How to explain to a client that link building doesn't get fast results?
-
I started doing link building for a client 1 month and a half ago. This includes submitting to free directories, social bookmarking sites and also writing and submitting articles to free article websites. Since I only use free and non-paid websites, it doesn't get approved instantly and many links I submitted are still pending review. Now the client is getting all nervous because he doesn't see a ROI regarding my work! I tried to explain to him that link building is just a piece of the cake and especially using non-instant approval free directories, it can take up to several months for each link to be listed (if listed), so it doesn't have instant results! I'm also trying to convince him that he needs to create more engaging content on his website, and also invest more on social media in order to get non-solicited links.
I'm really annoyed with this. Can you SEO guys help me explaining to him why he doesn't see a great ROI with just 1 month and a half of link building and why his website's Moz Rank and Moz Trust decreased and that's normal to happen!? Thanks!
-
And that brings us back full circle.
"Creating links in well-ranked directories using his specific category is still a SEO strategy even after all those penguins and pandas."
-
Why not? Creating links in well-ranked directories using his specific category is still a SEO strategy even after all those penguins and pandas. I advised him to create compelling content on his website and invest on social media and also update his blog frequently with good content. I've told him that link building is only a piece of the cake. If he continues like this maybe I'll have to stop working for him and he might find a black hat SEO professional that gets him the fast results he wants...
-
Point is, he's not going to see any results from you doing "link building" from those directories. The experienced SEO shows disapproval of such a plan by not taking on such a project.
-
Thanks for your reply. Actually, this client came to me wanting for me to especifically do link building trough using directories. I tried to advise him in to doing other things but he only wanted this work. I also advised him that he would need a long time before seeing results and he was fine with that. Now why he has this expectations after only 45 days? Well, basically because he's the type of person that wants results fast. I've told him that SEO is a patience game, unless he does black hat SEO which I don't advise.
-
Sorry about that.
While setting rock-solid client expectations may be difficult for the experienced SEO and the rookie alike, a client coming to you at just 45 days into a project looks like the expectations were more far more on the loosey-goosey side than anything close to solid. That tends to be a rookie mistake.
Also, someone holding out promise that the client is going to get any ROI whatsoever from "submitting to free directories, social bookmarking sites and also writing and submitting articles to free article websites. Since I only use free and non-paid websites" and then asking his peers to back him up on that could be seen as a rookie mistake--either that or the mistake of someone who has been away from the practice of SEO for a good many years.
-
I'm not new to SEO, can you please tell why do you think that?
-
Chris - Nicely said.
-
Sometimes, it's hard to know who may be more at fault: the client who's looking to get their SEO work done so inexpensively that they'll put faith in someone obviously new to the field to do their link building for them or the person who's new to the field that tells the client that they can accomplish the client's goals without knowing much at all about what should be getting done.
I'm with you on the getting annoyed part, blablabla, but you really have to bone up on your SEO skills before you can start dissin' the client for what they don't know. You should take a few moments to fill out your profile, as well.
-
I'd specifically look at the Link Building section of the Beginner's Guide to SEO at http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links. Submitting to directories and article websites may not be the highest quality links that your client could good, and may not do too much to help them.
-
i would cull some info from here:
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
additionally, i would explain the very basic idea of spidering, countered with the size of the job, to explain that ROI isn't going to be an overnight/1 month think.
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
-
Ran a backlink competitor analysis and found that the competitor has their links coming from various linkedin and youtube posts but my client does the same thing and im not seeing any links coming from those sources for them?
Ran a backlink competitor analysis and found that the competitor has their links coming from various linkedin and youtube posts but my client does the same thing and im not seeing any links coming from those sources for them?
Link Building | | Stongex0 -
Competitors black-hat link building?
Hi Mozzers, <a>http://www.alivenetwork.com/ </a>is a close competitor of ours. They're ranking far better than us even though many of our search metrics are the same...except one! links! To give you an idea, we've got a fairly large backlink profile for the industry with quality links.
