Monday was my 6 month mark at SEER Interactive, and I believe its definitely time for my first blog post. Looking back at my time at SEER, its clear that its been one of the biggest learning experiences of my professional life so far. I was in the SEO field for 3 years prior to SEER, but the last half year has taught me more about SEO than the previous 3 combined. Being surrounded by a team of other talented Search Professionals every day who continue to refine an evolving process has definitely been a prime contributor to that.
I came to SEER from an In-house SEO position which is a completely different world than the Agency environment. There are pros and cons to working with each and I wanted to share the un-candy coated truth today, based on my experiences.
Expertise
I have to start off by saying, when youre exclusively working with one industry you get to know the industry pretty well.
The In-house SEO is entrenched in their industry all day, every day. Lets say you have an internal SEO Specialist for your online store that sells toys. If youre doing the SEO for this store, you will see the trends for toy sales and search volume for toy related keywords every day, all year. Youll know what market trends make traffic spike and which make traffic plummet. Youll know what works and what strategies are wastes of time in your niche.
The agency SEO Specialist may not be immersed in the same field all day, however they get to see market trends and algorithm shifts for a variety of industries and websites. They can see how the most recent Google algorithm change affected different types of websites with different functions and goals. They can see how a change in the economy, a different time of the year, or even what SEO strategies affect businesses in the financial sector and at the same time see how it is influencing the health industry. Agencies get a more comprehensive view of the SEO industry as a whole and see more of what affects search engine rankings.
Workflow
At an In-house position exclusively meant for SEO, you get good at creating work for yourself. At the start of an SEO project there is an industry analysis, keyword research, page targeting, content development, link building strategies however, after the initial kick off tasks the project is running on all of the initial research and strategy. When your job is to do SEO for one website, 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, you need to make sure that youre continuously working on something new, looking for finding new opportunities for your website to be optimized, and making sure you still have a job. I have to say, you definitely get good at finding every possible optimization opportunity!
In the agency, after doing all of the initial kickoff work you can follow your strategy. You have other clients to work on, so you dont continuously search for alternative strategies. If something works, it works; if it doesnt work, you do your research, find out what does work, and refine your strategy. Why look for alternatives if something is already working? You make changes only once it stops working, not just because you feel the need to be continuously working on something. Besides, there are other clients that need work done for them, so there is never a loss of SEO tasks to do at any time.
Exposure
Again, lets go back to the toy store. You are exposed to this industry every day as an In-house SEO Specialist. You see what works and what doesnt. However, when you find out something doesnt work thats it; you dont touch it anymore. Why bother wasting time on a strategy that doesnt work?
Lets again bring this back to an agency. Theyre working on the Toy Store and a certain strategy doesnt help their important keywords rank. Youd move on like the In-house SEO Specialist, however this same strategy may work for a University that is also a client. Since I started at SEER, Ive explored realms of SEO that I never even set foot in because it was already determined by another Senior SEO Specialist that they didnt work for the website I was involved in. Getting your feet wet with all of the different areas of SEO is a definite with an agency.
Pace
One of the biggest changes from switching to an agency setting was the speed at which day to day operations took place.
Going back to the online toy store example again, youre in the process of getting a great link on the blog of a daycare with a great online presence. Theyre inviting your toy industry specialists to talk about what toys are most popular for each age bracket, geographic location, and income class. The best part is you can link back to your site as many times as you want with whatever anchor text you desire! What is the problem here? Youre waiting on your content writers to deliver the content. What do you do while you wait for this?
Lets say this toy store was using an agency and the same lack of content situation is presented; the SEO Specialist at the agency would take this break to work on another client project. Just because youre waiting on someone for one SEO Project doesnt mean that you need to be a sitting duck. Like I said earlier, there are always other clients with SEO tasks to be completed!
The Final Word
My take on the In-house vs. Agency debate has two conclusions:
As an SEO Professional, I have appreciated my time in an agency more than an In-house position. The experience with various industries, the opportunity to be exposed to various SEO strategies and see what kinds of sites/industries they fail/succeed in, and the fast pace are why I prefer my current set up. I can see why someone would prefer to be exclusive to one website that they can master, but I prefer the versatility.
