Do you write articles if the client's site is static?

[grifter730]

Hey guys, I'm trying to find out how some of you pros handle static websites and articles. For example, if a client is a dentist or a restaurant owner, do you guys still do articles and post it on their site?

 

[arousso]

Yes, if your are trying rank for certain keywords and get leads. Google loves fresh original content.

On the other hand, if the client is just looking for a website just to prove that they are in business there is no need.

 

[Techxan]

Hey guys, I'm trying to find out how some of you pros handle static websites and articles. For example, if a client is a dentist or a restaurant owner, do you guys still do articles and post it on their site?

If you want the site to drive organic traffic, then you need to add enough content to out rank your competitors.

Fortunately in the local market in most cases, your competitors don't really understand the whole website thing. To them it is a piece of print media, supposed to be looked at when people pass by.

I try to put up helpful information about the service that my customers provide.

If I had a dentist, I would look around his office for any handouts and simply use them as online content. I would put up an article about teaching the importance of dental hygiene to children. I would put an article explaining the various terms dentists use, bridge, crown, implants or whatever and discuss the pros and cons, how to clean your teeth when you cant brush, should you use mouthwash before a visit, hoe to prepare for a dental exam, how do x-rays of teeth help the dentist, the list is almost endless for any industry.

Write this content for the reader, then optimize the result for your particular situation. Write it as if it is the best information available about the subject, and expect no one to ever read it.

I use pages instead of posts unless my customer runs a blog. I usually start wuth 3 to 5 content pages, then add 1 each week, but only if the last one added is already indexed. I may wait longer, but I want Google to see that the site is constantly being updated, so I space out the new articles. At some point, I drop to 1 article a month. If I am already in number 1 spot especially. I keep a stock articles for use in case savvy competitor comes on the scene, but still add to the site once a month after 6 months or so.


For most service professionals you can write articles about:

Hoe to prepare for the service before the service person arrives. (5 steps to take before having your carpets clean)

How the service process itself works. (How our upholstery restoration service works)

Top symptoms of the problem. (how to identify mold in your home)

Reasons for using your service over others (Why our service is superior to our competitors)

How to maintain whatever was serviced after the service (How to protect your newly refinished floors)

Service/product comparisons (Which of our data protection plans is right for you?)

Product information and details (How out "Flamethrower" Buffalo Wings got their name.)

How to avoid being scammed. (How to spot a reverse mortgage scam)

When I can find an Info-graohic, I throw them in as well.

 

[the_demon]

Yes, what I do is create /articles directory on my site. Load it up with articles (unique) and then in the text of the article link back to the page I want to rank using the desired keywords as anchor text.

 

[Endire]

I really liked what sldebo provided as a guide to help you know what to drive towards with clients.

I mostly appreciated this statement, "Write this content for the reader, then optimize the result for your particular situation. "

I would further underscore that you should understand what the purpose of the website is or should be for their business. This might be like "pulling teeth" to get this information from the client, but the website should be an extension of the purpose the business is trying to fulfill.

Additionally, asking specifically, what are the goals? what does success look like? will help you to deliver to the expectation the client wants and make you look like a rockstar!

In the end, you will then know if they only want a "brochureware" site or if they are looking for a lead generation machine!!! The latter may then require paid campaigns, SEO work, and additional content to push rankings.

Please let me know if this response did help or not.

 

[painkiller]

In my opinion, a website should never be "static". Sure some parts are static... but there should be something changing. New menus, special deals, special events, promoting holidays (even without special deals), etc.

It depends on the business, but there's always something that should be happening that results in a change to the website. Articles are good, but I would push the owner/operator for event details, etc. And if you charge per update, cut them some kind of deal to keep announcements and other minor updates at a lower rate. After all, the better their website performs for them, the happier they will be.

