speed considerations, and verify changes using Google Search Console.
- Produce long-form thought leadership and pillar content that supports topical authority, internal linking clusters, and content hub strategies to grow domain authority and organic traffic.
- Work with designers and UX teams to create content-first page layouts, wireframes, and microcopy that enhance usability, accessibility, and conversion on desktop and mobile.
- Write and edit product descriptions, feature pages, and pricing pages that communicate value propositions clearly and reduce friction in the buyer journey.
- Conduct content audits and gap analyses to identify underperforming pages, opportunities for consolidation, and repurposing existing content into new formats (guides, infographics, scripts).
- Monitor content performance using Google Analytics, Search Console, and other analytics platforms; translate data into actionable content improvements and regular performance reports to stakeholders.
- Build and enforce editorial guidelines, content templates, and style guides that maintain consistent brand voice, tone, grammar, and terminology across all web properties.
- Collaborate with legal, compliance, and product teams to ensure all web content meets regulatory requirements, industry standards, and accessibility (WCAG) guidelines.
- Produce SEO-friendly image alt text, captions, and multimedia descriptions for photos, videos, and interactive elements to support discoverability and accessibility.
- Use A/B testing frameworks and tools (e.g., Optimizely, Google Optimize) to test headlines, messaging, and page structures, and iterate on copy based on statistically significant results.
- Localize and adapt website content for international markets in coordination with localization teams or translation vendors, ensuring cultural and linguistic relevance.
- Create and optimize help center, FAQ, and onboarding content that reduces support tickets, improves user self-serve success, and shortens time to value.
- Integrate AI-assisted writing workflows responsibly—crafting prompts, evaluating drafts, editing for accuracy and brand fit, and fact-checking outputs to maintain quality and originality.
- Produce briefings, content briefs, and SEO-focused outlines for freelance writers, agencies, or cross-functional contributors to ensure consistency and efficient scaling of content production.
- Manage version control and publishing schedules within CMS platforms (e.g., WordPress, Contentful, HubSpot), including QA of published pages and rollback procedures if issues arise.
- Evangelize content best practices across teams through training sessions, documentation, and regular reviews to increase content literacy and alignment with business goals.
Secondary Functions
- Support ad-hoc marketing and product launches by producing campaign microsites, email copy, and social captions adapted from core website content.
- Assist with internal content governance by tagging content, maintaining metadata, and ensuring taxonomy and tagging are consistent for analytics and personalization.
- Participate in user research sessions, usability testing, and stakeholder interviews to inform content decisions and iterate on messaging based on qualitative feedback.
- Contribute to cross-functional sprint planning and agile ceremonies to align content deliverables with product roadmaps and engineering timelines.
- Maintain a backlog of evergreen content opportunities and quick wins for SEO improvements; prioritize based on effort, impact, and alignment with strategic KPIs.
- Collaborate with multimedia producers to script and produce short-form video, webinars, and interactive content that complements written website assets.
- Communicate changes in search engine algorithms or content trends to leadership and recommend tactical shifts to preserve or improve organic performance.
- Manage relationships with external vendors, freelance writers, and agencies to scale content production while maintaining quality and brand consistency.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Expert-level web copywriting and on-page SEO, including crafting meta titles, meta descriptions, schema suggestions, and header hierarchy for discoverability.
- Keyword research and topical cluster strategy using tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, or Google Keyword Planner.
- Experience with major CMS platforms (WordPress, Contentful, HubSpot, Drupal) and familiarity with publishing workflows, templates, and page builders.
- Proficiency with Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and basic SQL or analytics querying for content performance measurement and reporting.
- Familiarity with technical SEO concepts—canonicalization, hreflang, structured data, page speed, and crawlability—and collaboration experience with developers to implement fixes.
- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) experience: designing content for experiments, crafting hypothesis-driven copy, and analyzing A/B test results.
- Basic HTML/CSS knowledge to format content, troubleshoot rendering issues, and collaborate effectively with front-end developers.
- Experience using editorial tools and quality software (Grammarly, Hemingway, Clearscope, SurferSEO, Yoast) to optimize readability and SEO relevance.
- Strong competency in content auditing and information architecture to plan content consolidation, topic clusters, and navigation improvements.
- Familiarity with localization workflows, translation management systems, and adapting content for regional markets.
- Experience creating and using content briefs, editorial calendars, and style guides to scale multi-channel content production.
- Practical experience with AI/LLM tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard) for ideation, outlining, and draft generation, paired with robust human editing and fact-checking processes.
Soft Skills
- Exceptional written communication and editing skills with an eye for clarity, brevity, and persuasive storytelling.
- Strong research skills and intellectual curiosity to learn complex product features, industries, and user problems quickly.
- Collaboration and stakeholder management: ability to influence product managers, designers, engineers, and growth teams without direct authority.
- Attention to detail and strong organizational skills to manage multiple content projects, deadlines, and revision cycles simultaneously.
- Data-informed mindset: comfortable interpreting analytics and translating quantitative insights into content improvements.
- Creativity and problem-solving orientation to craft novel content angles, experiment with formats, and test messaging hypotheses.
- Time management and prioritization skills to balance tactical content production with strategic planning and optimization work.
- Empathy and user-centric thinking to write content that anticipates user needs, reduces friction, and supports conversion.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in Communications, Journalism, Marketing, English, or a related field.
Preferred Education:
- Bachelor's or Master's in Marketing, Journalism, Communications, English, Technical Writing, or another content-related discipline; professional SEO or content marketing certifications a plus.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Journalism
- Marketing / Digital Marketing
- English / Creative Writing
- Communications
- Technical Writing
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range: 2–6 years writing web content, with progressive responsibility in SEO-driven environments; 0–2 years acceptable for junior roles with strong portfolio.
Preferred:
- 3+ years producing website content in a commercial environment, with measurable results (organic traffic growth, improved CTR, conversion lifts).
- Demonstrated experience working directly with CMS platforms, SEO tools, analytics, and cross-functional teams to ship high-impact content.
- Portfolio of live URLs or content samples showing SEO optimization, content strategy execution, and conversion-focused writing.