From the perspective of a company looking to have SEO done, I think the optimal solution is to have an SEO Agency work with an In-house SEO specialist. Usually the In-house SEO Specialist has other non-SEO tasks that come their way, so having the agency behind them to work with will yield the best results in my opinion. This isnt always possible however, mostly because of budgets, so honestly Id have to say an SEO Agency would be my preferred choice. The agency is engrossed in SEO all day, so its their job to only focus on that. Plus, if it comes time where the company doesn’t need full time SEO anymore, they wont have to worry about reallocating someones job functions in the company.
Ill finish with saying Im glad to be part of a team like SEER. Working with a great team of intelligent Search Professionals with different strengths and weaknesses makes me learn something every day. Its also the reason its taken me 6 months to write a blog post when youre surrounded by great minds, its tough to determine which bits of SEO wisdom are wise or just old news.
Does anyone else have experience working with/in an In-house and/or agency setting? Id love to hear other perspectives about it!
Monday was my 6 month mark at SEER Interactive, and I believe it’s definitely time for my first blog post. Looking back at my time at SEER, it’s clear that it’s been one of the biggest learning experiences of my professional life so far. I was in the SEO field for 3 years prior to SEER, but the last half year has taught me more about SEO than the previous 3 combined. Being surrounded by a team of other talented Search Professionals every day who continue to refine an evolving process has definitely been a prime contributor to that.
I came to SEER from an In-house SEO position which is a completely different world than the Agency environment. There are pros and cons to working with each and I wanted to share the un-candy coated truth today, based on my experiences.
Expertise
I have to start off by saying, when you’re exclusively working with one industry you get to know the industry pretty well.
The In-house SEO is entrenched in their industry all day, every day. Let’s say you have an internal SEO Specialist for your online store that sells toys. If you’re doing the SEO for this store, you will see the trends for toy sales and search volume for toy related keywords every day, all year. You’ll know what market trends make traffic spike and which make traffic plummet. You’ll know what works and what strategies are wastes of time in your niche.
The agency SEO Specialist may not be immersed in the same field all day, however they get to see market trends and algorithm shifts for a variety of industries and websites. They can see how the most recent Google algorithm change affected different types of websites with different functions and goals. They can see how a change in the economy, a different time of the year, or even what SEO strategies affect businesses in the financial sector and at the same time see how it is influencing the health industry. Agencies get a more comprehensive view of the SEO industry as a whole and see more of what affects search engine rankings.
Workflow
At an In-house position exclusively meant for SEO, you get good at creating work for yourself. At the start of an SEO project there is an industry analysis, keyword research, page targeting, content development, link building strategies…however, after the initial kick off tasks the project is running on all of the initial research and strategy. When your job is to do SEO for one website, 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, you need to make sure that you’re continuously working on something new, looking for finding new opportunities for your website to be optimized, and making sure you still have a job. I have to say, you definitely get good at finding every possible optimization opportunity!
In the agency, after doing all of the initial kickoff work you can follow your strategy. You have other clients to work on, so you don’t continuously search for alternative strategies. If something works, it works; if it doesn’t work, you do your research, find out what does work, and refine your strategy. Why look for alternatives if something is already working? You make changes only once it stops working, not just because you feel the need to be continuously working on something. Besides, there are other clients that need work done for them, so there is never a loss of SEO tasks to do at any time.
Exposure
Again, let’s go back to the toy store. You are exposed to this industry every day as an In-house SEO Specialist. You see what works and what doesn’t. However, when you find out something doesn’t work that’s it; you don’t touch it anymore. Why bother wasting time on a strategy that doesn’t work?
Let’s again bring this back to an agency. They’re working on the Toy Store and a certain strategy doesn’t help their important keywords rank. You’d move on like the In-house SEO Specialist, however this same strategy may work for a University that is also a client. Since I started at SEER, I’ve explored realms of SEO that I never even set foot in because it was already determined by another Senior SEO Specialist that they didn’t work for the website I was involved in. Getting your feet wet with all of the different areas of SEO is a definite with an agency.
Pace
One of the biggest changes from switching to an agency setting was the speed at which day to day operations took place.
