Getting client to spend the time writing article of authority
-
Hi, I've got an issue that I'm sure many of you are good at dealing with. I'm working with an authority in my client's industry. There is the president, who is definitely an authority. There is his wife, who has a name in the field, is an author in the field, but her name is not near as big as the president.
I found a really, really good topic for content that is attracting links in the industry - one of the best content topics possible which really needed to be addressed on my client's website.
I let them know that it needed to be an article of authority, but they had their assistant write it. It's good, she's talented - it's informative, interesting, has 2 embedded videos of the president talking, and is 1650 words. We haven't made the videos yet.
The thing is, doesn't this need to be written by the authority - president. He's a slow writer with zero time, but I think it needs to be his voice with his name on it to attract links.
He's super super busy though.
Should I:
1. Suggest that the president do a thorough editing of the article and put his name on it.
or
2. Have his wife (who has more time) do a thorough editing of the article and put her name on it.
or
3. Leave it as is
or
4. Have the president rewrite the entire article when he has time, which he would be resistant to.
or
5. Have the president's wife rewrite the entire article, which she would be resistant to?
What do you guys think with the little information I've given you?
-
EGOL,
I am once again surprised and thankful for your common sense and words of experience.
I will take all of your advice.
Thank you.
-
<grin>What Egol said is gospel.</grin>
Course....I live by the sword so I'd a just used the CEO 's byline....but yes, as he said, this is another way to go too!
-
First, you should give thanks that you got something.
You told the CEO and his accomplished wife that this was important content and they decided to delegate. That's their decision, not yours. They must trust this person to do a good enough job that they can post her work on the website and not be ashamed of it. If they have a great reputation in the industry they will be picky about what represents them on their website. She could be the next big author in this field. So, I think that you should read what she wrote and be happy with it and the only reason that you should make a fuss is if there are obvious problems with the article that you can recognize as a third party.
Second, you got the CEO to be a talkin' head in a couple of videos that will be posted on this page. So, slap that video above the fold, show the CEOs face in the video window annotated with his name and you got the next best thing to him writing the article. You can also make a separate page that includes these two videos and their transcripts and they might bring in traffic.
Getting it wrapped up.... I would call the CEO or his wife and thank them for the article. Tell them that you are getting ready to post it on the website and ask if they want to add anything else such as a photo or a graph or something.... then ask what they liked about the article to gauge how pleased they are with it.
What next? Get the article posted and once it starts pulling some traffic get back in touch with them and ask for another article... then another... then another. You might have opened a steady stream of content and this author will soon become the most widely read person in the industry. Maybe she will become the equivalent to the Whiteboard Friday of the industry if she produces a stead stream of good content.
-
I would at least try to get him to review it and say you want his name on it. If he won't or cannot review it then put it out there with his name on it anyway
-
Depending upon the channel - the 'name' on the content can count BIG time....so I get your slant on this.
Me? I'd just put the CEO's name on it, period. If his rep carries that much channel juice, then you should ALWAYS go for the most you can get...i.e. just put his name on it....the author obviously works for him so no problem...
-
I think that the most important piece is the content itself, not the author.
If you think that the author's name will be a main attraction (i.e. if the president has his name as the author it will be more attractive to link to) then it may be worth editing it to their liking and publish it under their name.
However, I don't think that is the advantage. The advantage is putting out quality content around the topic you've found. If you have it edited for the president, make sure they are willing and knowingly speaking as the subject originator. If there is something controversial in the article, it will be viewed as the president's opinion - which can have greater negative effect than positive.
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
-
Same server for different client sites?
Hi everyone - I have a question about whether it's OK for us to host several of our client's websites on the same dedicated web server, without this causing problems in SEO. I know the issues with duplicate content etc., but for background - we provide website services to a particular sector (antiques/auctions). All our clients are distinct, and have written their own copy etc., but because they're all in the same sector, their websites will - largely - talk about the same types of things - so the content is not duplicated, but it's similar in topic, I guess. Does anyone feel it would cause a problem if we were to put several (say about 😎 of our client's websites on the same dedicated web server, or would we be better spreading the sites over different shared servers? Come to think about it, if we are spreading those same 8 sites across 4 virtual servers - but all hosted by the same company - presumably Google would know that too? Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this! Nikki
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Go-Auction0 -
Writing on the web, what is recommended
Hello, I was wondering what is best in term of SEO when writing on the web. Between those 2 sentences for example what is best to use 1)You are going to ride your bicycle to the town of Obernai. Today, your bicycle ride takes you to Obernai.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
How to Get Permalinks Indexed?
