SEO Tactics - All in the Game?
-
Hey Mozzers
Hoping to get some opinions on SEO at a small business level.
We're engaged in SEO for a number of clients which are small businesses (small budgets). We stick to strictly white hat techniques - producing decent content (and promoting it) and link building (as much as is possible without dodgy techniques/paying huge sums).
For some clients we seem to have hit a ceiling about with rankings anywhere between roughly position #5 - #15 in Google.
In the majority of cases - the higher ranking clients don't appear to be engaged in any kind of content marketing - often have much worse designed websites - and not particularly spectacular link profiles (In other words they're not hugely competitive - apart from sometimes on the AdWords front - but that's another story)
The only difference seems to be links on agency link farms - you know the kind? Agency buys expired domains with an existing PR - then just builds simple site with multiple blog posts that link back to their clients sites. (Also links that are simply paid for)
Obviously these sites serve no purpose other than links - but I guess it's harder for Google to recognize that than with obvious SEO directories etc?...
It seems to me that at this level of SEO for small businesses (limited budgets, limited time) the standard approach for SEO is the "expired domains agency link sites" described above - and simply paying bloggers for links.
Are the above techniques considered black hat? Or are they more grey-hat? - Are they risky? - Or is this kind of thing all in the game for SEO at the small business level (by that I mean businesses that don't have the budget to employ a full time SEO and have to rely on engaging agencies for low level - low resource SEO campaigns)
Look forward to your always wise council...
-
I would NOT replicate this linking pattern for your client's websites. In the long run, it could do more damage than good. I will save you the long explanation, but it's just not a good long term strategy. Do the things you know are right, and not the things that could pose a risk in the future.
For small businesses, the easiest way to combat companies that use BS linking strategies is to look at the TOTAL health of one of your client's websites. This would include keyword density testing, a complete citation profile analysis (using Moz Local or Yext), domain choice, on-page health, page load speed, etc. Basically everything that Google says matters, and do it to a "T".
Beat them with quality quantity, not by replicating the same tactics.
-
Hi Radi,
The process explained by you getting backlinks via "agency link farms" seems to be completely black hat to me, the process is much risky.
I have seen many of SEO having the same problem with their clients wherein they take their work for a lower budget and then aren't able to deliver quality work. The idea of a white-hat SEO, in my opinion, is not to grab links wherever they come from, but to focus on right target audience, trying to create a website to cater them and to find the right places on the Internet where you can find them.
It seems, your complete strategy is focused on low-quality links. I have a few clients who have not so good looking websites but they ranks well with a good off-page strategy, on the other end of the spectrum I have clients who have good looking websites with great on-page they also rank well. So, it's your approach to the online presence and how you end up promoting it, which will make the difference.
I hope this helps, let me know if you have further questions.
Thanks,
Vijay
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
-
Surely this cannot be a good SEO technique?
I have a client whose competitor has great positions in Google, and a quick look at the meta data revealed this (I removed the company name): I'd love some opinions on this. My gut feel tells me this is spammy. But all my client sees is that this site is on page 1! ~Caro
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Caro-O0 -
What is your SEO agency doing in terms of link building for clients?
What are you or your SEO agency doing for your client's link building efforts? What are you (or the agency) doing yourself, or out-sourcing, or having the client do for link building? If a new client needs some serious link building done, what do you prescribe and implement straight off the bat? What are your go-to link building tactics for clients? What are the link building challenges faced by your agency in 2013/2014? What's working for your agency and what's not? Does your agency work closely with the client's marketing department to gain link traction? If so, what are collaborating on? What else might you be willing to share about your agencies link building practices? Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Martin_S0 -
What if White Hat SEO does not get results?
If company A is paying 5k a month and some of that budget is buying links or content that might be in the gray area but is ranking higher than company B that's following the "rules" and paying the same but not showing up at all, what's company B suppose to do?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | EmarketedTeam2 -
What do you think are some of the least talked about topics of SEO?
What do you think are some of the least talked about topics of SEO? Do you think these topics need to be given more attention? Why do you think they've been ignored?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TheOceanAgency0 -
Contacted by an SEO company..
We have been contacted by a free SEO company, who seem to use your domain and create articles for you on your site, linking to other relevant sites, while other relevant sites link to yours. All they ask is a small link on your homepage. An excerpt of the instructions are: Download the attached files in a folder to be uploaded to your server (public_html) folder Set 777 permission to the folder. This allows our script to work on your site Add the "site wide" link on your homepage, as well as on the inner pages, the same way we do in the article section. Implement the "site wide" link following the instructions on the README.txt file Copy the script on the file or you can provide us with a temporary FTP access to your server and we will do it for you. Please note that if you can upload our folder to your site within 48 hours, you will be eligible to receive 20 bonus links for your SEO campaign. Should we tread carefully?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | filarinskis0