Improving SEO with no blog
-
I have a client who understands the value of content for SEO - however getting them to provide some content has proven an impossible task.
I've tried every way to make it easy for them. I've offered to come over to their office myself and see if I can just take 15 minutes of their time and record their answers to a few questions. The response is that's a great idea, we'll set up a time...and no time is ever good.
So I've thought, what can I do without them? Unfortunately, their industry is so technical and so niche I'd need to have a law degree to even begin to understand exactly what they do, and as they are in law it's probably better to have no content than content with something even slightly incorrect in it.
For now, all I can do is summarize and share news from a government website to their social media accounts. It's not highly effective.
Their on-page SEO for the main site is completely optimized. I've placed them in every free listing I can possibly find - both industry and local sites. I have them update me on any local events, conferences and/or trade shows they attend for possible backlinks.
What else can I do? I suppose I fear that if I can't provide them any additional results, they will stop seeing the value in SEO services, and I'd have a hard time disagreeing as I can't think of what else to do for them.
Thanks for any help!
-
I hear ya, Egol.
-
Hi Kat,
You're getting some good ideas from the community here. I want to add just a bit ... from reading your story about this client, I am getting this:
-
It's the client who has a problem here - not you. Failing to follow through even when you are bending over backwards, offering to come their office to take notes like a stenographer is all on the client - not on you. I've been writing copy for businesses for well over a decade at this point, and if a client can't take the time to fill out my questionnaires or keep phone appointments for follow-up questions or content brainstorming sessions, then they are not giving me what I need to do my job properly for them. It sounds like this is the situation you are currently in with your client.
-
There are two ways to be visible on the Internet. One involves all of the efforts you'd like to use on this client's behalf. The other is a straight monetary transaction between the business and advertising space. So, if the client cannot make the time to facilitate you making the effort to create content (plan A) then they should take the money they would have spent on this, likely increase the budget and start funneling all of that into paid advertising (plan B) that leads to a decent site, if they cannot run a great one.
Likely, the lawyers are simply too busy to sit down and think out a clear plan. They may be flinging money here and there hoping something will work, but then they're failing to back that up with the effort of teaching you about their business. So, there may be one more appointment you need to make with this client: to discuss whether PPC would be a better route for them than a halfhearted effort to win visibility via content that never gets created.
I totally feel for you in this situation and have been in it myself. If I didn't understand this type of lack going into a project, I've refunded the client and moved on. Good luck to you in this!
-
-
That's not a bad plan! I will see if they have any pre-made information available. I actually did take a long document they had and make it into a few mini-posts myself, and it was helpful, so it would be wise to see if they have anymore. Thanks for that idea.
I thought about posting semi-related things to their niche, but their firm needs to be seen as highly respectable, 100% professional and serious, so I fear that anything like that will make them seem...frivolous?
We do a variety of marketing services, but bill SEO as a separate service, which I am responsible for. Trying to explore every avenue of what I can continue to do for them.
-
Thank you for the response Highland!
I'm with you, honestly. I don't think they need a blog - while I could think of quite a few pieces of good content for them, it would require more time and effort than they can give, and I don't really blame them for that.
I do work for a digital marketing and design agency, and we provide them with marketing collateral materials for tradeshows and whatnot, but the agency bills SEO as its own separate service, a service that I am in charge of.
They do show up on every local keyword search since I optimized their site, and on mobile searches as well. It's not that they rank poorly in any search related to their industry, could be better of course, but still my job is to have improvements to report to them every month that I am unable to deliver, now that I have run out of things I can do without their input.
-
Getting content from some clients is like pulling molars from a stubborn mule.
A long time ago I used to have clients and after experiencing this problem I decided to start writing content and placing it on my own site. After doing that for about 15 years, I have a lot of content that brings in a lot of traffic and I am far better off and enjoying myself a lot more than if I were still doing dental work on mules.
Have you thought about doing this? Content producers are the most valuable people on the web (far more valuable than SEOs And, if they know a little bit about making a website, doing a little SEO, and maybe a little about marketing they can make all of the money that their content produces year-over-year-over-year-over-year... etc.. you get it.... instead of selling it to mules for a one-time fee.
-
Highland brings up some great points that I agree with. I definitely am learning as well that for some clients that are larger and has an in-house team that you support as an SEO, they might just want you to focus on SEO. But if it's a smaller company you're working with that maybe doesn't have their own Director of Marketing, then you kind of want to take on that role and provide a variety of services. It's kind of a business-dependent approach, meaning every company has different needs - no two are the same. Although productizing the services for clarity, ease of pitching is a good idea too.
In response to your question, I would agree with you that it is a difficult situation - writing content for a law firm that you don't have the technical chops for. Assuming that you're dealing with lawyers - I would imagine they are super busy and their billable hourly rate is so high that they're incentivized to work on their own client work rather than help you write content.
Perhaps rather than a blog, you can organize and repackage lawyer-approved information and helpful guides to post on their site. Think about who their clients are and what the clients need help with and serve them the best info possible on the site. Showcase the trust and authority of the firm with evergreen content.
If you do decide to continue blogging, perhaps take the Movado approach - where in their real estate niche instead of talking about real estate jargon and industry issues, they broaden out to talk about cities, neighborhoods, and local topics in cities across the world.
-
Why do you NEED a blog? More importantly, why do you need a blog for what is a highly technical (and probably arcane) topic?
Blogging is not for everyone and everything. Blogging is for where there is some form of dialog or constant change where you can generate fresh content people want to read on a regular basis. I have one website where a blog makes a lot of sense. It lends itself to lots of artsy-deco blogs and we have some talented young ladies who have found a niche in writing that. Their readership isn't stellar, but combined with social media efforts it works decently well. I have many other websites where we have no blog and never will, because attempting to blog about those topics would be pointless because nobody would ever read them. Instead, we put the information out and then market the sites as best as we can.
