Is this SEO risky for local businesses?

by carlos123

Posted: 11 years ago 18 replies

I have been brainstorming internet marketing ideas and came up with one that may have some serious potential but am wondering about any SEO penalty that local businesses who buy into my idea might incur.

I ask in view of...

1. Sites like ezine articles and others being penalized
2. Matt Cutts having come out and said flat out that guest posting for SEO purposes is no-good.

Here is my idea...

Create web site that will showcase articles from local businesses with a link to their website (or a landing page on their site that I create for them for a fee). Get each such business to pay you a flat fee per month to be on the site or per lead from the site (their call). Each business can have up to x number of articles. This allows you to leverage the power of content marketing with your skill as a web developer. Basically you are offering them a place to showcase their articles in exchange for paying you to keep up the website and otherwise deal with web development type stuff for them.

Anyone see any SEO penalty to these businesses? While the links to their sites would in no-way be for SEO link building purposes (I can even nofollow them all) Google might perceive any such site like they do article sites (i.e. cheap and no good

). Don't know.

I mean it would be better for a business to do this inhouse and develop their own brand by having such articles on their site but I figure there will be a fair number who won't want to mess with this sort of thing and that's where I come in.

I am concerned about any SEO potential impact on their sites though.

Anybody got any thoughts on the SEO question or even the idea itself?

Carlos

#businesses #local #risky #seo

Electrical 11 years ago

As the owner of a local business who is looking for more customers, tell me how your idea will help me.

The way I read it, I have to do the work of writing articles and then pay you to put them on your site, and I won't even get a backlink from it.

Why would I do that? There's 87 billion places I can post articles, sell me on why your site is the place I should be putting them. Remember, I am the exact customer you are looking to sell to.
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Counselor 11 years ago

This almost sounds like running a blog.
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- carlos123 11 years ago
  
  Hi Electrical,
  
  Thanks so much for your input. This idea may not be workable but here is what I would say to your "objections".
  
  It is indeed true that there are lots of places where you can post articles but...
  
  1. Such places are not laser targeted to allow the site you post on (and your article) highly for keywords related to your specific business...LOCALLY.
  
  2. Such places do not have a vested self-interest in rising to the top of the rankings LOCALLY for your type of business. I would. Meaning that if my site rises so do leads to you through my site...again LOCALLY.
  
  Local consumer targeting is what my site would offer you.
  
  Again this is just an idea but if I can flesh out a bit more with respect to article writing. I would not expect business owners to write entire articles as I would want to maintain editorial control over article quality. Rather I would want a brief which I would flesh out into an article and which Iikely flesh out to some degree myself.
  
  The articles would have to be long and super high quality.
  
  For both our sakes.
  
  There would be multiple businesses writing articles or briefs on this site. Your competitors yes but if you chose not to participate (which would be perfectly fine) your business would get left behind.
  
  There are many local businesses that are completely outranked and who don't stand a chance of ranking because they have no clue as to what this Internet thing is all about.
  
  Those are the businesses I would target.
  
  Not someone like yourself who, by virtue of you being on this forum, are likely more knowledgable than a whole slew of local business owners.
  
  Any further thoughts or critique would be appreciated.
  
  Thanks.
  
  Carlos
  
  PS. Please excuse typos or otherwise but its rather ackward to post here through my itty bitty iPhone screen .
  
  Thanks
  
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carlos123 11 years ago

Oh...one other thing I neglected to mention Electric. In line with my vested interest in the success of this site your local business MUST increase or I would lose your business. As such I would take a personal interest in helping you maximize your investment in working through my site by helping you on your site to capture the traffic coming through my site and turn it into paying customers.

You won't get that from any run-of-the-mill post an article site that I know of.

Carlos
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ConsultJoseph

11 years ago

Just to throw a bone here in order to refine the idea more:

Let's say I'm a local business owner. Yelp and Google Places allow me to post my listing, showcase my services and information AND show off my positive rating & reviews FOR FREE (plus get me trusted local leads). How is your platform better than theirs?

In your case, I have to pay someone (or invest my time) in writing an article, pay you to post it and then trust the site to get me leads using a new and non-proven system? What would this benefit me more if I post the high quality article on my company site blog and then PPC the money supposedly was the flat fee?

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carlos123

11 years ago

I've been thinking of the input received on this thread and this idea and I have come to think its not workable.

There IS benefit if my site were to achieve top 3 ranking for search phrases connected with a niche local business category BUT in order to get top ranking I would need lots of articles.

At first my site would not rank highly which means that there would be no value proposition to paying me for leads (there wouldn't be any at first) or to be on my site.

