Another problem is that when a client only expects you to do great, and you do brilliant – if something then slides from brilliant to great, you look incompetent!!

Had a client who was nowhere before approaching me – within a few months, I delivered Top 5 positions for 80% of his targeted keywords. Now they’ve slipped so that he has 80% of his targeted keywords in the Top 10, and he considered cancelling!!

I may not control Google – merely help shape information for search – but I figure there still remains a big difference between being nowhere, and having Top 10 positions on Google.

2c and nice to see you around. :)

I remember when I first started work. One of the fitters (I worked in civil engineering) said to me.

” It is a fact of life, that the better you get at something, the easier you make it look, and the easier you make it look, the less you are appreciated”

I have found that so true in web markting. Some people have seen so much and been through so much with google updates, technical issues etc, that they pretty much have a mental FAQ a hundred times the size of many so called ‘Expert SEO’s’ entire knowledge base.

I’m sure there are many of them.

On the flip side, there are a lot of hollow promises out there too… Buyer Beware!

While I dont think they are inversely proportional in all cases – there is often an inverse relationship. I have found that by having this conversation up front, many customers who start off focussed on price – realise that they actually want and will pay for quality. Which is good for both the customer and my business.

This conversation then leads to the the pay-for-results conversation. I find this really interesting. i.e. I get paid little or nothing, but receive a good payment if certain result-benchmarks are met. turning this to SEO specifically – I am using tools like http://www.rankangel.com to benchmark rankings – graphically – and then track improvements (or otherwise) over time. I then use this with clients to demonstrate results ( and of course – get paid ) ;

Again, good article – thanks.

“Accomplished SEO’s rarely have time to blog or post in communities”

I believe participating in forums and social media, especially with non SEO’s looking for help, keeps me in touch with the real world hopes and fears of company owners.

Also, I found this page because it was eh……….on a social media site.

d

We rarely get SEO clients which are good matches. I consider a good match by meeting the following criteria.
1. Price isn’t the number 1 criteria
2. They understand the need for good copy and continuous content development
3. They know the difference between a paid ad and natural results (so many just don’t get that)
4. They’ve worked with an interactive agency in the past and are familiar with the Web.
5. The understand that guarantees are impossible and that success needs to be measured against the goals / objectives of their business model.

That’s my 2 cents.

Quite often we do Google guarantees however as an SEO and a sales person I would never guarantee someone that I don’t feel reasonable confident that we can’t deliver on (paying clients back doesn’t make for a good business model, but repeat happy clients does). Its when your dealing with a small company, or over seas company that guarantees and contracts aren’t worth the paper their written on. Cheers.