This week's Ask An SEO question comes from Mike in New York.
“I’ve been creating affiliate blogs and niche websites throughout my 10-year career and have had my share of great successes and failures, but now I’m fed up because Google is also specifically targeting these types of websites with their updates.
What other disciplines are there in SEO? What else is working right now? What about client-side SEO? How can someone like me who's worked on content websites my whole career make the switch? What does the future hold for SEO?
That's a great question. It's actually the question that inspired me to start my own agency. Here's the background and answer to that question.
I had niche sites like music, weddings, clothing, architecture, etc.
They all grew and did well, but I got bored of the same topics in the same niche and then got very disheartened when an unqualified affiliate manager took over the program and I lost some of my income, or companies shut down the program because less valuable affiliates were approved.
Then some interesting things happened.
- Several of my site's advertisers (affiliates and sponsors) have asked me how I drive more traffic, so I shared with them how I optimized for search and then for social.
- I then explained the email funnels and automations I created. The email automation backfired in a big way, 3 of my sites were hacked by a plugin that sent out 20 spam newsletters at the same time a spam blog post was posted on my site. Don't hook it up to automatically drop a newsletter when a new blog post is published.
- I met with two of these companies in person.
Both companies asked me if I could do the optimizations for them that I do for myself, which was interesting because I was bored and missing the structure of a “real job.” I know that might sound weird, since I'm not a 9-5 person.
After a few more conversations we realized it made sense, so we left the niche site alone and started using it for training purposes as we hired contractors and staff.
Now, maybe 10 or 15 years later, my agency is still in business and each of the domains have expired (I chose not to sell despite receiving offers when I was larger).
Now, moving on to the answer, there are four things you should be aware of and prepare for:
First, prepare yourself mentally by learning how agency work is different.
Then explain why your company is a better fit than an experienced agency.
Third, explain who your customers are. can (What you can do is different from what you want to do.) The project you are working on can things to do.
Finally, it’s important to be prepared for instability and inconsistency rather than being the owner of a niche site.
Prepare for SEO Consulting
When you hire a consultant to help you build and monetize your website, you become your own boss: you know what works and what doesn't, what you need to include in your content, etc.
but It's not your choice anymoreit can get frustrating.
You probably know that the Google Reviews update encourages listing multiple shopping options to provide a better user experience.
Yet, the ad sales team or affiliate manager sold you a sponsored post. Their contract does not allow them to add additional stores. Now you want to know why your review or listing is not ranking.
Another obstacle is when someone claims that their content cannot include “real experiences” or list certain “negative” points because it's a sponsored post. Everyone has to keep their advertisers happy.
Google and Social Media Guidelines Don’t Matter in the World of Advertising and Publisher Affiliate Managersit's all about the advertisers and getting more revenue from them. They're not SEO pros or social media experts. They're sales and account managers.
Their job isn't to know if their mindset or sales methods are contributing to a drop in traffic, it's to close the sale and negotiate a higher commission.
In e-commerce, you need to adhere to brand guidelines and may not be able to use direct and specific language.
Title tag pixel length (number of characters) may be out of bounds because it’s “off-brand,” and the same team may ask why their titles aren’t showing up in search results.
Other times you have to “stick to branding” instead of meeting customer intent. It drives you crazy because the opportunity is right there, but branding almost always wins, even if it costs the company. It's a repeating cycle.
Niche site owners focus on UX and revenue, while in enterprises, branding usually takes center stage.
Our branding team is not a performance marketing team. We work with legal counsel to determine what is needed for our brand's trademarks and look and feel.
As a consultant, it’s beneficial to learn about branding and find ways to balance the two. Corporate branding is different from niche site branding.
Legal advisors can also come in handy. If you run a niche site, you can take original photos, provide real feedback, and share your genuine opinions.
The client’s legal counsel may decide that this is not permitted within an e-commerce store, service company, or publication.
Your story is about to be published and you may have the opportunity to gain tons of backlinks, Google Discover traffic, and outrank current articles that lack any original thought or experience.
But sometimes the general counsel holds it off for consideration and the opportunity is missed, or the general counsel decides that putting something negative on the company, when it comes to branding, is bad for the company or its image, even though transparency can build consumer trust.
Not having a trust builder can negatively impact both your SEO and your conversion rates. It's not their job to know how to rank websites or convert consumers. That's your job. And because you're not part of a company, you need to work in the atmosphere they provide.
