Creating Backlinks On Behalf of Client

[Czubmeister]

I'm on my first SEO project with a law firm. I'm at the stage where I am doing competitive backlink research on other law firms that my client gave me.

I saw a blog site called typepad. It has a high domain authority so I was going to recommend to my client that they set up an account and blog away!

Since it's a law firm, I am not qualified to start blogging on behalf of my client and I know they are extremely busy so now I have to "ride" my client to get busy and start creating content.

I feel like I want to do more for them on the blog side to keep things going but not having a law background, probably not doable.

Question: Do most SEO's do the blogging for their clients, farm it out or keep pushing their clients to do it?

I also want them to sign up with articlebase but the same thing is going to happen. I have to push them to write articles. I guess this is my job?

-Bob

[jjgonza]

Do you mean link to the blog from the customers site to give the blog some authority? I think i understand but I want to be clear.

thanks

[RobertFisher]

As to using the full sentence, the first part was about speaking to his clients regarding research and I did use the ... to show that the copied portion was the end of that compound sentence. That is the correct way to utilize a quote wherein only the germaine is pointed out. I did not disagree with speaking to the client re research.

You are correct you did not say - use software - and I did make it seem as if you did. You have my apology for that.

My point was not about the use of software though; did you think it was?  My point was about not creating your own content which takes time and effort and, instead, choosing to take someone else's content and change a few words so that you can post it as your new content.

As to posting my clients on a free directory I did not say that I did. I suggested some legal publishers (they are actually blogs for the legal community). So, I guess you should buy what you are selling and not state that I said something I did not. There are actually blogs around things like personal injury with high DA and PA and you can pay to be a blogger on their networks. They get quite a bit of links from them.

We do blogs within Pharma, Personal Injury, Bankruptcy, Complex business litigation, etc.

Best

[Czubmeister]

Thanks for the guidance. Time for more learning! I'll get with their web developer and see if we can make this happen. I guess the next question would be the preference of blogging software. Bloglines, Typepad. Does it really matter as long as there is good content?

[Modbargains]

Robert,

next time you want to quote me, at least quote the full sentence. Also, the word software, never was mentioned or said. You don't need an article spinning program to re-spin an article.

Also, maybe you should try blogging instead of posting your clients on free directory sites which require little to no work. oh and low domain scores.

[Czubmeister]

These are all great questions.

I was using SEOmoz to look for all the backlinks that our competitors have.  I noticed that an attorney out of Texas who came up #1 in Google for Divorce Attorney had a backlink at typepad and articlebase.(just to name a few)  At the moment, I was thinking that we need to create articles and blogs so we could get the same backlinks they do.  That's about as far as my thinking went.

On your point #1, I called the headline creating backlinks because my goal at the moment is to create more backlinks than out competitors. It just so happens that the backlinks from our competitors with the highest domain authority were typepad and articlebase.

On your point #2, Since I have never set up a blog site before, I'm kind of lost on the best approach.  Sounds slick to integrate it into the law firm website. I am just looking to see what our competitors are doing who are ranked on the first page of Google and emulating what they are doing. The goal would be to do everything you said.

I have seen articles that lawyers have written 2 or 3 years ago still showing up as one of their backlinks . I want to do the same for my client.

[RobertFisher]

Modbargains,

In reference to this statement: look at what their competitors have to say about that subject and come up with your own words. Re spin that and repost that on other blogs

Since we have several large, high verdict (one attorney alone has over 300 verdicts) clients and since we write articles for them, if he has a client who is a competitor to one of my firms, you are suggesting:

He takes my quality content,

He changes out some verbs, nouns, and pronouns using some of the software so readily available to the lazy and unscrupulous, and, then,

He puts it out on the internet as if his clients had written it?

He is to do this in the same space that I operate in daily?

Really? Against trial attorneys who love to go to court? Brilliant!

[EGOL]

I would place this blog on the primary domain.  Then all of the value from links that hit the blog will help power the primary site.