Going back to the online toy store example again, you’re in the process of getting a great link on the blog of a daycare with a great online presence. They’re inviting your toy industry specialists to talk about what toys are most popular for each age bracket, geographic location, and income class. The best part is you can link back to your site as many times as you want with whatever anchor text you desire! What is the problem here? You’re waiting on your content writers to deliver the content. What do you do while you wait for this?
Let’s say this toy store was using an agency and the same lack of content situation is presented; the SEO Specialist at the agency would take this break to work on another client project. Just because you’re waiting on someone for one SEO Project doesn’t mean that you need to be a sitting duck. Like I said earlier, there are always other clients with SEO tasks to be completed!
The Final Word
My take on the In-house vs. Agency debate has two conclusions:
As an SEO Professional, I have appreciated my time in an agency more than an In-house position. The experience with various industries, the opportunity to be exposed to various SEO strategies and see what kinds of sites/industries they fail/succeed in, and the fast pace are why I prefer my current set up. I can see why someone would prefer to be exclusive to one website that they can master, but I prefer the versatility.
From the perspective of a company looking to have SEO done, I think the optimal solution is to have an SEO Agency work with an In-house SEO specialist. Usually the In-house SEO Specialist has other non-SEO tasks that come their way, so having the agency behind them to work with will yield the best results in my opinion. This isn’t always possible however, mostly because of budgets, so honestly I’d have to say an SEO Agency would be my preferred choice. The agency is engrossed in SEO all day, so it’s their job to only focus on that. Plus, if it comes time where the company doesn’t need full time SEO anymore, they won’t have to worry about reallocating someone’s job functions in the company.
I’ll finish with saying I’m glad to be part of a team like SEER. Working with a great team of intelligent Search Professionals with different strengths and weaknesses makes me learn something every day. It’s also the reason it’s taken me 6 months to write a blog post…when you’re surrounded by great minds, it’s tough to determine which bits of SEO wisdom are wise or just old news.
Does anyone else have experience working with/in an In-house and/or agency setting? I’d love to hear other perspectives about it!
Ok, technically anyone who hires an SEO to do link building is doing paid linking. They are paying someone with expertise and dedicated resources to do link building and much of the time it is specifically to manipulate Googles search results. It does not make good business sense to rely only on organic links to compete for search results. This may work for Brand related searches. If you are interested in ranking for any generic terms however, you will need some help or to spend your own resources doing the link building; neither of which is free. Paying someone to do link building is different than paying for a link, but both have the same goal.
While Google may want all links to be organic, I believe that they know that is not even close to within the realm of possibility. They know that non-organic link building will always be a part of the search landscape and have begrudgingly come to terms with the issue. Understandably however, Google has to draw a line somewhere. Its up to us as SEOs to understand where that line is and for the sake of our clients, not to cross it.
So where does Google draw the line?
Normally I would say intent. This is the ad hoc metric Google uses to determine whether something is evil or not. If the intent is obviously to manipulate their results, then more often than not it gets a busted. However, since almost all link building is done with the intention of improving a pages/sites position in search results, intent cannot be that line.
Par for the course with Google, the line is a little fuzzy. They can tell us something is not acceptable on one hand then on the other, SEOs show us that it clearly has impact. Google does not think it is fuzzy at all by the way. They tell us what they expect and lead us to believe they have the technology to enforce it. SEOs have shown over and over again that their enforcement tends to have holes.
Examples on both sides of the line.
The recent J.C. Penney paid linking issue uncovered by the New York Times was an instance where the intent was obviously to influence rankings. Its a great example of either not understanding where the line was or not caring if it was crossed. The search firm who handled the Penneys site either allowed the creation of or actively created thousands of links using paid link networks. With what I personally consider a gross disregard for the basic principles of link building, these links were place on totally non-relevant sites which was the cause of the overall JC Penalty debate started in the New York Times. Google has told us that paid link networks were stepping across the line over and over again.
When was the last time you saw traffic from the Yahoo! Directory in your sites referrals? Thats a $299 a year link and the only reason most people even bother anymore is because of the strength of the site and the potential link juice it can pass. I just checked, those links are still without the no-follow tag. How far would the sales drop if Yahoo! decided to add no-follows; pretty far I am guessing. Quality directories are a rather safe bet from a paid linking standpoint. When a directory is hand edited and is full of useful links across its categories, Google will normally see value in a link on that site and give it a pass.