You're not the boss anymoreEven if you own your own agency, it is your client’s website and platform. You are a vulnerable employee relying on decision makers to trust your advice.
This means they can’t fight back as hard as actual employees and have to make more sacrifices to keep the business afloat.
It doesn't mean being dishonest or Don't share your flawsBut you walk a delicate balance in every meeting.
Because it's frustrating not being able to be the boss or make decisions. Be mentally prepared There are objectives above and beyond. With that being said, as you establish yourself, you will learn to better choose your clients and who to work with. My current client base is living the dream life.
It took me over a decade to learn how to spot the warning signs and when to move on, but now I love dealing with it all.
It has the same fun as running your own site, but with structure and deadlines that you don't get in the corporate world. Many of them became my friends outside of work, and even after I parted ways with them, many of us stayed in touch and we became real friends.
List your skills
Yes, literally, make a list of the things you're good at and print it out, this will help you when it's time to pitch to clients. And then imposter syndrome sets in.
Under each skill, list a few successes for each so you can mention them when speaking with clients. Be sure to update as new successes come up.
What we did five years ago no longer makes sense for our agency.To stay in business, we need new, sustained wins.
Skills include:
- Email and SMS retrieval.
- Monetization (CPC, CPM, CPL, CPV, downloads, sponsorships, affiliates, subscriptions, information products, etc.).
- SEO.
- Your level of knowledge of the niche and what part of the niche you are in.
- Connect with other niche influencers and experts.
- Building an audience (social media, readers, building a community, planning events, etc.).
- CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization.
- Code and markup (HTML/CSS, Javascript, PHP, Schema, Python, etc.).
- Data feed optimization.
- Syndication.
- PR, interviews and media training.
Once you have your list, rate each skill on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. Think about which skills can benefit others or your team so you can become a go-to resource for your clients.
Now invest in yourself to get each of your marketable skills to a minimum of a 7. I did this out of necessity – for example, I had to learn CSS (which I'm still not very good at).
I have also attended conferences where I have been able to learn and have found that many of the “gurus” and “keynote speakers” are not actual experts.
The shows that changed my learning trajectory are Pubcon, State of Search in Dallas, Zenith Duluth, Barbados SEO, etc. These in particular really changed the way I see things, but I haven't used them to build a business.
As an agency owner with niche experience, if you want to get clients, go where the recruiters are. If you're in the electronics industry, go to electronics shows and inventor shows and give presentations.
That's where marketers and founders are listening and looking for help. Do you work in the home goods, food, recipes, or other areas? Home shows are the perfect marketplace to get customers.
Types of clients and projects available
SEO for e-commerce is very different from SEO for niche sites, the same for publishers and service-based businesses, and even non-profits, which is a whole other story.
Decide whether you want to work for competing companies or companies that complement each other.
Then determine how much time and effort each one will take and price them accordingly.
Don't be afraid to put time on your calendar – this will help you keep track of what you need to do, in addition to your to-do list (which you literally write out and check off each week).
- News sites (wholesale, trade, organisations and media).
- Niche sites (publishers, bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, influencers, etc.).
- Electronic commerce.
- Service provider.
- Lead Generation
- SEO audit.
- Retainer project.
- The role of advisor.
- Every hour.
- workshop.
- Speaking in public.
- Holding of events.
Prepare for uncertainty
If you think Google updates and social media account closures are bad, just wait until all your clients leave in the same week – things will get worse quicker than your niche site collapsing.
It happens to almost everyone.
Your clients will be constantly being sold to and you will end up losing them even though you haven’t done anything wrong.
Or maybe you’re growing your company or your brand, you’re making profits, you hire a new VP or director, and they bring in a new agent because that person has worked with you in the past.
You'll also hear that new agencies can scale and work with larger companies, which may not be true, but is what founders hear from other founders when they attend networking events.
If your buddy plants an idea in their head, you lose.
Even if it's just $100 a month, always put aside a little bit of money and it will add up and give you the strength to persevere when the going gets tough.
This post is getting long, and as you can tell, I am very passionate about this, so I will stop here. If you have the ability, Able to take financial and emotional risks.
At worst, you'll fail and go back to building niche sites, get a full-time job, or do some kind of hybrid. At least you won't have to worry about what you should have done.
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