Can you link build without adding any content to the website?
-
I am an agency-side SEO who has a few different SEO clients. A couple of them absolutely refuse to add any content to their site - no blog, no articles, no link bait, nothing.
They have resisted efforts for any content to be placed on their site - whether it is written by us, them, or a third party. They just don't see the value in it, despite my attempts to persuade them.
As a result, these websites are just brochure websites.
What are your options for link building in this situation? If content is the foundation of white hat link building, what do you do if the client refuses to add content to their site?
All help gratefully received!
Thanks
-
Without any content you're also setting yourself up to get hit by the next monster Google update. I would make sure you lay out all of these reasons to add content and the risks of not having any and make sure they are aware of it. If they still won't budge, then just do the best you can and when the day comes when they realize they aren't seeing results they'll already know why.
-
wise words of advice!
-
The biz in question sounds like they are shooting themselves in the foot and I'd have to agree that I would not want to work with them.
If the education of the client has been done correctly the decision to create content should be a no brainer as long as that content is intelligently thought out by the consultant.
-
You can always get some benefit out of building links, but without content it can be an uphill battle. Will they do any on page optimization at all? If not, then this will be very difficult.
I hate to say this because it is not an SEO comment, but on the business side, some clients cost more than they bring in. It is up to you, but politely ending a relationship with an uncooperative client can be better than saying you can do it and not producing results.
-
I think the best option to be linked is write relevant content. If your client doesn´t want to create content on his web, you can create a subdomain, an external blog or another domain to do a SEO job. A place to create landing pages to pull traffic to your site.
Nobody is going to link you if you exhibit a little piece of nothing.
I'm sorry.
-
I have always been able to overcome client objections on this topic. If you can work with clients to produce a single, high quality article and then demonstrate the traffic it generates, that would help them to understand the value of content.
If the above suggestion is not workable, the next step is to find sources who would sincerely be interested in the site's existing content.
Another possibility, the client may not be willing to add content to their site but might consider guest blogging on another site which could raise the level of awareness about their site.
In the end, there are two sides to this coin. On the one side, people are free to choose what is best for them. On the other side, as a professional it is your job to help clients understand the benefit on adding quality content to their site. If you fail to do such, you have not done your job well. It's the same idea as a sick patient who visits a doctor but wont take their medicine. It's the doctor's role to present options and the patient to make the choice. On the other hand, a better doctor (think Dr. House) is able to push the patient into doing the right thing.
-
You can link build and it will yield some benefits, make sure you go for the yelp, yahoo directories etc at the very least.
Naturally the better the content, the more opportunities for social sharing, links, mentions etc
I assume you have already done the on-page seo?
What is the customers reason for refusing it, is it cost? If so you are prob banging you head against a brick wall and may be worth focusing your efforts on new receptive clients as opposed to those that don't want to know... as they say, you can lead a horse to water....
Maybe not the answer you wanted, but hope it helps!
One footnote to the link building post penguin, make sure that the quality of the back links are good and legitimate and be careful with the link anchor text, make sure you don't try and link for the same phrase/keywords
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
-
Website Progression
Hi, im a newbie and im getting a bit overwhelmed by the information regarding setting up the blog. im sure that
Content Development | | Jal__Jaun
when people start off they tend to have very few articles , and their designs would be much different from
what they have started? do people start off with hefty number of articles at the start? or can they progress
with few articles for SEO purpose? and the most important thing is that what would the layout be
at the start of the website design, im sure they wont be any homepage displaying articles from different
categories as there are only few articles so do we keep the blog page as the front page? please explain guys! thanks1 -
How much do I have to differentiate syndicated content, exactly?
We have about 15-20 articles we'll repurpose on a partner domain (think: media outlet). To avoid duplicate content suspicion, how much exactly do we need to differentiate the content on the second domain? Yea, this is assuming we can't obtain a canonical for whatever reason. I've found some good advice here, but am looking for some quantification. Like: "A sentence/paragraph of introduction at the top of the piece, plus a link back to the original at the end of said introduction ought to do it." Any help is appreciated. Thanks! Tim
Content Development | | Jen_Floyd0 -
Heoo i want to ask links
i am from mickyhosting.com and tell me how i can build backlinks.
Content Development | | nabeelfaizi1230 -
Duplicate Content
I am wondering what is the best way to show google that there is duplicate content on the page. for example on our product pages they are unique content except we give the same guarantee and promise on every product providing some duplicate content. What is the best way to fix this issue?
Content Development | | DoRM0 -
Content Marketing, Who do I use?
I know nothing about content marketing, so who do I hire? Who are the authorities & leaders in this new era of digital marketing.
Content Development | | KristopherWho0 -
Can having similar content on my company's two sites hurt our rankings?
We have a very successful website that has been up for a number of years (www.comellaortho.com). We rank high in the natural rankings for that site. A few months ago, we started seeing patients in another nearby city. I purchased a new domain name, www.dansvilleortho.com, and had our web company duplicate the website under the new domain name. The reality is that the content on these two sites are nearly identical. Some of the pages are different; for example, there are fewer pages on the new site. But the pages that do exist are nearly identical. My question is: Can having similar content on my company's two sites hurt our rankings? Based on what I've read thus far, I believe the answer is "Yes". However, I'm curious how bad this may hurt us. I'm not as worried about the new site (dansvilleortho.com) because our competition in that city is slim to none. But I AM worried about harming the original site/business (comellaortho.com). Which site(s) rankings may be affected by this, and if so, how bad? Thank you.
Content Development | | comellortho0 -
Does this count as Copied Content ?
Hi, we are publishing news on our website blog. In the news we use excerpts from other websites but do mention the source like "according to XYZ news source" etc. Does it count as copied content as sometime copyscape shows alsmot 30% duplicated content due to inclusion of references from different sources in our news stories ? Regards, shahzad
Content Development | | shaz_lhr0 -
Can forums bring down your search engine rankings?
it might be my imagination, but i could swear that after the launch of a bbpress forum and posts and replies coming from members, the site alexa website rankings actually went DOWN for a while. i always thought forums would de facto bring up rankings - more content, traffic, etc. Is it possible that forum content is considered lower quality? i remember reading that lots of new threads and such from forum members can actually hurt your rankings- is this true? i guess i'm trying to figure out: on balance, what is the impact of forums on rankings - and if there are any negative impacts, if you still want to have one, how to minimize the downside? thanks much for any help!
Content Development | | prospects0