Doing SEO for multiple clients, who should make the content?
-
I realize that since content marketing is (or can be) a part of SEO, then it would logically follow that it's up to whoever is doing the SEO to create the content*. And when it's 1 person or a small group of people that work for 1 company, doing its SEO, that makes perfect sense. But I'm having a little trouble wrapping my mind around how that's supposed to scale up for an outside agency responsible for the SEO of 5 or 10 or 50 other companies.
One of the biggest factors in my misunderstanding of the system is the reasoning for creating content in the first place. I absolutely understand how a professional in some field (let's say dentistry for example) could write up some insightful, accurate blog post about why flossing is great. After all, a dentist does (or should, hopefully) have a level of expertise on the subject that most people don't have. That blog post is a tangible addition of value to the website for anyone curious about the subject.
But why would anyone want to read a blog post about wisdom teeth written by just some random person at a marketing company? If that person has the time to do a lot of research and BECOME something of an authority on the subject of dental care, then that's fine. But what if they also need to create content for clients that do plumbing, car repairs, and cooking? I don't really see how someone can become enough of an expert on enough subjects and still have any time to do the other parts of their job. Maybe I'm just expecting too much, but I sort of feel that the internet is already full enough of advice and information from people that have no idea what they're talking about, so content from someone that's not an expert (but is a marketing person that the expert hired) seems... frivolous to me.
So to get back to the actual question, should/can an SEO ask their clients to create at least some of their own content, or is it the SEO's responsibility to generate all the content, even if it's not always stellar? Or is it just one of those "Could God make a rock so big that he couldn't lift it? Yes, he could, and then he would lift it" (or however that saying went) sorts of deals?
Thanks for the feedback, this can all be kind of overwhelming for me at times.
*"Creating content" in this specific case meaning writing blog posts, making videos, etc.
-
Yes, the best content is usually generated by someone who knows what they are writing about. However, most clients do not have time to generate content. So I try to get the client to do an interview, write out bullet points, write notes or anything that a good copywriter could take and spin into an informative article. If the content is generated by the client and they are a good writer, that would be ideal but rarely happens.
-
Hey Brian,
If you tear everything away what are you left with? A company that would like to rank better and a search engine that wants people to do the right thing and naturally build their online business. Therefore, who is the best person to write content for Blogs and other backlinks? The Client.
The simply reality is they almost never have the time to. This is where your skills as an SEO really get tested. Work out which backlinks require an experts response. Directories you can do yourself. Feed a constant stream of blogs (already posted on the Web) for the client to comment, if their time poor, get them to voice record an answer (most OS have a voice recorder). Writting blogs... If you have to write a blog for your client, I can tell already, your looking to post it on the wrong site. FACT. Any site willing to publish an article by someone completely outside their skill set, is the wrong site.
I think about it this way, you should always aim to get more value out of the interest of an article or blog post via natural traffic than the value of the backlink itself. If it's the other way round, generally it's not worth it.
Dan
-
I agree with you, I agree with you, I AGREE WITH YOU!
But why would anyone want to read a blog post about wisdom teeth written by just some random person at a marketing company?
Yep! It is probably BS, bad advice and the language this person uses will sound like a noob to anybody who knows much about dentistry.
Dentists (and other professionals) hire SEOs because they want the rankings and either don't know how to do the work and they don't have time. Maybe it's cheaper to hire an SEO than it is to do it themselves so they can be down at the pub while the SEO's contractor is writing this crap.
I sort of feel that the internet is already full enough of advice and information from people that have no idea what they're talking about.
Man has seen the Stone Age and the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Now we are in the Age of Bullshit Content.
I don't have the answer for you but I have a couple of stories that you might enjoy.
One guy writes and wants to send me an article for my website about a technical subject. I write back and say... "tell me your qualifications". He writes back and gives me the name of the guy who will write the article (his story changed) and I Google him. He is a professional in the field so I say, "I'll consider the article." I get the article and could tell it was written by a noob in the first sentence. Joe Pro did not write it. Some noob wrote it.
A different day I was using google image search and find one of my images on an law firm blog. They hired an SEO company to blog on a different domain and point links at their site. Those rats were using stolen images in their articles.
I don't do SEO for other people any more but if I did I would try to sell them on the idea of building a fantastic website with expert content. That is such a great thing in many ways. It demonstrates their expertise, it shows that they are generous and it is a great way to promote their website.
So few people are willing to do this that it is often easy to really stand out in your business niche.
