Here’s what business owners, in similar positions to you, are asking freelance writers to do:

• The writer is to draft an article related to the client’s business. (There’s nothing wrong with this part.)
• The writer is expected to include one or more links — generally “dofollow” links — to the client’s website. (This is sketchy depending on the circumstances, which we’ll get to below.)
• The writer is also expected to “place” this content on third party websites they already have established publishing relationships with. (This is a huge problem that can ruin a freelancer’s career, but it also puts your own reputation at risk.)

The Issue of Backlinks

I mentioned asking your freelance writers to include dofollow links in their articles can be a problem. Now, if those articles are on your own website, or going on your own social media profiles, there’s nothing wrong with this.

The problem is when you require them to publish that content elsewhere with your links (their website, their social media accounts, or third party sites they have separate relationships with).

This isn’t always bad. But for this to be ethical (and following FTC guidelines if you, the writer, or the site involved is based in the U.S.), those articles would need to:

• Feature clear and conspicuous disclosure of the writer’s paid relationship with you (“clear and conspicuous” means it can’t be stuck at the bottom of an article, in a sidebar, or anywhere else that wouldn’t make it clear as soon as a reader sees that link);
• Make the links “nofollow” if the writer’s being paid in any way for this content with links as a requirement (otherwise you risk being penalized by Google for buying dofollow links to manipulate your search engine rankings).
• The other website involved would need to be aware of the arrangement.

The Issue of Ethics

When I see these gigs advertised, the problems are two-fold:

• They always seem to want to sneak the links in (dofollow links with no disclosure).
• They don’t want the writer mentioning it to the sites they’re publishing on (these often include well-known sites like Forbes.com and HuffingtonPost.com).

There’s no way around this. If you do either of these things when you hire a freelance writer, it’s unethical. And any freelancer who would willingly do this for you is both unprofessional and putting your company at risk.

The Consequences

If you took part in one of these “freelance writing” link-building schemes, what could go wrong? Quite a lot.

• If Google finds out you’re paying for links to manipulate rankings, you could end up with SEO penalties that hurt the rankings you were trying to build in the first place.
• If you fail to disclose paid relationships for those links, recommendations, or reviews in articles, you could run up against the Federal Trade Commission for violating those FTC guidelines.
• If the site that got exploited in this scheme finds out, it could cause the freelance writer to lose their relationship with that company, and it could cause irreparable damage to your reputation and get you blacklisted from any legitimate coverage and links in those media outlets in the future.

Don’t think the last will happen? I can tell you for a fact these media outlets are not only aware of this scheme, but they’re actively looking out for suspicious placements.

I have colleagues who have been told as much by the large sites they write for. One was caught up doing this without realizing what was wrong and she lost a long-time gig. And another freelancer I know did other work for a client who was guilty of this (she wasn’t even involved in their link placement on the site). And it cost her that relationship simply for being professionally associated with a company engaging in these kinds of unethical practices.

It happens. And you will eventually get caught.

So please. Don’t do this. As a PR professional, it blows me away that people don’t see the obvious reputational risks involved. I would hate to see you get caught up having to clean up a mess you might not fully recover from. And as a freelance writer, I have professional standards of my own that would never allow me to take on a gig like this.

When it comes to your relationship with your freelance writer, it’s important to pay attention to their ethical lines — not just your own. If they make promises to place content somewhere, make sure they’re not willing to engage in a conflict of interest. If they’d screw over one client, why wouldn’t they do the same to you? After all, you wouldn’t want them getting paid to place links in content on your site for another client without your knowledge.

Looking for an ethical freelance business writer to assist with your blogging or content marketing? Between my business writing and public relations experience, I can help you come up with a plan to improve your visibility, backlinks, and reputation in ways that are both effective and ethical. Get in touch, and I’ll let you know how I can help.

The post Asking Your Freelance Writer to do This Could Damage Your Reputation appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

Some Traditional Link-Building Methods:

• Submitting links to Web directories
• Social media outlets (social bookmarking, social content sites, social networking sites, etc.)
• Sig links in forum posting
• Submitting articles with their URL to article directories
• Submitting press releases with a live URL to press release distribution sites
• Link exchanges
• Buying text or banner links on other sites

Traditional backlink-generating methods do have benefits:

• They’re quick.
• They’re often easy to get.
• You can often hand-pick your backlink locations to a degree.