How to deal with the line.
Lets face it, many clients and unfortunately many SEOs dont have a clear understanding of how much work goes into building quality links. Its a time consuming and expensive process. Remember, I said quality links, sure you can get links cheap, and paying for links is an easy way to get the job done efficiently, hence its popularity. But in this case, cheap and easy usually equal dangerous and risky; just ask J.C. Penney. The tactic of quantity over quality is not viable anymore.
Dealing with the far side of the line is easy. Just stay away from link networks and brokerage houses. If a company has a List of Publishers you can choose from then its most likely not a list you want anything to do with. If a company has an exclusive network of sites, they are probably not sites you want anything to do with. Use common sense, any service that automates a link is probably not a service you want anything to do with. Quality link building is neither cheap nor easy. If a company or service disagrees with this, assume they are on the wrong side of the line.
Draw your own line.
A few weeks ago, Michael Martinez of SEO Theory wrote an article similar to this one. It was somewhat tongue and cheek, but focused on the point that since all linking is paid, its hypocritical to allow some and not others. And it may be, but there is a point at which Google decides that SEOs have gone too far and its at that point that the site or page gets slapped. As SEOs its up to us to decide for ourselves how close to the line we are willing to venture and since its a fuzzy line its a subjective decision. Some SEOs dont mind pushing the limits while others stay as far from the line as possible. In the long run its up to us as SEOs to draw our own line remembering that in most cases it is not our sites which will be in the Google crosshairs if the line is crossed.
Personally, my line was pushed to far beyond my comfort zone where I was before, I am glad to be at a place like SEER where the line is mine to control once again and all the people around me have the same regard for the clients and their sites as I do.
This was my inaugural post here on the SEER blog. I am glad to have both the time and a place to write about the industry I love once again. If you are coming over because I mentioned this post on the SEO101 Radio show, thanks for dropping by.
Ok, technically anyone who hires an SEO to do link building is doing paid linking. They are paying someone with expertise and dedicated resources to do link building and much of the time it is specifically to manipulate Google’s search results. It does not make good business sense to rely only on “organic” links to compete for search results. This may work for Brand related searches. If you are interested in ranking for any generic terms however, you will need some help or to spend your own resources doing the link building; neither of which is free. Paying someone to do link building is different than paying for a link, but both have the same goal.
While Google may want all links to be organic, I believe that they know that is not even close to within the realm of possibility. They know that non-organic link building will always be a part of the search landscape and have begrudgingly come to terms with the issue. Understandably however, Google has to draw a line somewhere. It’s up to us as SEOs to understand where that line is and for the sake of our clients, not to cross it.
So where does Google draw the line?
Normally I would say “intent.” This is the ad hoc metric Google uses to determine whether something is evil or not. If the intent is obviously to manipulate their results, then more often than not it gets a busted. However, since almost all link building is done with the intention of improving a pages/sites position in search results, “intent” cannot be that line.
Par for the course with Google, the line is a little fuzzy. They can tell us something is not acceptable on one hand then on the other, SEOs show us that it clearly has impact. Google does not think it is fuzzy at all by the way. They tell us what they expect and lead us to believe they have the technology to enforce it. SEOs have shown over and over again that their enforcement tends to have holes.
Examples on both sides of the line.
The recent J.C. Penney paid linking issue uncovered by the New York Times was an instance where the intent was obviously to influence rankings. It’s a great example of either not understanding where the line was or not caring if it was crossed. The search firm who handled the Penney’s site either allowed the creation of or actively created thousands of links using paid link networks. With what I personally consider a gross disregard for the basic principles of link building, these links were place on totally non-relevant sites which was the cause of the overall “JC Penalty” debate started in the New York Times. Google has told us that paid link networks were stepping across the line over and over again.
