Is my SEO guy bad news?
-
Hi All...
I have had an SEO guy doing some work for us (link building etc) over the past few months.
In the last week or two, I have been receiving emails from a few website owners complaining that our SEO guy has been spamming their sites (either through blog comments or forums posts etc).
Now, to clarify, it's not spam as in "come and buy our awesome product" - it is spam as in he makes (for example) blog post comments that are relevant to the topic, that sometimes don't make perfect sense (due to his english skills). So, they do seem perhaps, extra spammy... (it is all hand written... not an automated scripts)
My questions
- Im not out to do the wrong thing, so, is this approach bad news?
- Apart from annoying people, are there are other downsides?
- If I were to pre-write him comments/posts that actually made perfect sense, would that be a better approach?
I don't want to annoy people, and I don't want to do the wrong thing, and I don't want our rankings to be effected, so... what is the consensus?
-
If you were to pre-write him comments and posts that made perfect sense, then you are either a) writing comments that make perfect sense but are so general that the person reading them knows that they could apply to hundreds of posts out there or b) you're reading the post and writing the comments so why are you bothering to hire him?
I agree with the advice that EGOL and Sha have given, and would add that reading through the Beginner's Guide to SEO could also be helpful.
-
Bad english? Did you hire someone from india?, i have been down that road, I finaly found one that understands what a quality link is.
Blog posting is next to useless i believe.I think it was Matt Cutts or Duane Forrester who stated that blog posts were not worth it, but good relevan of local directories were when mixed with a few quaility links. This is the path i am following untill i have evidence that differs
-
Hi blitzna,
It is highly unlikely that any of the comments he is submitting will ever be posted anyway, since most bloggers either hold them for moderation and would delete without approving, or they constantly monitor comments and immediately delete anything spammy.
The very first thing that you should do is share your SEOmoz referral link with your guy so that he can sign up for a PRO Trial. At the very least, he will get exposure to all of the content on SEOmoz (including Q&A) and learn some good things about link building. Even better if he sees the value of the membership and decides to sign up - and earn you $100 Referral!
With regard to your question:
The only time that blog commenting is really effective in link building is when you are able to make real contributions to build your authority and reputation. The prerequisite is always that you have something of value or interest to say and that it is totally relevant to the content of the post. Of course, for this to be effective, the blogs (or forums) you choose to comment on must be high visibility and seen as authoritative.
If you think that the problem is really just his inability to write well in english, then you could try another way of approaching the problem:
- Get him to send you his responses for editing before he posts them (if you feel he has the knowledge to make a valuable contribution on your behalf)
- Get him to identify posts that you might be interested in contributing to.
He could either find the posts and send you the links so that you can drop by the blog and add the comment yourself, or if it is difficult for you to do that - perhaps you are likely to be interrupted, don't want to spend time reading other comments etc - he could send you the content of the post and you could type your comments at a convenient time and return to him for posting.
The value of the links themselves will not have a huge impact for your site, but the fact that you become more visible as an authority in your industry is quite likely to result in people becoming interested in you and your business. The overall outcome is that you will quite possibly gain links naturally through increased visibility of your content, social sharing etc.
In addition, I would point him to the SEOmoz SEO Web Directory List and this post from Cyrus about using SEO Link Directory best practices.
If Local search is important for your business, you could also suggest that he try the free version of Whitespark Local Citation Finder to identify any other local citation sources that might be relevant.
With some good exposure to the resources available here on SEOmoz and a good team approach, it is quite likely that you can improve things for your site as well as for your SEO guy
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
I have competitors in my vertical that comment for rank and I have actually seen a small percentage work. This method is usually done in a way that doesn't but when done effectively to gain ranks they usually get destroyed in branding. People don't like when you comment for rank so I would suggest finding a new tactic with less risk of backlash and damage to your brand.
-
I would hire someone else. This guy is stinking up your brand. He is also defacing other websites.
Your question is intelligently worded, reads easily, perfect spelling and more. I bet you have some really nice sites. So, you would probably be irritated if someone posted illiterate crap all over them.
-
In most cases, blog commenting is not terribly helpful in terms of SEO. I have a few websites that consistently spam my blogs in hopes of me publishing a comment and it is terribly annoying.
Is your SEO building any quality links? If you're paying him for a certain number of links and all you are getting is blog comments and forum sigs then it's time to get a new strategy!
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
-
Difference in Forum and Blog for SEO
I was pushing my employer to agree to switch to add a blog onto our site and he asked me, what is the difference between the blog and a forum for SEO purposes. Besides the general look and feel and a forum being more community oriented, is a blog better than a forum for seo, and if so, why? It can be vice-versa I just need to fully understand this myself so I can begin to work on one and explain it to my employer. If anyone can provide any insight, it will be much appreciated.
Content Development | | ithvac0 -
My Boss tells me personal narrative content isn't read online and bad for SEO, anyone else disagree? b/c I do!
I am in a constant debate that content 1st person or 3rd person doesn't make a difference in terms of SEO and what people on the web want to read. What do you all think? Does it make a difference?
Content Development | | GoAbroadKP0 -
Is it possible to aggregate news content?
Currently all of our content is produced internally, but I would like to expirement with aggregating 50% of our content from external publishers. The content wouldn't be full articles, but instead the excepts with a link back to the source. Is there a way to aggregate content without being penalized? We are using wordpress.
Content Development | | ejovi0 -
Is this a worthwhile SEO tactic?
Many 'list' articles break down so that number one is on page one, and you are asked to click 'Next' to see number two. Number two is on page two, etc. For example: http://www.prevention.com/health/health-concerns/12-replacements-high-cholesterol-foods Is this done simply to keep bounce rate down? Is it something I should try, or is it frowned upon in any way? Will it help bounce rate? If it's a good practice, how would I do this in a Wordpress blog post? Thanks!
Content Development | | getwilder20 -
Is paid content a good or bad thing
Hi, over the past couple of years we have turned down thousands of request from companies to have paid editorial on our sites, I have always turned this down but i have seen some sites accept this and would like to know your stance on this. In newspapers and magazines which i have worked in both, they have paid editorial all the time, so i am just wondering what google thinks of paid editorial. look forward to hearing your thoughts
Content Development | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Clear examples of SEO success with content marketing needed.
I know SEOmoz is always going on about content marketing as the best SEO tactic, but I'm struggling to achieve search engine success with it for my site. Has anybody very successfully pursued a content marketing strategy for their site in a competitive niche? Can you give us the examples? (including the keywords you succeeded for). Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks
Content Development | | kevinmorley0 -
RSS News
(By Google Traductor) Hi, within our community we have developed a news service (www.agroads.com.ar/noticias/) where we had about 30 sourcesrss. News grouped into categories and generate an internal link to see the details (and also a link to see the full story in the appropriate media). It is our first experience with a news site and wanted to know:
Content Development | | romaro
1. We keep track of all news from all media? (would be creating agreat sitemap in the future:)
2. We must clarify in the sitemap that are sources of news?
3. Google may consider it duplicate content?
4. We're taking data from different source types (html, video andpodcast), we must differentiate this content to index? Any other suggestions would be welcome.
Greetings!
Robert0