Those methods also have their downsides:

• They can get expensive if you need to build a large quantity of links.
• Many times the links require a reciprocal link, so they’re not one-way.
• The links are very often found on irrelevant sites to your site’s content.
• The links aren’t always permanent.
• It can be difficult getting links on authority websites using those methods.
• Many of those links don’t drive much direct traffic.
• The value of the links (often low for the reasons I’ve stated) isn’t always worth the time and/or money you sink in to get them in an SEO sense.

So even though you can see some of my problems with traditional link-building methods, where does PR come in, and how can it get better results?

First of all let me say: I’m not an SEO expert. But I’ve definitely picked up on a pretty basic concept: The most valuable links (especially in terms of influencing the Google Pagerank of your site) are one-way, relevant links coming from highly ranked authority websites. With that as our premise, here’s how public relations can help you reach those goals, and some of the benefits of using PR:

• PR is cheap if you learn how to do it yourself.
• Even if you hire a PR professional (a good idea if you have serious media aspirations), they often pay for themselves pretty quickly. The exposure from one or two good media pickups can lead to more traffic and natural backlinks than just about any traditional link-building method.
• PR efforts allow you to reach a wider audience, and actually increase your visibility, as opposed to simply stuffing a directory people rarely use for browsing with your links.
• PR efforts help to position you (as the company or site owner) as an authority figure and go-to source for background information in your niche – build your media contacts, and put out good opinions and news, and after a while, journalists will come directly to you for information and opinions on related stories.

So how can you specifically get one-way, relevant, permanent backlinks to your website using PR? Here are some specific tools, and how they can work for you in your link-building efforts:

• Press Releases – I’m not talking about writing a lousy article stuffed with keywords, throwing it into a press release template, and paying to have it submitted to a distribution site like PRweb. That’s traditional link-building, and can’t compare to real media relations. Instead, write a quality press release with a real news angle with broad enough appeal to spark interest in a story. Then choose a few (specifically online) niche media outlets. Find the appropriate editor or beat writer related to your particular news angle. Pitch the story to them (all of that is free, assuming you do it yourself, or you can pay someone to write a press release for you). One or two decent pickups will get you authority links off the bat. On top of that, when a large outlet picks up your story, it usually has a trickle-down effect over smaller niche sites (more permanent, relevant backlinks), and then to niche blogs (still more permanent, relevant backlinks).
• Pitch Letters – Similarly to a press release, a pitch letter is asking a journalist to cover your story. In this case however, you’ll often ask them to cover a specific product or feature. You might also offer to send them a review copy, free access to a download for review, etc. The piece would then be product- or review-oriented rather than news-based.
• Features – A feature is an article written and distributed to the media, with the intention of it being published as-is (as opposed to press releases, which are supposed to be inspiration for a larger story). The story would be more general (and perhaps evergreen or seasonal in nature), and be about something much broader than you, your site, or what you’re trying to promote. Your name, company/site, and URL would be worked in through something like a relevant quote from you, which cites you as the source, and mentions your company/site as a credential – you should use the same tactic often in press release writing.
• Op-Eds – Op-ed stands for “opposite editorial.” It’s an opinion piece submitted to a paper or website that you hope will be printed. Again, the piece shouldn’t be specifically about your site, service, product, or company, but rather a related issue, and you would include your name, title, and company information with the piece when you submit it. You shouldn’t be mass-submitting op-ed pieces. Choose a highly-targeted outlet, where you’d like to see your URL mentioned. If they reject it, you can always pitch it somewhere else. If it’s a well-read site in your niche, chances are that it will be mentioned elsewhere, such as in industry-related blogs.

One of the biggest uses of public relations is raising awareness. It’s been in use far longer than traditional link-building methods, and the methods are tried and true. The trick is knowing how to adapt them to the online world to get live links in authority publications, and to raise awareness of your site so it generates its own natural backlinks more easily. It might not happen as quickly as something like directory submissions or buying links, but the effects can be long-lasting, lead to a greater amount of natural incoming links, and can give you added exposure and name recognition in the process.

The post PR vs Traditional Link Building appeared first on Pro Business Writer.