When was the last time you saw traffic from the Yahoo! Directory in your sites referrals? That’s a $299 a year link and the only reason most people even bother anymore is because of the strength of the site and the potential link juice it can pass. I just checked, those links are still without the no-follow tag. How far would the sales drop if Yahoo! decided to add no-follows; pretty far I am guessing. Quality directories are a rather safe bet from a paid linking standpoint. When a directory is hand edited and is full of useful links across its categories, Google will normally see value in a link on that site and give it a pass.
How to deal with the line.
Let’s face it, many clients and unfortunately many SEOs don’t have a clear understanding of how much work goes into building quality links. It’s a time consuming and expensive process. Remember, I said “quality” links, sure you can get links cheap, and paying for links is an easy way to get the job done efficiently, hence its popularity. But in this case, cheap and easy usually equal dangerous and risky; just ask J.C. Penney. The tactic of quantity over quality is not viable anymore.
Dealing with the far side of the line is easy. Just stay away from link networks and brokerage houses. If a company has a “List of Publishers” you can choose from then it’s most likely not a list you want anything to do with. If a company has an exclusive network of sites, they are probably not sites you want anything to do with. Use common sense, any service that “automates” a link is probably not a service you want anything to do with. Quality link building is neither cheap nor easy. If a company or service disagrees with this, assume they are on the wrong side of the line.
Draw your own line.
A few weeks ago, Michael Martinez of SEO Theory wrote an article similar to this one. It was somewhat tongue and cheek, but focused on the point that since all linking is paid, it’s hypocritical to allow some and not others. And it may be, but there is a point at which Google decides that SEOs have gone too far and it’s at that point that the site or page gets slapped. As SEOs it’s up to us to decide for ourselves how close to the line we are willing to venture and since it’s a fuzzy line it’s a subjective decision. Some SEOs don’t mind pushing the limits while others stay as far from the line as possible. In the long run it’s up to us as SEOs to draw our own line remembering that in most cases it is not our sites which will be in the Google crosshairs if the line is crossed.
Personally, my line was pushed to far beyond my comfort zone where I was before, I am glad to be at a place like SEER where the line is mine to control once again and all the people around me have the same regard for the clients and their sites as I do.
This was my inaugural post here on the SEER blog. I am glad to have both the time and a place to write about the industry I love once again. If you are coming over because I mentioned this post on the SEO101 Radio show, thanks for dropping by.
I feel horrible for them, but loved how they handled it. And stayed true to their “customer first” ways.
I encourage EVERYONE to read this then put on your manager/CEO hat. And when you read it you, and only you will TRULY know what your gut reaction is.
Your company just made a 1.6 million dollar mistake you have a ton of different options, would you pick “take it on the chin?”.
When faced with EXTREME adversity, do you pick your customers first (as was done in this case) or do you pick the bottom line first (ahem Facebook). I for one hope (and believe) that their customers will stick with them b/c when “it” hit the fan Zappos stuck by them.
Agency types, consultants, workerbees, managers – take a good hard look at your company’s client retention numbers and ask yourself, when was the last time your company screwed something up and did 100% what was right, not some compromise, you just took it on the chin, said sorry and kept at it?
Zappos could have easily tried some “oops, we’re going to give you 50% off” or something like that. But they took the full BRUNT of the hit. Thats respectable.
People!!!! If your client retention numbers are in the crapper, you might want to think hard about why – maybe when it comes down to picking revenues or what’s right for your client you pick revenues. And when it comes their turn to refer a partner they pick someone who cares about them OVER YOU!? Leaving you wondering where your next gig is coming from. NEVER waver on doing what is right for your clients, sometimes losing money on a client project when you screwed up is how you build lifelong trust.
In business there will undoubtedly be major screw ups, luckily I have had a chance to share some of them with at this last SXSW in the Panel “We F*cked up” with Greg Hoy, Kevin Hoffman, and Grey Storey of happycog and Tracey Halvorsen of FastSpot.
Here’s my clip of the video on how I handle screw ups here at SEER form SXSW (I’m at 2 minutes 43 seconds in).
Being a company that focuses solely on SEO and PPC (along with Google Analytics to measure and analyze performance), we are often faced early on in potential client conversations with the million-dollar question: Should I focus my online efforts on SEO or PPC? Depending on the potential clients goals, business model, etc., the conversation may get even trickier – changing direction from SEO to PPC or from PPC to SEO, or sometimes even from SEO and PPC to a completely different avenue of marketing.
