Should SEOs Rely On Clients For Fresh Content?
Flickr image by Sean MacEntee
Our discussion of the week is a topic that i’m sure many SEOs have pondered over many times. Should SEOs be relying on clients to create content? What level of involvement should the client have in their SEO campaign? Also can a client be held accountable in failed SEO campaigns?
I’ll start. I’m use to working with clients that have smaller budgets which requires them to take an active role in their SEO campaigns. I have worked with clients that honor their side of the deal and it shows in their rankings, traffic and conversion. I have also worked with clients that “promise” to have content ready next week but it never seems to arrive. Sometimes it’s justified by the client because their “busy”. Other times clients underestimate the level of commitment it takes to achieve successful ranking and get frustrated because their writing a check each month and feel that they don’t get anything in return. This last reason is why I like to have completely transparent conversations with potential clients up front explaining the consequences of not taking an active role in their campaign. Alternatively, discussions about additional capaign costs are brought up if the client can admit up front that they can’t take an active role in their SEO campaign. I wrote earlier a post entitled pick two: time, money, or results which I think covers my additional thoughts on this subject.
What do you think? Should SEOs be relying on clients to create content and support their SEO campaigns?
Nick LeRoy
Nick LeRoy is a Minneapolis SEO consultant offering custom SEO audits & monthly SEO services to clients in all niches. He also regularly blogs about SEO at NickLeRoy.com
RSS Feed
E-mail Feed
Follow Nick on Twitter!
I leave it up to the client. If they don’t want to be successful then that’s their issue. I point them in the right direction because that’s what they pay me for. If they want us to write content then it is going to cost extra.
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem as clear cut as they don’t participate, they don’t rank, and not the SEOs fault. I think the SEO needs to be a strong advocate for their clients and make sure everything is done to get results.
It’s not that I disagree with you its just that I don’t think its how it works in real life – at least not in my experience with past clients.
Nick,
I think clients need to make a commitment to helping with the content. We cannot possibly learn the ins and outs of every type of business we work with. The quality would not be good and our content would not come across as trustworthy. I do not believe in fluff content; it needs to be factual and helpful and we cannot create the quality they need on our own.
Getting content is always an issue, even when you discuss what will be needed ahead of time. My feeling is if clients want to do well they have to help the process. If they don’t write well we fix it. If they send us outlines of what they need we can work with that, but no matter what we need their input and information to publish quality information.
Melissa – I think you made a great point. Too many times I think clients have a wealth of knowledge in their niche but might not be the best of writing it down. I think its the SEOs responsibility to outline what we know “works” in blogging and any other type of online content.
I will admit – probably one of the worst feeling I get in my stomach is after a client puts so much effort (or sometimes not) into writing and then I have to go back and explain that it won’t work. These type of clients are the ones that I know will succeed because their willing to put the effort into it. It makes the little extra “coaching” very much worth it.
I also absolutely agree with your statement about “fluff” content. I have enough experience personally to know that it doesn’t work! lol.
You know we actually give clients a list of blog post ideas each month based on analytics and lack of rankings. And we go over what posts need to be successful. Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don’t and sometimes we get a few things 6 months later
I think you nailed it – sending clients recommendations based off analytics data. Why work harder then you have to? Take advantage of the “easy” long tail keywords!
… I totally understand the “6 months later” comment lol!
My 2 cents on this is that it really depends on the niche, the cash the client is paying and whether or not they are competent enough to get the content done.
Simply put, if your in a specialist niche like legal for example, it would be quite difficult for an SEO company to provide content of the same quality that an expert (who the law firm would have) could.
If the client isn’t paying enough, they can’t expect the company to track down or provide brilliant content, but if they are paying a lot then granted in certain niches like sports etc, there is no reason that the firm couldn’t provide good content.
And then in the case of the incompetent client that can’t do anything right… we all have at least one of them right? Just get there logins and do it, yourself, otherwise you’ll never do well for them, just make sure they know the extra work you do and reflect that in there bill. SUPPORT CREDITS are essential for this approach, however make sure you don’t get into a habit of doing this if they client isn’t paying for it.
I can definitely attest to your example of the legal niche. My ‘day job’ is doing SEO for lawyers and our company actually hires JD’s to write content – its one of our strong selling points. No overseas content will work for this industry. Obviously there is a price to pay for this luxury but you need to go extra lengths at times to get results.
Thanks for commenting – hopefully you’ll participate in future discussions too!