Hey Everyone, I'm so happy to be apart of this community and assert knowledge where and when I can. I joined the community for one specific reason and I hope to employ the help of everyone here in conjunction with solving my SEO problem. I have a few years experience in SEO/SEM and have been continuously learning, while learning to adapt to continuous changes (I think we can all relate lol). At any rate, here is what I am experiencing frustration with. I'm the SEO Analyst for a company that is trying to compete for the keyword phrase "Lyft Promo Code". We have been trying to place page one on google for over a year now to no avail. I have gotten my direct domain url to appear on pages 1 & 2, but can't seem to get permalinks or "Sub-URL's" indexed. If you google this phrase you will see what I mean. The top result is:http://rideshareapps.com/lyft-promo-code-credit/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Number_One_Deisgns
This url has an aggregated rating and appears page one for the phrase aforementioned above. What we have managed to do, as I mentioned is get www.couponcodeshero.com on page two. However, we have noticed that the page one trend is all permalinks. However when we have tried to emulate the pages structure and index priority, we are unable too. Our page:
http://couponcodeshero.com/lyft-promo-code-rideshare-guide/ I have ran multiple on-page graders from many resources and have not been able to get this page indexed as a permalink on any page that directly correlates with the Keyword Phrase. In essence, I'm looking for some direction from individuals who may have experienced this before. I have spent a good amount of time Googling and searching forum databases but can not find any direct content that explains how to index a permalink. I hope to get some great ideas from the individuals here! If you do know of any articles or even previously answered questions here please direct me there. it is only my intention to add value to the community! Schieler Mew
Number One Designs0 -
Website Not Ranking Organically - Not Links, Not Domain Authority...
This is regarding the domain: http://lesliekays.com We got a new client about 5 months back who had a website that was hacked. It took several months, but we've cleaned up most of the spammy links and completely rebuilt their website. We have been successful with every other client that we have ever done getting our customers to rank well organically, but we just can't figure this one out. I'm willing to offer a REWARD to the single person who can figure this out for us. (Let's not get carried away, a small reward). This customer has great quality links to their site too. We are looking for answers other than: 1. Backlinks 2. Content 3. Malware 4. Domain or Page authority 5. 404 errors 6. We have utilized Googles Webmaster tools endlessly It is something else and we can not identify it! Let me know what you think! I will give a public shout out to the person who helps us identify this issue!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tosten0 -
SEO value of article title content?
I work for an online theater news publisher. Our article page titles include various pieces of data: the title, publication date, article category, and our domain name (theatermania.com). Are all of these valuable from an SEO standpoint? My sense it'd be cleaner to just show the title (and nothing more) on a SERP. But we'll certainly keep whatever helps us with rankings.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheaterMania0 -
Removing poor domain authority backlinks worth it?
Hey Moz, I am working with a client on more advanced SEO tactics. This client has a reputable domain authority of 67 and 50,000+ backlinks. We're wanting to continue SEO efforts and stay on top of any bad backlinks that may arise. Would it be worth asking websites (below 20 domain authority) to remove our links? Then, use the disavow tool if they do not respond. Is this a common SEO practice for continued advanced efforts? Also, what would your domain authority benchmark be? I used 20 just as an example. Thanks so much for your help. Cole
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ColeLusby1 -
Pages getting into Google Index, blocked by Robots.txt??
Hi all, So yesterday we set up to Remove URL's that got into the Google index that were not supposed to be there, due to faceted navigation... We searched for the URL's by using this in Google Search.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs2010
site:www.sekretza.com inurl:price=
site:www.sekretza.com inurl:artists= So it brings up a list of "duplicate" pages, and they have the usual: "A description for this result is not available because of this site's robots.txt – learn more." So we removed them all, and google removed them all, every single one. This morning I do a check, and I find that more are creeping in - If i take one of the suspecting dupes to the Robots.txt tester, Google tells me it's Blocked. - and yet it's appearing in their index?? I'm confused as to why a path that is blocked is able to get into the index?? I'm thinking of lifting the Robots block so that Google can see that these pages also have a Meta NOINDEX,FOLLOW tag on - but surely that will waste my crawl budget on unnecessary pages? Any ideas? thanks.0 -
What is Local Citation And how to get high ranking on targeted keyword
Hello Friends, Can anyone tell me what is Local Citation and how to optimize business on targeted keyword. What are the sources needed to optimize local listing on google places. I submit my business citation up to 50 local listing sites but the results are 0. My company got no leads Via local listings. Please tell me how would I optimize my company local listing citation and how to increase chances to get leads on local listing sites.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KLLC0