The great thing when you are dealing with a company that does solely focus on SEO or PPC (at least in the case of SEER), is that we are committed to pointing potential clients in the right direction (the one that gives them RESULTS), whether that is focusing on SEO or PPC (with SEER or without), or another means of advertising outside of SEER. Its certainly a tough call, but when youre in the trenches of search day in and day out you know what type of clients will and will not succeed and lets be honest, who wants to take a project on that you have that gut feeling from the start may fail? (Check out one of Wil’s latest posts for more on Avoiding Client SEO Failures)
So, how do you convince a client who is dead set on an SEO Campaign that, at this moment, PPC is their best approach?
Communicate you are PROTECTING their downside!
Often times when a client is approaching you for an SEO campaign, the thought of engaging in PPC instead scares them.
From a financial standpoint, investing in an SEO may seem like a better solution for a potential new client; they look at SEO as a 12-month investment that they no longer pay for after the contract expires but continue to reap the benefits from.
And at initial glance, PPC appears to have a higher ONGOING price tag there is the ad-spend, the agency management fee, potentially a setup fee, landing page development fees, etc.
However, what happens if you are dealing with a company who has ZERO online presence or better yet, one that is introducing a new product/service?
If you are anything like the SEER team, taking a (educated) guess that you are choosing the correct terms to optimize a site around based solely on volume, relevancy, etc.for a brand new business/product/service does NOT sound like a good idea .
Why? Because what happens when you get your client all page one rankings and the conversions DONT COME IN?
Well, heres the other million dollar question that now your client will be asking YOU: Where are the customers?
So, to avoid the Where are the customers question, turn the tables on the client in the discovery stage and push them down the PPC path (But again, do so by communicating you are PROTECTING their downside!).
Use PPC to TEST what terms ACTUALLY do drive the conversions!
And dont just test the terms haphazardly Structure your PPC account in the same way you would be driving organic traffic to the clients site.
1. Set up a unique Campaign for every page you will likely target in your SEO campaign.
2. Your ad groups will then house the terms you will target to each unique page.
3. Your landing pages should be the actual page on the site that you would optimize the targeted terms for.
4. Finally, ensure your campaign settings best match an SEO campaign. For instance, target the US (assuming that is your market); target Google Search only (vs. Google Search & Search Partners), etc.
Granted, there will be uncontrollable variances to how organic and paid traffic perform; however, wouldnt it be great to gather statistically significant data for a client on terms that are PROVEN to (or not to) work! Not to mention, imagine how much more at ease the client will be throughout the SEO campaign knowing that there they already generated some new customers through the PPC tests and are confident they will achieve the ROI from SEO they desire!
Once you have your statistically significant data to base your decision off of, you can then push forward with an SEO campaign that you have CONFIDENCE in will drive the results your client desires. And as long as your PPC account is returning a positive ROI, you may have just helped a potential client grow their business exponentially just by doing some smart marketing research (and hey, picked up a PPC client for yourself!).
And if your statistically significant PPC data leads you to have the tough conversation with you potential client that this is not going to drive the results you need, dont you think your potential client will thank you (and who knows, maybe even refer you to other potential clients) for not wasting their money OR time?
As my colleague Bonnie mentioned in a previous blog, Want to Avoid a Million Dollar mistake, use PPC for the benefits it brings Do the research (fairly quickly) for your potential client before you waste their time (and yours) and money!
As I set down over lunch with the guys and girl above, I started thinking about what I could share, given that my last post on hiring difficulties was well received I figured I’d write something that combines both. It begins with story of one of our biggest clients, who I at one time turned away…
I turned this client away the first time they came to us, I had met with the owner over breakfast. He found us through a search and had done a ton of research on what to ask a potential SEO firm. During our breakfast it became obvious that his expectations for how search worked and what it could contribute to his bottom line were off from how I understood them. So at the end of our conversation, I told him that we wouldn’t be able to work on these projects because I didn’t honestly feel like I could set realistic expectations. BOY WAS THAT ALMOST a MISTAKE – 2-3 people would not have jobs at SEER if he walked, but instead he didn’t…
He called me the next day and said ”you were the only guy who wouldn’t promise me they could give what I wanted, and instead took time to educate me on what to expect, you tell me what I can expect.” As a result, he asked me to come in and set his teams expectation on what search can do, which I did, and sure enough over the course of our 3 year relationship, its been fruitful for both sides, and this company is one of my favorites to look back at how we were able to help – the relationship has grown over the years, and we have had a very honest and smooth working relationship, they challenge us, we challenge them but all for the sake of growing their bottom line. So with that story behind us, lets get started on how to not take on jobs DOOMED for failure from the beginning – and if you do fail how to handle it.