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
-
On-page Local SEO
I'm wondering how to pull it off on-page local SEO for a financial institution website with 70 locations. However, they are broken in down in regions, which would make it easier to get our hands around. Would a viable solution be setting up regional pages? I don't know about our CMS capability, but it seems like it would be beneficial to have on each regional page aggregate local-centric press releases (example: a volunteer event or recognition) and local announcements such as paper shred days. Thoughts? Anyone else posed with a similar challenge?
Image & Video Optimization | | SSFCU0 -
Can SEO companies be listed on Google Local, Bing Local, and Yahoo Local?
Can anyone confirm if SEO companies can be listed in the local results for Google, Yahoo, and Bing? I'm asking because when you search for most local terms, it will return their local listings. However, that doesn't appear to be the case when searching for SEO or marketing services - or at least none show up when searching from Houston and I'm pretty sure we have quite a few SEO companies here 😉
Image & Video Optimization | | ChaseCameron0 -
Local SEO: Google Places and Google+
Hello, I'm a little confused by Google+ for business. I set up a Google Places page in 2010 and recently changed my address to incorporate my suite number and to spell out "Street" instead of abbreviating. I'm planning on carefully changing all citations to match. Next I started a Google+ page for my business. But I couldn't fill out the address and ended up requesting a postcard for verification to continue. The postcard was sent to the right address but no suite number. I'll still get the postcard, but I can't finish my page yet. Also, I don't know if I have to re-verify my Places page with the slight changes. Am I on the right track?
Image & Video Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Image SEO in 2013
3.26.13 Everything I can find on image SEO is relatively dated and some that I do don't explain exactly what should be done. 1. When designing a site it is easier to simply integrate best practices from the get go. So what are the best practices? Alt tags - these are to explain the photo for handicapped individuals but you can naturally weave in a good keyword. Image titles - do these matter? URL of the jpg - should we put in a good keyword here? What about schema? What about Meta tags for the page the pic loads on? What about pinning to Pinterest and what is properly pulled over? What about other social channels and sharing? What am I missing? Who out there has the ultimate guide for optimizing images in 2013? Thank you!
Image & Video Optimization | | Hospitality-SEO1 -
Should You Geotag Pages For Local SEO?
If so can where do I insert the geo tag? I want to do this for a landing page in a different city, and i've simply put the Geo tag in this landing page. Is this right? Help, NEWBIE!!!
Image & Video Optimization | | Buzzwords0 -
What's the best way to host video for SEO purposes?
Hello SEOmoz folks, I'm curious as to whether it will be more beneficial for a website to host a video on the site itself or to host it on YouTube and then embed the code on your site. The options so far, as it seems, are: 1.) Host the video on YouTube or Vimeo or wherever else, then embed the YouTube code into your own website's HTML. 2.) Host the video on your own website by itself. 3.) Host the video on your own website AND YouTube AND Vimeo. I'm wondering which option is best. And if hosting your video on your own website is a good way to go, whether to go that route solely or in addition to hosting on YouTube, what is the best way to go about that? Do I have to embed a player AND the video info into the HTML of my website? What player is best for this? Flash, or something else? And once I get the video on my site one way or the other, how do I write the code to make sure the video thumbnail shows up next to my search results in Google to maximize the SEO potential for the video clip? Sorry for the long question, but I've been searching everywhere for this and I'd love just a direct answer on it. Thanks for your help! Cheers, Dani
Image & Video Optimization | | MountainMedia0 -
I understand that in addition to video sitemaps, a transcription of a video, if presented properly will help google and may help SEO. I cannot find information on the basics to add transcription properly to a page. Advice or direction appreciated.
Looking for guidance or information on the nuts and bolts of how to use transcriptions with video.
Image & Video Optimization | | hughman0 -
Video SEO - Youtube vs. 3rd party hosting with Video Sitemap
We need some feedback on the best place to upload videos. Should we be uploading our videos everywhere (YouTube, Metacafe, Vimeo, etc.)? Note: Currently we are using a 3rd party video video hosting solution called Treepodia. Previously we used Wistia. Both host our videos, and submit a Video Sitemap through Webmaster tools. When one of these videos shows up in search results and somebody clicks on it, they are directed back to our website. Are we competing against ourselves if we upload videos to other networks like Youtube, etc. if we are already submitting a Video Sitemap through a 3rd party? I've noticed we rank higher in Google Videos search for our Youtube videos vs. our 3rd party hosted videos. Also, how do Youtube video views tie into this situation... we used to embed videos via Youtube embed code. Now we seem to be missing out on the extra views we were getting by doing so. Ultimate question: host videos through a 3rd party and submit a video sitemap OR host videos on Youtube and embed on our website?
Image & Video Optimization | | tennisexpress0