I believe that the job of the SEO is to ask the client "where do you want to be visible" and inform them "where you can be visible".... then let them know that visibility there will never happen unless they have content that positions them for the target keywords.

So, I would let them know what it will take to be visible for some of their important keywords.

[RobertFisher]

All Star

Great point on number 2!

Best

[Modbargains]

yeah, I recommend getting them to write an article and do some some spinning to that article and repost it on other blog sites with high domain authority.

From there, ask them what kind of research do you want them to do for them regarding the services they offer, and look at what their competitors have to say about that subject and come up with your own words. Re spin that and repost that on other blogs.

Then use google's feed burner to link those blogs.

i mean i do inhouse seo for a very high competitive niche market, where our competitors do some shady stuff, so it's hard to stay in the "white hat zone"

just my two cents.

As Allstar mentioned, what's your keywords? use those.

Obviously you're creating links to manipulate your client's rank and i understand, they want results.

Look at your competitor's backlinks and try to post on the ones that have high domain authority. within a few months and a few hundred back links your client will be in competitive standing against them with their own keywords or the keywords you chose for your clients.

and if you dont already know http://www.opensiteexplorer.org for looking at your competitor's backlinks.

[RobertFisher]

Bob,

Welcome to fun! We deal with a few attorneys so I will throw in my two cents worth for you:

... I was going to recommend to my client that they set up an account and blog away!

My experience is that every attorney wants to blog until it is time to blog and then......

...now I have to "ride" my client to get busy and start creating content.

I do not know that you will have success with this on a couple of levels: they won't like being pushed and, if you have not spelled out the relationship regarding who is responsible for content, they may resent it.

I feel like I want to do more for them on the blog side to keep things going but not having a law background, probably not doable.

I will tell you what my head of development has said to me along these lines: "This is not your job. We do not need you doing this, we need you moving the company forward! This is a low return item for you." Now, you may be smaller and having to do more, but you need to weigh you doing it against what else you could achieve by you not doing it. Ask yourself what your role is.

Do most SEO's do the blogging for their clients, farm it out or keep pushing their clients to do it?

I don't think there is a "most" in terms of business practices. (I do occasionally write something if it is moving a major client project along - once every two months a page or two). You can farm it out, but do it on a basis of paying per piece if accepted. There are several copywriting sites you can look at). We have hired copywriters from major colleges here on a parttime / paid intern basis and some of them have worked out great. You have to have time to spend with them early on to teach them CMS, on page SEO to a point, .etc. (Maybe 10 to 20 hours tops). You would be amazed what they can write about given the right background material to research. Since it is law i would be happy to share a few pointers via phone or email on this.

I also want them to sign up with articlebase but the same thing is going to happen. I have to push them to write articles. I guess this is my job?

I am not familiar with Articlebase, and don't have time to read their terms, etc. If you are simply giving them articles, then hoping someone picks them up, there may be some better legal publishers to look at.

As to the last ?: I guess this is my job? NO, it is a massive opportunity for you to provide exceptional service and make a great return for that! Get them first to understand why they need to post content (blog, articles, PR, etc.). Then show them they will not do it due to their needing to handle their business. Then decide what amount of profit you want to make in order to provide them this service. Add the cost to provide it to the profit number and show them how you are going to benefit them by providing the service for them. That is what a great SEO/CEO would do!!

Good Luck!

[Allstar]

Some questions:

1. The headline says "creating backlinks" but your question seems to be about content creation. Do you have a clear keyword goal in mind for the blog?

2. Will the Typepad blog be hosted internally within website architecture or will it live completely externally on the *.typepad.com RD? If the latter, how will content creation drive SEO value to your client's core business  site? What is your goal with the Typepad blog: to create inbound links to the law firm's website, or to generate leads via blog content?

Brian

PS: your job goes far beyond riding them to create content: you have to give them clear business reasons why they need to do it, what the expected result is, where the value lies. As lawyers they have liabilities if they give legal advice on a blog, and they can't risk offending potential clients or speaking on certain topics if it entails a conflict of interest. There is no harder industry to blog for than the legal profession, and most lawyers are not professional copywriters.