 

[grifter730]

Thanks for the replies guys, those were really helpful. So far all I've done are rather basic generic methods to try and increase my client's rankings. None of the methods seem to be working, and it's been over 2 weeks, so I'm starting to wonder how I can keep going on.

So far I've done:
-Press release to around 10 distributors (I did this manually, so I don't know how well that worked)
-Social bookmarks
-Profile backlinks
-Edu/gov links

Even with all that, the site hasn't budged at all. In fact it dropped about 5 places, before moving back up 3, so now it's just 2 spots below where it was before. Due to that, I'm thinking that I should begin getting articles for them, using the ideas that sldebo mentioned. When I write articles for their website as well as article directories and such, I'm assuming that the links I put in the article should be something like <a href="link to website">keyword</a> right? I'm trying to make sure that I do this right, since the site doesn't seem to be moving in ranking.

Once I write the articles, do you guys have a recommendation for where to submit it to?

Also, what else would you do as next steps to boost my rankings?

 

[collegedropout]

Thanks for the replies guys, those were really helpful. So far all I've done are rather basic generic methods to try and increase my client's rankings. None of the methods seem to be working, and it's been over 2 weeks, so I'm starting to wonder how I can keep going on.

So far I've done:
-Press release to around 10 distributors (I did this manually, so I don't know how well that worked)
-Social bookmarks
-Profile backlinks
-Edu/gov links

Even with all that, the site hasn't budged at all. In fact it dropped about 5 places, before moving back up 3, so now it's just 2 spots below where it was before. Due to that, I'm thinking that I should begin getting articles for them, using the ideas that sldebo mentioned. When I write articles for their website as well as article directories and such, I'm assuming that the links I put in the article should be something like <a href="link to website">keyword</a> right? I'm trying to make sure that I do this right, since the site doesn't seem to be moving in ranking.

Once I write the articles, do you guys have a recommendation for where to submit it to?

Also, what else would you do as next steps to boost my rankings?

From what I've been getting out of reading about SEO for the last month and a half, G00gle is transitioning to a more Web 2.0 ranking emphasis. Meaning you gotta have interactions with your viewers. Meaning panda (g's algo) want to see people commenting, recommending your contents organically. So... how do you do this? I'm trying to figure that out myself too. My theory is to create something that will go viral (ie youtube vid) and pointing them to you site and telling them to subscribe, comment,etc... if you already know all of the above, then make sure you post here again with your results and help out your fellow seo warriors . have a great day!

 

[Murdoch1337]

Thats kinda interesting. I have a couple websites that are static that I never add new information to, and I find that if I regularly produce enough banklinks, that I'm able to remain at or close to the top of the first page.

 

[xinoanet]

After you write the articles, you should post them on web 2.0 sites, making sure to have unique content on each web 2.0 property. You can have 1-2 links on each of these sites and point them to your client's site. Here are some web 2.0 you should post to, sorted by PR (list from another thread but not sure where):

wordpress.com,pr9
livejournal.com,pr8
my.opera.com,pr8
tripod.com,pr8
tumblr.com,pr8
typepad.com,pr8
weebly.com,pr8
angelfire.com,pr7
multiply.com,pr7
my.telegraph.co.uk,pr7
officelive.com,pr7
posterous.com,pr7
rediff.com,pr7
salon.com,pr7
wikidot.com,pr7
wikispaces.com,pr7
yola.com,pr7
webs.com,pr7
squidoo.com,pr7
areavoices.com,pr6
blog.com,pr6
blogger.com,pr6
doodlekit.com,pr6
edublogs.org,pr6
fc2.com,pr6
gather.com,pr6
hubpages.com,pr6
onsugar.com,pr6
quizilla.teennick.com,pr6
travelblog.org,pr6
ucoz.com,pr6
webspawner.com,pr6
wetpaint.com,pr6
xanga.com,pr6
blinkweb.com,pr5
blogetery.com,pr5
devhub.com,pr5
flixya.com,pr5
getjealous.com,pr5
insanejournal.com,pr5
livelogcity.com,pr5
ohlog.com,pr5
shutterfly.com,pr5
snappages.com,pr5
spruz.com,pr5
thoughts.com,pr5
zoomshare.com,pr5
2itb.com,pr4
blogge.rs,pr4
bloghi.com,pr4
blogreaction.com,pr4
blurty.com,pr4
inube.com,pr4
lifeyo.com,pr4
myblogsite.com,pr4
mywapblog.com,pr4
mytripjournal.com,pr4
yousaytoo.com,pr4
spi-blog.com,pr4
bcz.com,pr3
blogster.com,pr3
iblog.at,pr3
weblogplaza.com,pr3
spyuser.com,pr3
sweetcircles.com,pr3
blogpico.com,pr2
evood.com,pr2
uwcblog.com,pr2

