Hit the nail on the head. AWESOME post.

Great article! I have learned a lot new which I believe will make me a perfect client one day :)

Thanks KristyPage! and RichClubGirl!

Don't ask, offer content services yourself.

I agree with onreact - if you want to guarantee good quality content that will reflect well on your SEO efforts, write it yourself. Writing content is so easy and this puts the control of the time issue back in your court!

I disagree with Onreact and Emmadavis when dealing with authoritative clients. It is not cost-effective for me to write content for most of the businesses we work with. If I am writing for an ice cream shop that would be simple, but when you are dealing with brain surgery, TBI recovery in detail, legal information, chemical info in vitamins, etc. You cannot write with authority unless you spend a lot of time researching and learning about the subject, This is where people lose money.

However, if a client gives you their content you can then edit it and optimize it and it still sounds as though the company does in fact know what they are doing. People need to trust the business they are looking at. If I looked at a site that says "We do brain surgery" vs. a site that explained the ins and outs of what I needed to know for myself or my loved one which do you think I would choose?

Copywriting isn't difficult, but there are clients that need to give you the basic content for their site to sound valid and trustworthy.

I agree with all three of you. What we have found is each client is going to be different. Granted some are going to need content above your qualifications but that's not to say you cannot ask the client to either provide the content or you find the writer for that content. I can see Emma & oneract's comment have some validity. For example we have a "medical" client their competition are places like the Mayo clinic .org etc. All the link building in the world is not going to give us much weight as an article/blog/white paper. Are we qualified to write their content? I think not BUT rather than try to write the content ourselves I insisted the client send us content or pay us to find someone to write the content. Needless to say we have it all ironed out & we were able to get some great content.

Ultimately it's how you approach the client and the relationship you establish. If they trust you enough to agree with your recommendations then half the battle is done!