The difficulties of explaining SEO
One of my many jobs being an Entrepreneur is website development which I do for small businesses. Many of these businesses are unaware of web technologies, search engine optimization and are generally computer illiterate so to speak.
But recently I have noticed an increase in requests for search engine optimization. They don’t refer to it as ‘SEO’ but in fact ‘how do I get my site ranking high on Google?’. To anyone who’s familiar with the various SEO techniques, we know that this isn’t an easy task. People pay SEO consultants hundreds of dollars an hour to analyze websites with the purpose of increasing search engine ranking!
But to the average Joe Blow, this is not how they see it. They don’t realize the competition, hard work and patience it takes to gain a good search engine ranking. Instant results are not a characteristic of this business.
So what do I tell my clients that ask this question?
I normally ask them for a list of key words related to their business and whack them in throughout the site in all the usual places. Of course, I explain to them the difficulties of the SEO business and tell them I can’t promise any ground breaking results.
To my readers, any suggestions? What do you tell your clients?
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POSTED IN: Personal Thoughts, SEO
3 opinions for The difficulties of explaining SEO
Bryan
Nov 23, 2005 at 5:51 am
I generally split my marketing services up into Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing as well as Paid Search, Website Analytics and other marketing activities such as PR etc.
The former is the initial review of the site, creation of keywords - most of my clients don’t know the best ones to use - and then optimization of the site; which may include cleaning up the code, adding keywords where appropriate, rewriting copy.
The second point then relates to the ongoing work which is involved such as content creation, (quality) incoming link building and so on.
Splitting this down and explaining the benefits that each area brings, seems to help people understand what is involved.
Of course before we do anything, we undertake a thorough needs analysis and produce a report outlining the current state of play (for which we charge) of the site.
Don’t forget people buy outcomes, so you have to find out what it is they really want to achieve and then explain the features in terms that mean something to them.
In other words they don’t really want to get their site ranking highly on Google, they want more leads, more sales etc. Ranking highly on Google of course may not even be the best option for them.
Start out by listening to what the client ‘really’ wants and then just use good old fashioned sales techniques, explaining features, advantages and benefits tailored to the clients underlying needs / wants.
At the end of the day, if you explain things in terms that make sense to the client and they still don’t understand why you charge what you charge, do you really want them as a client anyway.
Chris Garrett
Nov 23, 2005 at 6:11 am
It’s a tricky one, particularly when they are in a high competition market. I usually explain how difficult it is and try to coach them. I don’t “do” SEO, a great deal of the work can be done by the client. Getting them to understand that they have no right or entitlement to a top placing is often difficult. The SMEs understand that part but the marketing directors of big companies just dont get it. Billing is a problem too, they will spend way way more on TV or print without any call to action but balk at a tiny percentage for an accountable, measurable SEM campaign. Heh, sorry, end of whine ;O)
City SEO/M
Jun 19, 2006 at 5:20 am
You tell them that it’s a business like any other, and that hard work can get them a top ranking, or well-paid consultants can do it.
Then, to show some good will, you refer them to SEOChat’s free articles. This may seem counterintuitive, but when they see the work required to have a comprehensive SEO campaign, they will better appreciate the work you do.
As you said, though, you need to be honest and upfront in recognizing that no one can guarantee top rankings on Google or other search engines.
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