Which in turn would mean I would have to allow free article posting which all comes down to me not being able to eat for 6 months to one year down the road (before my site stood a realistic chance if ranking highly).

SOoooo...given that I like to eat I think I better pass on this idea. LOL

I had been trying to find a way to profit from content marketing (an absolutely effective and proven method to bring in traffic, leads, and sales for local businesses) and my web development and SEO skills.

I'll have to think of something else or some other angle.

Thanks again for the input you all!

Carlos

Thanks
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nik0

Banned 11 years ago

That are a nice bunch of promises pulled out of thin air.

Where's the proof that the business owners will rank locally?

A brand new page won't automatically pop up at the 1st page, unless your Yelp or something or some tiny city on the map.

I don't expect any decent results with the little bit of money that each business owner would be prepared to pay to just have a blog on your site.

Better approach would be, rank those pages first, then approach them if they want to rent space, and you take care of the content, not them. Most businesses require startup funds so it's perfectly normal that you won't be able to eat from it for the first 6-12 months.

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carlos123

11 years ago

Originally Posted by nik0

That are a nice bunch of promises pulled out of thin air.

Not sure what you are referring to Nik0 but I promise nothing. This is an idea that I wanted input on not something I am actually doing (unless the idea had proved sounder than it turned out to be).

If you are referring to what I said about content marketing as being effective and that it actually works...I didn't pull that out of thin air. That is a FACT. I know a pool service business that went from near bankruptcy to being the TOP fiberglass pool company in the entire country just with content marketing. It works but not in all industries.

Better approach would be, rank those pages first, then approach them if they want to rent space, and you take care of the content, not them. Most businesses require startup funds so it's perfectly normal that you won't be able to eat from it for the first 6-12 months.

Ranking the site first would of course be best but in order to rank, the site needs lots of content. In order to have the content I would need expertise from business owners who know their field since I know next to nothing about...say...irrigation systems as an example (other than that water comes out LOL).

Like I said this idea is not workable as such so I will continue brainstorming for something else.

Carlos

Thanks

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JessicaBurde

11 years ago

Carlos, you would do a lot better offering your content marketing skills to local businesses directly. Many local business owners don't have time to learn, implement, and constantly re-adjust their own online marketing. Hell, in my region most small business don't have any online marketing beyond MAYBE a Facebook page or google listing.
Rather than coming up with schemes like this, I'd suggest doing what I'm working on--put together your own website and market yourself as a service provider to local businesses who want to outsource their marketing. Join the local chamber of commerce, give presentations through them to local business owners, get a mailing going, establish yourself as the local expect, and start building a client list.

Thanks
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carlos123

11 years ago

Hi Jessica,

I appreciate your input but...

Originally Posted by JessicaBurde

Join the local chamber of commerce, give presentations through them to local business owners, get a mailing going, establish yourself as the local expect, and start building a client list.

All well and good Jessica but not workable for me. I need something that I can do in my pajamas from other countries entirely over the internet.

I am trying to come up with new ideas that have not been tried by many if anyone else in the internet marketing world. I know...a bit naive of me perhaps to think that I can come up with such an idea but hey...can't fault a guy for trying right?

.

Carlos

Thanks
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JessicaBurde

11 years ago

Originally Posted by carlos123

I need something that I can do in my pajamas from other countries entirely over the internet.

Everyone has different needs. I would suggest trying for a different niche market though. In my experience, most local businesses want to deal locally, with someone who knows the local market, demographics, etc. You can make serving local businesses remotely work (NicheQuest has don't okay there) but it's an uphill battle.

Originally Posted by carlos123

I am trying to come up with new ideas that have not been tried by many if anyone else in the internet marketing world. I know...a bit naive of me perhaps to think that I can come up with such an idea but hey...can't fault a guy for trying right?

LOL, nope, definitely can't fault a guy for trying!

In that case, I'd go back to basics. Review your skills and to be clear on what you can and can't do. Find a niche market that you can connect with. Figure out what that market needs. Start marketing yourself to fill that need. Starting with an idea and trying to find a market for it will have a much higher failure rate.

Thanks
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Electrical

11 years ago

Originally Posted by JessicaBurde

As a local business, I have absolutely no problem dealing with someone remotely. Currently I am working with a guy who lives across the country who I "pay per lead".

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carlos123

11 years ago

Originally Posted by JessicaBurde

Everyone has different needs. I would suggest trying for a different niche market though.

I"d love to find a good general purpose niche whose needs I could meet remotely. The problem with general purpose niches (I.e. one's that are not tied to a local economy) is that every IM person and their next door neighbor is after the same thing.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of us using the same keyword tools, seeing the same metrics and otherwise.

