New world order

[ciznerguy]

Hello all

I see many talk about it but still I feel that the conversation is full of alogans and cliches are flying around, so here goes. In the not too far distant past I could get sites climbing and getting more traffic just by gettinhg simple links from sites. do that on a monthly basis, and see results. Now it is better for end users and tougher for us SEO guys. we need quality content and strategic postings. I like the new way and the higher quality it brings. As many of you probably expieienced getting clients actively engaged is really hard and most times clients are too busy. We need the involvement to succeed, we need quality content and valid places to post (mostly blogs). My questions are

• most budgets are not adjusted by clients and as such it creates a problem getting qualuty content. How do you still stay profitable? How did you adjust? Do you feel that much more actuale work on clients' project is needed and as such profits are declining.

How di you reacts?

what are the adjustment you made

Thanks Guy C

[EGOL]

Before your "new world order" arrived, quality sites with lots of content were earning their SERPs.  They earned their SERPs while lots of SEOed sites were pushing thin content to the top with paid links, forum posts and cheap directories.

The content sites took the long, expensive route.  They went to their office and worked on content.  Every day they asked... "what can we produce that our visitors will like?".  Then they delivered.  They were not complaining.  They were simply working on their passions.

They only worked on one or two or maybe three sites. They worked on those same sites every day, every day for years and years.  They communicated with their visitors.  They become experts in their content area.  From that they learned about their visitors, learned what they consumed and used that knowledge to deliver value.

The question that you are asking is.... "How can I beat these fanatics who know their content and know their sites and know their traffic and know their niche?"

I think that you understand that "content" is the part of your service that is missing... as well as an understanding of the customer.

So, if you can convince clients that they will be responsible for content and show them who in their industry has the content that they will have to beat to succeed.  Then you can do the technical work of their website.  Do the analytics work needed to help them understand their visitors and teach them how to target their content creation to achive the goals of their business.  You might also add conversion rate optimization.

Some companies already offer this type of service although much of it is done by an in-house team who works closely with many other people involved in the business.

[ciznerguy]

thanks for answering and being active on other forums as well.
i do agree and like the fact that hard working & high quality content are winning and actually I am happy with this change. I see the benefits and actually starting to enjoy them. My question actually comes from a business perspective. What to do when budget and effort is not allocated. The only course for action that works for me is actually to buy quality content for my clients and bite my margins. 
I wish all clients and potential  clients will join this effort in understanding that achieving their online goals requires this however this is not yet the case. so the Dilemma  stays cut margins or lose business. really speeches and coaching aside this hurts my business. 
again I like the change and trying to see how others adjusted.

[EGOL]

For the last eight years I have not accepted clients - I only work on my own sites.  Before that I used to accept clients but was really picky about who I would help.  Lots of people asked me to build a website or get their existing website up in the rankings.

I showed them how to do a little keyword research and we determined some of the important keywords that they would want to rank for.  Then we discussed what type of content would be needed to create a great landing page experience for those keywords.

Then I said...  I'll help you with your website when you bring me that content.  Most of them left and never came back.  But some of them did.  The ones who did were successful then, and today - many years later - all of them are still running their sites and producing their content.  They depend on others to do much of the technical work for their websites... but they are still making new, original, high-quality content for every additional page that they add to their website.

So, if you are wasting time because clients can't come up with content then start telling them right from the first meeting that content creation is going to be their job.   Explain why it should be their job and why they should not want anyone else doing it for them.

They really don't want you or some absolute noob who knows nothing about hydraulic jacks or spectropotometers, Irish fiddles or knitting supplies writing their content for them.  They really don't.

[JarnoNijzing]

I completely agree with EGOL on this one. I always let my clients deliver me the content for the website. I use the following argument for this:

My expertise is SEO, yours is X. If you would have to write about SEO you would also not know where to start, I do. If I have to write about X i would have to do lots of research on the topic and still would not always be correct. You know a lot more about X. So if you can deliver me the content I can do what you hired me to do.

My experience is that this works really well. Let them know that everything about their product of service that they feel is logical is not necessarily logical to others. So you could write content for them, but it will be low quality that no one will link to or share on Social Media so their is no point of creating low quality content.

my 2 cents

Regards

Jarno