Content development for a highly technical subject

[Marcia]

Some web developer is asking to have some SEO work done and copy written for the homepage for one of their client sites. The problem is that it's a Fortune 1K company that's business to business in a very technical field, and even after researching a bit there's no way to tell what the products are all about. The site itself is small and the information sparse.

Is there some way to find out more specifics, even keyword research, or would it be better to turn the writing part of it over to a "regular" technical writer?

[ukgimp]

If you cant do technical in that subject I would suggest you get someone who can. Some fields can be covered quite easily, but the subject almost has to be learned. Thats is the difficult bit from a time perspective, actually having to learn the subject.

I did some legal stuff not long ago, it took an age, because it was the law and had to be bang on the nail, big fat displaimer aside. I ended up getting quite pissy as the time spent going backwards and forwards the due could have written it himself then I could have taken the "look down the nose legal slant" of it. :)

Having done that and realising how much time it took, I have to say I would favour getting someone else to do it and then rehash it myself afterwards to seo it, if you know what I mean.

[IanTurner]

My own view is to look at the potential customers of the site. If the site is targetting a very knowledgeable audience then getting someone who knows the field to write the copy is a good idea, however if you are targetting 'lay people' as the users of the site, it may be better to do the writing yourself from some background reading and product brochures as that way you will be able to slant it towards the sort of language the potential customer is going to use.

For example if your selling pharmacy related products you use terms like 'pain killer' rather than 'analgesic' for lay customers, but if you are targetting bulk sales to hospitals and doctors then 'analgesic' is probably a more technically correct term.

[jimbeetle]

>>even after researching a bit there's no way to tell what the products are all about

Sounds like this is a situation where the three parties have to work tightly hand-in-hand. If the products are as arcane as you make them sound I would think the client's marketing department should provide the appropriate copy and then the developer and SEO person bung it together for presentation. Then, of course, repeat the above more times than you'd think possible.

I guess I just don't think an outside tech writer, no matter how familiar one can be with the actual product, would be aware of the client's marketing strategies: which bells and whistles to feature; whether to emphasize quality over price or go with cost effectiveness, etc. And, as a Fortune 1K company, they probably have some very strong ideas about this.

They should know their products and strategies better than anybody else.

[nakulgoyal]

I think some expert copywriter would be able to do it. Try finding some writers elsewhere and ask them to provide a sample. I am sure you will find someone to do 90% of the work for you and the rest 10% u can copyedit yourselves.