My goal has been to find a niche with good breadth and one in which I have an interest so that I could build an authority niche site for long term stability and financial success.

But such a niche is incredibly hard to find (notwithstanding what various IM'rs might say otherwise).

So I have shifted my keyword research to local where there is still a HUGE potential and many low competition niches.

The problem I am running into with local is that I have insufficient knowledge in many of the kind of businesses that one finds locally.

Electrical, irrigation, dental, chiropractors and you name it. Not my cup of tea or my area of expertise (which mainly revolves around web development, SEO, and programming).

If I can't find a way to combine my skills and local business needs so that I can make a living entirely online (allowing me to go to another country), I may have to resort to developing software to meet the needs of local businesses though I would prefer a more "passive" income stream.

@Electrical...I am curious, seeing that you are in the electrical field and a local business owner - is electrical work the kind of work that 20 customer questions could be readily derived to allow an electrician to create 20 posts (or pages) of high quality content to answer those customer questions? I ask because to me the only questions I can think of in that regard would be how much, when can you come, what are your references and qualifications? Not quite 20 as a bare minimum to try and use content marketing to improve a local electricians business.

But I am not an electrician not to mention that other types of content could be created that don't revolve around customer questions but I am curious so I I ask.

Carlos

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Electrical

11 years ago

Originally Posted by carlos123

@Electrical...I am curious, seeing that you are in the electrical field and a local business owner - is electrical work the kind of work that 20 customer questions could be readily derived to allow an electrician to create 20 posts (or pages) of high quality content to answer those customer questions? I ask because to me the only questions I can think of in that regard would be how much, when can you come, what are your references and qualifications? Not quite 20 as a bare minimum to try and use content marketing to improve a local electricians business.

But I am not an electrician not to mention that other types of content could be created that don't revolve around customer questions but I am curious so I I ask.

Carlos

While I am probably the best electrician ever (and most handsome), I have to admit that the marketing aspect is something that I don't know well.

I don't know what customers want to see on a website, I wish I did. I assume they want to see something that makes them feel like they will get good service for a good price, but I don't know what it is that will prove it to them and get them to call.

I don't think my potential customers (people looking for electrical work) want to sit and read lots of content, I don't think they care about anything that I would be blogging about. They might find something that piques their interest, but with the typical customer's attention span I can't see them getting past the pictures.

As for 20 questions, I think the questions you posed are the only ones they care about (how much, when can you come, have you done this before, you won't be robbing me, right?).

Thanks

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ConsultJoseph

11 years ago

Originally Posted by carlos123

So I have shifted my keyword research to local where there is still a HUGE potential and many low competition niches.

The problem I am running into with local is that I have insufficient knowledge in many of the kind of businesses that one finds locally.

Electrical, irrigation, dental, chiropractors and you name it. Not my cup of tea or my area of expertise (which mainly revolves around web development, SEO, and programming).

Hi Carlos,

As a guy who is making a decent income stream from local businesses (increasing organic traffic, making their online rating almost perfect in Yelp, Google, etc.), I don't understand why you can't put your head around local businesses wherein you have mentioned your expertise is in SEO. Isn't keyword research a part of SEO?

The fun part about local businesses is that you visualize how you want the marketing to be by simply thinking yourself as a customer to their business and multiplying that to a thousand times. This way, our job as online marketers become much easier!

My suggestion: stop thinking about "global" too much (providing software for all local businesses and stuff) especially with your current income stream. Offer your expertise to local businesses and once you have a huge client base, get their say on what software would help them. Once you have surveyed enough, build that software and sell to them (plus you are earning serious money through your services to them).

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TrustedSEO 11 years ago

mod edit: Stop posting links to your own stuff.
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- Electrical 11 years ago
  
  carlos, I kinda agree with niko. As your potential customer, the only thing you can sell me is promises.
  
  I sell electrical work. When I sell I show the customer what I can do for them. The end product is something that they can see, and most of the time they insist on seeing it before completely paying for it.
  
  What your selling doesn't exist. You haven't even made it yet, and when you do, it's still just a promise. Showing a service contractor some website and saying how it will increase his calls is no different than the calls we get everyday from people looking to "Upgrade our Google listing" and all the other crap we hear. I'm not trying to be harsh, but it's true.
  
  What are you going to do, have one of my local competitors come to a meeting and tell me how great your service is, knowing that if I join I will take some of his work?
  
  I hope you find a good idea, if you do, I will be happy to pay you for it
  
  Thanks
  
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Trollfarie 11 years ago

I once worked for a site that had this concept. They lasted around six months. They couldn't get local businesses to agree to pay. From my experience as a content provider, this type of site won't incure a penalty as long as the content isn't spammy.
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