Avoid jobs with unrealistic revenue expectations
Search marketing, social media marketing, conversion optimization, whatever it is that you do, you MUST avoid clients with unrealistic expectations, none of your businesses create miracles. You must also admit to yourself that you don’t walk on water, and there’s always a chance for failure.
It is part of your job to do the math with your prospective clients to at least give you and them an idea on what a goal you should both be shooting for.
In every initial new business conversation, ask the person on the other end of the line for their average sale value and a rough idea on margins. Starting the conversation there allows you to easily do some mental math while determining if the expectations are realistic.
Focus on how your client makes money look at the searching universe if things dont match up dont take on the project, because even if you kill it in SEO theyre probably going to have a negative ROI and a negative sentiment about your company.
Want to avoid a major screw up later down the road?? Don’t fear letting a prospective client know that the numbers don’t add up, and as such they should seek another company.
Sometimes clients will say “dont worry about our profitability, well handle that, you bring the traffic we will worry about how to convert it.” Weve had clients say that, and that is 100% fine with us if they end up upside down on ROI later in the project we know we tried to help them avoid that reality in the first place.
Agree on success metrics before contracts are signed
We had a client for whom we increased their traffic 3x (yes they were already getting thousands of visitors) yet in spite of that they werent entirely sure we werent doing all we could to grow their business. I KNEW we were.
This was my fault, I should have done a better job up front of making sure we both were in agreement on what exactly success was. For me success was returning a positive ROI, for them, it was a positive ROI but more important was how many links did we build last week/month.
We ultimately had to let them go because the way they looked at success was obviously different than how we did. I am not saying they were wrong, but just not the right fit for us.
Assuming your upfront due diligence is done and you agree on what success is, and for some reason you just cant get a great ROI at 6 or 9 months in, the first step is to admit to the client that you see that they have an upside down on ROI. Get the elephant in the room on the table immediately. At the very least you’ll earn their trust that even in the face of bad news you have the cojones to admit it. See below for some ideas on how to address failure with clients. By getting this issue on the table you give even the nicest clients the ability to now talk openly about the obvious failure. This doesnt make them feel bad for bringing the obvious points up. When your results aren’t good you should never have to wait for the client to say something first, NEVER.
Don’t show your best hand
Why do you think might not be the best idea to lead in with your best case studies?
Prospective clients who ask for a case study may see an example for a site out there you were able to increase traffic by 10x and conversions by 8x and added $500k in gross sales.
Some people when they see those kinds of results think its typical and not an exception, so when you finish the project with a traffic increase of 80% and conversion increase by 55% with $180k in additional gross sales, that might feel like a disappointment to them.
If this happens, it is your fault.
You got the biz by showing your client your best case scenario of all time, setting their expectation that these results are not always typical is one way you can address this. Personally I’d prefer to show a prospective client the best, middle, worst case scenarios giving them a more balanced view of how SEO can work for them and outline why (if possible) those results happened.
Remove “magic server pixie dust” thinking in SEO
Remember this commercial from IBM? It’s time for clients to wise up to the fact that crappy links typically ain’t gonna get you that leg up on your competitors, we should be the people pushing that message. This means in the sales process you should be educating your client that you are going to need them, A LOT to be successful in building high quality links.
You are going to need budgets, access to project managers, give-a-ways, etc.
No project sucks more than the one where the client just thought they’d pay you, you’d sprinkle some dust and then they’d wake up with money coming out the whazoo.