Link Building | | ChimplyWebGroup
34,981 links from 276 Root Domains = about 127 links/domain. Alive Network has 1,692,256 links from 705 root domains = about 2400 links/domain. Surely that looks a bit black-hat right there? Is it just a matter of time until they're penalised? Perhaps they're just a bunch of domain-wide links? Thoughts would be appreciated.1 -
How long until links 'fall off'?
If I have site A linking to site B, and take down the links - does anyone have any experience in about how long they take to 'fall off', that is stop appearing in Webmaster Tools or Moz? I'm going on three weeks currently. Perhaps this takes months?
Link Building | | GFujioka0 -
How do I Get a Link Off Blogger.com?
I have some coughunnatural linkscough on a blogger.com blog which isn't mine (it was done by an SEO company). I just can't remember which company did it. The blog is inactive and is a one-page blog. Any suggestion to get this link down or reach the author / owner of the blog? Thank you!
Link Building | | sbrault740 -
Ideas for structuring contest to get links?
Hi Mozzers, So I'm getting all set to run a contest. The prizes are great and I've developed a good way to promote it via paid and natural venues. I'm just not sure how to structure the actual contest so the end result is more links than mentions. One idea I had was to make this a story telling contest where the contestant blogs about a good/bad experience within the niche industry and adds a link back to us to enter. Does this seem like to much effort for the user? Prices are worth about $250 each, and I plan to have 3 winners. Any ideas on how to better gear this towards link building is appreciated. Thanks!
Link Building | | ErikDster0 -
Where do I find the best link building company?
Hi there, I'm trying to find an ethical, honest, link building company. We don't want links on shady forums, or comment spam, or any of that black hat nastyness!. I want links, on proper sites, and I'm prepared to pay for them accordingly. We're also more than happy to write/have written/ quality content that can be linked to. (We already pump out about 15 x 400+ word, optimised blogs weeks) We spend hours on the various social media sites also. So I think the only thing we're really missing now, is decent backlinks and possibly some more long tail keywords... Over to you guys. Paul.
Link Building | | warcom0 -
Do you think it's a good idea to try to find synergy between clients for blog posts/citations/links, or should you keep clients away from each other?
Say you have for example three (in this case) clients, and: Client A sells red widgets Client B is a doctor Client C sellls blue widgets With some research, you find that: Red widgets (A) can make the process of blue widget creation (C) even more effective. Red widgets (A) can protect you from harmful things that doctors (B) are qualified to recommend that you stay away from. Furthermore, there are things that doctors (B) recommend that you do in order to maximize the benefits of red widgets (A) Blue widgets (C) carry with them certain potential health risks, which according to doctors (B) can be minimized using the following means Sometimes blue widgets (C) can be used to effectively repair red widget (A) factories ...and so forth. Sure you're really writing these articles to generate links and exchange authority, and frankly you started with "how can I find synergy between these clients?" rather than a with a great article subject that needed a citation which luckily happened to be another client, but the citations are legitimate and the clients are qualified to speak on the subjects where their expertise and interests overlap. Would you consider going ahead with this? Does anyone have any experience doing it? I could see potential pitfalls if clients were to interact with each other, but keeping yourself as the intermediary might well work and overall it seems like a decent way to grab low-hanging fruit as they say. What do you guys think?
Link Building | | PathMarketing0 -
Building Links to Exact Match Domains
What are the pros and cons having exact match domain and how can you create a brand name and build backlinks? Say we have a domain personalizedbirthdaygifts.com We are quite stuck with what anchor text we need to use and how do we vary it? I've heard that we have to stay away from using commercial keywords as anchor text heavily. We have to also use our brand name. And here we get stuck as we don't have a brand name. In this case Our brand name should be personalized birthday gifts but this is also commercial keyword. I have seen before similar websites droped from ranking because they have commercial keywords in their domain and most of their backlink anchor texts are commercial. If I had a website called twentyfive.com selling birthday gifts it would be a lot easier. But when you have a website personalizedbirthdaygifts.com and trying to rank for personalized birthday gifts and birthday gifts it's tough. OR isn't it? I hope I explained it well and didn't confuse anybody... Thanks
Link Building | | Jvalops0