non-US English: 30 (sorted by PR)
Code:

jimdo.com,pr7
page.tl,pr7
webnode.com,pr7
journalspace.com,pr6
springnote.com,pr6
soup.io,pr6
blog.co.uk,pr6
webstarts.com,pr6
moonfruit.com,pr6
hpage.com,pr5
ewebsite.com,pr5
webgarden.com,pr5
beep.com,pr5
350.com,pr5
freehostia.com,pr5
freeflux.net,pr5
qapacity.com,pr5
dinstudio.com,pr5
iseekblog.com,pr4
bloggum.com,pr4
doomby.com,pr4
blog.ca,pr4
wallinside.com,pr4
hipero.com,pr4
quechup.com,pr4
fotopages.com,pr4
freeblogspot.org,pr4
sitew.com,pr3
freeweb.me,pr3
ibizlog.com,pr3

You can even interlink some of these properties together. After that, you can add article directories, comments, profile links, bookmarks to these web 2.0 properties. This is what works for me. After a week or so, you should also try to ping the web 2.0 sites to mark sure they are picked up by search engines.

 

[grifter730]

How would you post articles on all those blogs (wordpress, livejournal, blogger, etc)? Do you mean that I would need to create free accounts for these sites, and then post the article?

Using the example of a local dentist, I'm assuming that many other dentists who have used SEO services would have similar articles, so how much value would I really get from posting articles to something like wordpress? Is this what you guys do for local clients like dentists and restaurants?

If anyone is able to share some past work, I'd love a PM to be able to see a real example of all the linkings. Sorry for the newbie questions :/

 

[flyingarmadillo]

If your client is trying to rank for certain keywords and actually grow his business via online, then yes. You will have to add a page for each keyword, write a 500 word article for that page, and then backlink using that keyword as anchor text. Rinse and repeat for each keyword.

 

[grifter730]

They have a static site that they would like ranked for one keyword, basically "city name" + "dentist".

My question above was a bit unclear. What I meant was, do I need to set up individual blogs on each of those sites? So I have to set up a blog on wordpress.com, one for livejournal.com, etc., and then I would have to post the articles on each of those blogs?

 

[derekmhc]

They have a static site that they would like ranked for one keyword, basically "city name" + "dentist".

My question above was a bit unclear. What I meant was, do I need to set up individual blogs on each of those sites? So I have to set up a blog on wordpress.com, one for livejournal.com, etc., and then I would have to post the articles on each of those blogs?

Yes you would setup individual blogs. But there are software that can help you automate this such as SenukeX.

You can also setup a "helpful information" link on their website and add articles there. But that won't help much with ranking alone. But it will help you since google will see your website as always updating and when you do backlinking, it will make your job a bit easier, since it is easier to rank.

 

[xinoanet]

Yes you will have to set up an account on each of those websites (the ones you choose) and post articles on them/link them to the client's site. The more diversity the better when you are building links. My knowledge about ranking local sites are limited, but this does work globally. If you could build links on sites about the same city that would be beneficial too I'm guessing. Maybe blog commenting?