Ok, so now that you’ve done all the work to set the clients expectations, congratulations. The real sad question is what happens when you do all the hard work spending night and day optimizing, link building, and the results never come?
Typically there are a few reasons why ROI can be in the pits – here’s the three most typical scenarios and how we deal with them at SEER.
If the ROI sucks because the client is slow
Solution cut their monthly payments up to half (unless you bill hourly) most clients know when they are the cause for the slowdown in results. But if their slow down is preventing you from doing a large part of what you need to do to help them be successful, its a good idea to cut their monthly payments, especially since you have less work to do and parts of your project are in a holding pattern. It may not be half, but you should show some kind of sign that says I am not comfortable billing you for work I am probably not doing.
If you dont take this approach, youll likely keep billing them and they may keep paying, UNTIL someone asks what we are getting for this, which is not a good conversation to have once you’ve been put in defensive mode. Taking an “F you pay me” approach to a slow client is a guaranteed way to get the boot.
If the ROI sucks because you are unable to get rankings
This happens, SEOs hate to admit it, but good ones aren’t and we’re no exception, yes at times SEER has not gotten the results I hoped for in the timeframe I hoped and sometimes it was not the clients fault. We may have just needed more time than expected at the onset of the project.
I strongly believe in the Vince Lombardi quote that goes something like this:
“We didnt lose, we just ran out of time”
That’s my mantra. Personally I feel like I rarely lose because I’ll never give up, that does require patience on the part of your client. Again if you’ve done a great job of setting expectations up front and being honest, you’ll have explained to them that results come at different stages, so they should be expecting that late results is always a risk you take with SEO.
Any SEO that says they bat 1.000 and have never had a job that at times looked like a failure is probably not challenging themselves with difficult projects or they are just not being honest.
This has happened to me maybe 10 times in my SEO career. In every instance I proactively called the client, and said just this:
“When we sat down at the table and shook hands, you knew that I couldn’t guarantee rankings or results, yet you trusted us in the goal of helping you grow your traffic and leads through search. While we have some small victories to point to we are not at the level that both you and I expected. As a result we are going to halt your payments for 2-4 months (depending on how far away we are) while we are still working 100% full steam ahead on your project. Assuming we get the rankings (and I believe we will) we can make up the payments on the end when you can see a tangible impact.
Clients are shocked when I make these calls, but it is just the right thing to do. That is how Id want to be treated, and you would too.
If the ROI sucks due to less search volume / tighter margins
This is one of those things you as an SEO cant do a whole lot about, but to maybe stretch out your payments for a month or two as a sign of client solidarity, letting your client know that you know they are getting the squeeze and that you are in this with them as a long term partner.
Good clients dont abuse this, so make it your job to find the GOOD clients. GOOD clients also know that there is nothing you, as an SEO can do if less people search for their target keywords or if they have to cut prices, thus throwing off your ROI projections.
If the project sucks because theres communication problems
So this is again your fault, unless you can point back to documented instances of you setting a clients expectation over and over again. Every time I’ve seen a major communications “F Up” at SEER I took responsibility for it, and our team does too. As such we are constantly working on process improvement, with the idea being that every time a client has an expectation we didn’t fulfill that its either our fault for not communicating or its MY FAULT for bringing in a client who I didn’t work on setting expectations with properly. Once we own the problem we own the solution – and that’s what we do, look back at the communication failure and figure out how can our processes be improved. If the process can not be improved then we know that we need to chat with the client about why they were wrong, if the process can be improved we let the client know that they have exposed an area of weakness in how we manage projects / communicate and let them know when they can expect to see an improvement.
SEO is an unpredictable business, we all know that, and I think that even clients (the good ones at least) are starting to realize that too. Good clients are not breaking backs in 2 months asking where’s my top ranking anymore.
Maybe I took the long way to just saying, just follow the rule you learned in the sandbox at age 5, treat others the way you want to be treated, and when tough business decisions arise youll always make the right decision.
Admittedly most of this post revolves around ROI & Communication but there are several things I didn’t have time to go into like retention, having a great team, firing bad clients, etc that also help lead to SEO success.
I hope these tips help you avoid SEO failure from the get go, and for more on how to avoid colossal F Up’s – come see our session at SXSW.
