How tdo you replace an old SEO company's work?

[MichaelWeisbaum]

I have a client that has been paying someone for what is basically directory placement on very specific niche sites that they have created. These sites are exact match keyword domains with not very high PA or DA (they're in the teens) and they provide no direct traffic. It's basically a link wheel that is probably helping them to rank for some of their bigger holy grail keywords. They are also providing some low quality article/blog marketing on these sites. Ultimately, they link to them ALOT and it's working in this specific niche. This client no longer wants to pay for these services, but there's the possibility of all of the links being taken down and their rankings being set back a ton. Has anybody ever experienced this and if so, how did you deal with it? What are some good tactics? Any tips would be great.

[NakulGoyal]

The best bet is to have an alternate strategy in place to build content and authoritative links. There's always that little bit of risk of drop in rankings in scenarios like these, which is going to happen one day anyway. The question is what to do till then.

I would look at starting to add more content, strengthen the pages as well as working on the overall domain authority with brand links and citations etc.

[EGOL]

I agree with Nakul.

These types of links are dangerous.

It is probably best to start backing out now, working to replace bad links with quality.

[Sangeeta]

We did have that kind of experience. While all of your links are low end, we had a major problem because some of their links were good.

So we came up with a 6 week strategy. Simultaneously we started a content campaign and vertical business partnerships with links to the site.

After two weeks the client company gave a month's notice period to his old SEO company.

Once the period was over we did fall in ranks gradually for a fortnight (that was panicky) but we also started ranking for some alternative keywords (hence the client's business did not dry out).

We regained most of the rankings after 6 -8 weeks.

The downs of this strategy was the client had to pay two companies for 6 weeks, Their businesses went down for three months; but close to a year they have made up for the cost.

My tips would be to 1)mentally prepare the client for the loss; you can add the ROI sheet to your proposal. 2) include some other keywords in your campaign so that you can gain rankings immediately and the client's business does not dry out.