It sounds like you're a bit too niche here. If all you do is SEO, and don't offer, say, online marketing, you're really missing out because SEO as a job by itself is really hard to sustain. Offer to set up an Adwords campaign or offer to do some work on their social media. Maybe they need more local efforts. Do they show up on your phone if you search for what it is that they do? I find myself using Google Now a TON for local because Google makes it stupid easy to find. Websites, maps and phones numbers (with one click to open up my dialer and call).
Offering more services should help keep your clients happy. Especially if they don't have the time (or drive) to work with you on SEO.
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
-
International SEO: reposting my own posts to different ccTLDs versions of my website
Hello there Moz community! Moz has been super helpful for me and the team, keep up the good work! I have searched online for answers regarding my specific situation, but I haven't found any. I'm asking my fellow Moz users in hopes of an answer. Maybe this thread will help others too. I currently have this domain: https://eco-reusable.com/ I would like to target Ireland and the UK with my keywords so I have just bought eco-reusable**.IE** and eco-reusable**.CO.UK** My questions are: 1. In order to rank as high as possible for Ireland, do I create a new website for eco-reusable.ie using the same pages but changing all the content slightly so it is not duplicate content OR do I point the eco-reusable.ie domain to eco-reusable.com? By having two sites, we will add more hours but we don't mind if that will be of benefit in the longrun for ranking high in Ireland. I have the same question for eco-reusable.co.uk
Local Website Optimization | | Gael_Regnault
If we have to create three websites and make similar content (not duplicate), we will if it will be better for ranking high in ireland for .ie, in the UK for .co.uk and for the rest of the world for .com 2. If we create three websites, can I safely "copy/paste" my blog posts without being punished by Google for duplicate content? If so, how much variation do we have to have for each of the three sites if we are writing blogs that are the same context. Thank you in advance! 🙂0 -
Research on industries that are most competitive for SEO?
I am trying to see if there is a reputable / research-backed source that can show which industries are most competitive for search engine optimization. In particularly, I'd be interested in reports / research related to the residential real estate industry, which I believe based on anecdotal experience to be extremely competitive.
Local Website Optimization | | Kevin_P3 -
Does A Local Therapist Need A Blog, or Should They Focus on Main Service Pages?
Hi everyone! I am just starting to practice SEO by assisting a friend with her local relationship therapy practice, and I'm not sure whether or not she needs a blog. Here's the content they currently have: A page for specific categories within relationship therapy (unmarried couples, marriage, divorce, pre-marital, etc) On each page, she describes what that type of therapy is, what clients can expect, and how she will help them during the process. My question is this: Does it make sense to start a blog, or, is it better to build out the main, static service pages with more content? I'm worried that if she does start a blog, that it could potentially take away from the authority of the main service pages. For example, let's say she writes a highly specific post titled "how to talk to your husband about marriage". Is it better to just incorporate aspects of this post on the main marriage page, or keep it as a blog post? I really appreciate any suggestions and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Local Website Optimization | | onitamara0 -
What is the best way to differentiate and optimize two similar websites's SEO?
What is the best way to differentiate and optimize two similar websites's SEO, having in mind that they do not produce content?
Local Website Optimization | | EmmaGeorge0 -
What Is The Best Strategy For Writing Image Alt Text For SEO?
Curious on this topic, as websites that are image heavy, but have little written content can have depend on alt text for "readable content". I am aware the "best practice" is to write it as if you were describing the image to a blind person, but are there any SEO strategies that people have seen good results with? Some examples I've heard are: "unique keyword phrase" "unique keyword phrase + brand name" "Unique Keyword Phrase + LSI Keyword" Interested to hear feedback from the Moz Community! And thanks in advance for sharing your insight.
Local Website Optimization | | LureCreative0 -
Blogs/content marketing or slower salesfunnel on webshop?
Hi all, Im considering about building contents en blogs on a webshop, because a visitor will get see a lot of information about blogs, etc. The salefunnel will be chaotic, purchasing will be slower on a webshop. The webshop has more then 5000 products. Focus on gamers. For example Ikea or mahuranna shop, they have builded a website near their webshops. To get more traffic ofcourse, but its to hard to do both of them. Your focus will get lost and they way of communication on website/shop will be changing. Your brand and strategic will also change a lot, thats why im considering to find the right way. Who can give me an advice?
Local Website Optimization | | Dreamgame20160 -
Local SEO - Multiple stores on same URL
Hello guys, I'm working on a plan of local SEO for a client that is managing over 50 local stores. At the moment all the stores are sharing the same URL address and wanted to ask if it s better to build unique pages for each of the stores or if it's fine to go with all of them on the same URL. What do you think? What's the best way and why? Thank you in advance.
Local Website Optimization | | Noriel0 -
Is this cloaking or some dangerous blackhat SEO tactic?
Hey wonderful SEO guys, I need your advice. Would the following be considered cloaking, or a black hat SEO tactic. I performed the following search for Guess tops on Google: "Guess women's tops." Please see the attached image (Guess 1) of the description tag that comes up with this search. This not the primary page description tag, but when you visit the women's tops tag, that description is not visible on the page. In fact it is placed in the meta name section (see Guess meta-name description image). The information appears as a description on a SERPS depending on the keyword search performed, but the text is just not visible on the tops page. Can this be considered a form of cloaking? If not, is this a dangerous blackhat SEO tactic, or actually nothing to be worried about? We are thinking of doing something similar with some of lengthy homepage introductions-making them invisible, but still appearing on SERPS, as long as it relates to content that is clearly on the website, or what the website is about. Please advise. Thanks. qiNXxYR.png BXKZn08.png
Local Website Optimization | | Lovingly0