Client Content Strategy (or lack of)
-
Hey everyone,
I just finished pitching a client for some SEO work. He said he does not want to write any type of content. He also said his industry is so unique that he does not want anyone else writing content for him either. His site has about 25 pages of total content now.
I am going to get all of his onpage seo good to go but what would you do? Just build links?
I really prefer to have some sort of content strategy in place but find it can be challenging with clients.
-
If he answers those questions once on his website via an FAQ, then he doesn't have to go back and answer them time and time again in email and phone!
-
I would do some analytics (after your new SEO matures) and show him how each page of the site is pulling in visitors. Then explain if he gets pages up for new content each of them will pull in more visitors. That should make "chaching" in his brain and might motivate him into new content. Maybe you can suggest some topics in his industry where he does not have search presence?
I really enjoy hearing about people who don't want to write content. It allows me to take their money!
-
If it's a matter of not wanting to "write" any type of content, is he interested in any sort of content? The fact is that SEO and search is concerned with delivering content to searchers looking for it, so without content you won't have much to go on (25 pages can still work, though, it all depends on the quality of that content and the depth of the searcher's intent: do those 25 pages answer their query and satisfy their search, or will they bounce to a competitor's site?)...
I look at your question this way:
If your client is simply averse to writing, what sort of content is he more comfortable in delivering?
If your client is satisfied with his 25 pages, can you find keywords and examples where competitors are eating his lunch? Showing lost opportunity can help change his mind.
But at the end of the day, you need to ask your client what his goals are, and if this roadblock in content opinion is going to hinder your progress in helping meet the goals...if content is going to remain at 25 pages, you have to weigh that against the stated goal and deliver the reality check.
Other than that, it's hard to say what I'd do in your shoes apart from seeing the site and knowing the niche: knowing the opportunities at hand and knowing how deep you want to on this project is really up to you to determine. (That is, you have to know if you're actually able to even do your job given these limitations, and if not then you need to tell your client you can only deliver so much in terms of ROI and move accordingly.)
Another way to look at it is that you've just been given a defined boundary: making your job potentially much easier than it would be otherwise had there been more content to rank.
[I see a bit too late that there were 2 other responses above mine - whoops! I'm too lazy to edit other than making the observation.]
-
Good idea! This is actually what I have done in the past. The client was reluctant but is now writing his weekly content.
-
Thanks for the response! Yes, that does make sense. He said he does not want to spend time on things that do not directly make him money. He said he doesn't want to answer questions, be involved, etc. He just wants to do his craft. He said he tried it in the past and he was spending more time answering questions than actually making money.
-
Always tricky....
I'd set the client expectations first - let them know that in your professional opinion there needs to be a content strategy and without one they won't reach their desired goals - and then just let it be (for now). Move on to implementing the rest of your SEO strategy. During reporting time where rankings are slow or making no improvements you can just mention that it's due to lack of content and suggest a content strategy again but this time just trial one or two pages and track progress (rankings, conversions, bounce-rates perhaps....etc). After 2-3 months of the content (working alongside your link build and on-page optimization) the results should speak for themselves.
Good luck!
-
Perhaps one way to re-open the content discussion is to show him that content, aka "conversations" are taking place online about his topics/products. Those conversations are going to take place whether he writes content or not. Does he want those conversations to be able to define his business, without his participation? Or would he prefer to be part of the conversation? I think it might just be a matter of showing him that conversations are going to take place regardless of what he does or doesn't do, and that ultimately it would be much better for him to participate. Hope that makes sense!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Content Marketing and Link Building Strategy in Industrial B2B
We struggle link building because engineering sector has few blogs and is much more traditional than many industries. I've just had a new idea on how to do this and wanted to bounce it off people to help refine it and improve it. Search LinkedIn for "content marketing" or similar Refine by Industry etc Ask people on resulting list to guest post on our blog - which is focused on engineers in our sector Then..... For us it boosts our blog content with high quality posts that are interesting for our audience and maybe some traffic benefit. For them it provides SEO benefits and possibly some market exposure. How can I parlay this into getting a link back as well? What else can I do to make it more effective? Cheers Denis
Link Building | | Zippy-Bungle1 -
Link building strategy - my weak link!
Please help me understand link building. I've read the articles on Moz, but they seem vague to me. Specific questions: 1. How do I get my webpage on good quality sites? 2. Guest blogging? Good or not? 3. What about when people pick up one of our blog stories and publish it on their site with a link back? Is that bad now because it is duplicate content??? 4. Forum posts with a link in the signature? Good or not? 5. Directories - I get it that these are no longer good... are they severely negative? Should I take them down. 6. PR - Looks like this is bad... right??? 7. Youtube - any value? 8. Pinterst, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram? Any value to backlinks here? 9. What about sites like redit? 10. Anything else I should consider?
Link Building | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Should my client stop their large-scale spammy link building immediately or taper off slowly?
I'm working with a company that that is doing a lot of black-hat link building, and they got hit by Penguin 2.0. Should they stop all spammy link building immediately or slowly, over time? Is it possible that stopping all the spammy link building immediately will hurt the site? Thank you for reading!
Link Building | | DA20130 -
Is my SEO Strategy is good to rank ?
I just planned my SEO Strategy for low competition keywords 1. Submit articles to top 30+ web 2.0 sites 2. Submit bookmark to top 50 sites 3. Submit Article directories to top 10 sites 4. Link them all with Wiki and blog comments Kindly let me know your suggestions
Link Building | | chandubaba0 -
Backlinks in client website footers - best strategy?
I work for a web design & development agency. We are looking to rank for 'web design' and 'web development'. Typically we have a credit in the footer of every site we build (below). We have a lot of backlinks (>60,000) this way. web design and development by We link 'web design and development' and '<our name="">' separately.
Link Building | | JeromeSavon
Does this strategy sound ok and can anyone suggest improvements?</our> Thanks0 -
Content Calendar Help
Hey guys, I am about to start creating a content calendar that I will be using to pitch blogs and news websites with the goal of gaining a link and driving traffic to my site. Do you guys have some bookmarked links that can help me follow a step by step process on how to develop a content calendar? I'm looking at something like what tools to use, how to figure out what's hot in a particular niche, social media topics, etc. Thanks in advance!
Link Building | | Workaholic0 -
Should I Update content if Doing well in google
I have a page that is doing ok in google, it is for a service but i am not to sure if i should re write it and update it. The content page is in position two on page two in google, so should i re write the page to try and increase page rank for the service or should i leave it alone any advice would be great
Link Building | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Create content or more link building?
For those of you who have been doing white hat SEO for many years, I'm curious what % of your time (and/or how many hours/week) you spend on 2 activities: -- creating new, original content for your site -- work on getting links to your existing content I find that working at getting links via article marketing, guest blogging, forum posting, etc, is an open ended time suck that never ends. But maybe a necessary investment for sites that have fewer external links than their competitors (?). Adding unique original content to my site is also time consuming, and I'm not sure about the short-term vs long-term benefit of it. I'm curious if you guys who rank in top 3 positions of the SERPs split your time evenly between link building and content building, or if you spend more time on one than the other? And does the answer change for a site that's been around for a while and already has several hundred external links and several hundred pages of original content? Where should I spend my time on a site that is 8 months old, has about 90 pages of original content (all with good on-page SEO), and several hundred external links (with mostly relevant anchor texts)? My goal is to rank higher for the key terms people search on to find a service like mine. Currently I'm on page 1 in SERPs but not in top 3.
Link Building | | scanlin0