Articles and what to do with them

[EGOL]

I spend almost zero time link building.  Instead, I spend that time on more or better content.

Most people spend almost zero time on content and all of their time on linkbuilding.

Which website do you think will be the most successful?  You know where I am placing my bets.

[Prateek_Chandra]

Hi Nick,

The question you have is one of the most basic questions that even seasoned SEO's don't have a perfect answer for. But I would like to compliment you for the fact that you are moving in the right direction.

The primary goals you have mentioned are different in nature and would need different strategies:

a) attract back links with this content - If this is your main goal then this article should rather go on high visibility forums and websites related to your niche. If the content is engaging enough and is crisp you can exploit social media too. However unless you are a product based company or fall into categories of Sports / Music & Entertainment / Arts & Photography / News & Media / Deals & Promotions , chances are that even the best written content won't be able to generate too much traction on social media. 
b) get it published - By getting it published, if your objective is outreach, use some good PR sites like http://www.sbwire.com or http://www.prweb.com . If you have a decent budget I would recommend writing high quality content and spending to get proper exposure through high visibility PR distribution sites. While more is always better, every business has limitations in terms of resource allocation for indirect marketing methods such as content generation, your best strategy would be to produce high quality unique content that has the capability to grab eyeballs and shares. Please do not forget to make all links no-follow in your press release.
c) get google to index this and benefit from the content - Google indexes everything unless specifically denied access to using no-index tag. Remember a golden rule for content creation, create your content keeping end users in mind not google. Google by default would pass authority to content that is perceived well by your audience. That's what google is trying to refine over the years, make search result relevant for consumers.

Let's say for example you write an article keeping google indexing and authority in mind and (without going into details) you manage to rank 1 on google search results for the targeted keywords. Now when traffic comes on to your website, and they don't find this content relevant to their search, all you would see is a high bounce rate on the website and no conversions, which I don't think could be the goal for any legitimate business.

So I would strongly recommend that you need to analyse your requirements based on goals and then develop content accordingly.

I hope my little explanation is of use to you. Please feel free to send me any questions you may have.

Wish you luck and success.

Regards,

Prateek Chandra

[EGOL]

If you give your content to other websites that will place them in competition with you.  This feeds existing competitors and creates new ones.   It also creates duplicate content in the search engines that can result in your site being filtered from the results or demoted with a panda problem.

Your goal should be create a site that is a unique source of value.  If you give your value away then nobody needs to visit your website.

You are going to receive conflicting advice on this.  I hope that you have the strength of mind to build a site of unique value.

[KeriMorgret]

You can talk with your customers, and talk with the person/people who talk with your customers. What questions do they get all the time? Write content about that! You'll have content for the web that meets the needs of your users, and you'll free up time of the staff that deals with the customers. Some of the posts on the Moz blog have come about because an author has answered the same question so many times in Q&A that they wanted to write a blog post on it, then be able to just give people a link to that post as the answer.

[GPainter]

Don't forget you can have a "sign up for news letter option" and then you can even start to build up some email lists of people who are engaged in your brand. you can use the likes of mail chimps to send for nearly no cost.

It can be a great way to announce new articles or new items on sale or for sale etc. There are some really great tips above though so this is just another helpful bit of advice.

[NickKer]

Ok the reason i wrote this is because I'm getting mixed messages and still as above , people contradict each other.

If we take a vanilla site and pack it full of 1000 articles and blogs and its about "pickled eggs" , i understand google will index this, but will it give my site any importance with zero back links ??? and therefore will my content be sat there getting no visits ?

Great tip about the newsletters , will be using that from now on, normally we send a full article to our 40k news readers.
however only 5% open the email which is heart breaking

[GPainter]

Glad it helped, if you're finding openers are not working out you could look into your subject lines or the content or the emails, unfortunately it can happen. It's like SEO just keep playing with it until you find that sweet spot.

[NickKer]

i would be willing to pay for some help , but we have had some really bad experiences.

one company took our adwords account and ruined it , we were getting 40 apps a day and they managed to being it down to three , then blamed the world and its daughters .

we have employed an seo company who in three weeks has emailed us once ??

we employed an affiliate company , world leader who charged us a fortune to get 20 enquires a month and they blamed the world too.

Google changes have messed our home page , we don't know why as there have been so many changes to google we have lost the will to live.

Want to cry really

[GPainter]

Hi Nick,

Would be happy to take a look at your site see if there is anything we can do for you.

Good thing about the digital age you can always bounce back!

[EGOL]

Ok the reason i wrote this is because I'm getting mixed messages and still as above , people contradict each other.

You can decide "what" you want to believe or "who" you want to believe.... or a combination of the two.

Offers of ...  "quick".... "easy"....  "cheap".... Are going to be the wrong offer 99% of the time.

[KeriMorgret]

Are you speaking of the site that's listed in your Moz profile?

[NickKer]

yes , its ended up one big mash up , needs an overhaul but so scared of losing rankings and money we are in a mess

[NickKer]

Thanks for your answer , but me deciding and deciding wrong costs me money at the end of the day. Hence why I'm asking

[EGOL]

Keri asked an extremely important question....

You probably know that the niche you are in is ultra super competitive.  So what I said in my first answer to you will apply......

** If you are in a competitive niche I think that this much work is not going to move the needle for you at all.   Why?  Anybody who is serious about winning is spending way more effort.**

[mark_baird]

nick I have had similar problems with "experts" in this field. Everything's expensive and is most probably not going to work out the way the expected. So far I have had more help in moz than any seo company has provided.  I just keep reading and it's starting to get better. It's no fun being screwed over repeatedly but it seems to be a right passage as a webmaster.