In Today's Issue
Search Engine Marketing
---> Will You Make a Good SEO Client? (Part 1)
High Rankings Happenings
---> SEO Consulting Prices Slashed!
---> High Rankings SEO Site Review
Twitter Question of the Week
---> Do you think SEO is undervalued...?
Stuff You Might Like
---> What's Good for Users Is Good for Search Engines
Advanced SEO Forum Thread of the Week
---> Ding Dong the Keyword Tag Is Dead (Or Is It?)
Advisor Wrap-up
---> Mama Needs a New Pair of Shoes Introduction
Hey everyone!
Whether you provide SEO services or are a potential client for them, you'll relate to today's article. Enjoy! – Jill
Search Engine Marketing Issues
++Will You Make a Good SEO Client? (Part 1)++
It's a tough economy out there. There's more SEO competition than ever and fewer potential new clients to go around. Like most SEO service companies, we don't want to snub our noses at possible new work; however, not all clients are created equal. Good ones make our job interesting and fun, while bad ones can cause nightmares.
Today's article outlines 13 red flags that tip you off to the fact that you're probably not going to be a good fit for our SEO services. In the next newsletter, Part 2 will outline the type of people who are indeed a good fit, and why.
Here are 13 reasons why you're probably not a good fit for our SEO services:
1. You visit our website, head straight for the phone number and call us, but never read anything about our services or how we work.
While we can certainly spend our time explaining everything we do and the various types of services we offer, it's very clearly spelled out on our website. We even have pricing for most of our SEO consulting services there on the website. We understand if you have specific questions about the info or want to know which service might be the best fit for your company, but please do us the courtesy of familiarizing yourself with our offerings. That's what websites are for! Even better, make some notes and have some specific questions ready for us when you call.
2. When you call, you decide you don't need to talk to anyone in sales/marketing and instead go straight to the CEO.
This tells us that you think you're too important to go through the proper channels and that you don't respect the chain of command we have set up. At High Rankings, while I'm the CEO, I am also the chief SEO-er. I spend most of my time plotting out SEO strategies for our clients, which is why we have someone else dedicated to discussing our service offerings. If and when you become our client, wouldn't you rather have me working on bringing more sales to YOUR company rather than to OUR company?
3. You just learned what SEO was yesterday.
While we have no problem educating you about SEO, and in fact enjoy doing that immensely, you can't even begin to purchase SEO consulting services without having a clear understanding of what it is you're purchasing. Please do some homework first to learn what SEO is and how it can benefit your company before asking us what we can do for you.
4. Your only goal is to go from #5 in Google for one specific keyword phrase to #1.
While that's a lofty goal and we might even be able to help you achieve it, our SEO services are designed to provide you with lots more targeted traffic and conversions. We will rarely just focus on one phrase, but on hundreds, and we don't typically look at rankings.
5. You've been burned by a previous SEO company so you assume we're scammers.
No doubt about it, there are zillions of rotten SEO companies out there, just as there are businesses who've been scammed by them. If you were burned by one of them, we're sorry, but that doesn't give you the right to call us up and treat us like we're the company who previously burned you. We're not.
6. You refuse to tell us the URL of the website that you'd like help with.
There are websites that we won't work with for a variety of reasons. Because we customize our SEO services to each website, we can't even begin to give you a quote for services without seeing what we'd be optimizing. How else can we determine if we can help?
7. You ask for a comprehensive proposal, yet won't provide us with the logins or info we need in order to put one together.
This is especially true if you want a review of your AdWords campaigns because these can vary from a small campaign to a huge one, and the amount of time it would take to review them is substantially different. We're happy to sign NDAs in order to gain access, but we do need to take a peek. If you want us to help you, you'll need to provide us with the necessary logins.
8. You are just fishing for free SEO info and don't plan to hire any company.
Let's just say that if you are one of those who do this, you should be ashamed of yourself. We are a small company and don't have time to provide you with detailed proposals if you are just gathering as much info as you can so you'll have a better understanding of how to do your SEO in-house. Surely your mother brought you up better than that?
9. You think SEO is about meta keywords and therefore don't understand why it should cost more than a few bucks.
SEO isn't cheap. Do your research up front on what most companies are charging for their services before you waste your time and ours if it's just not in your budget. While pricing can vary substantially between companies, you often do get what you pay for.
10. You don't respond to emails or phone calls.
Why request information from us and then never email or call back when we try to provide it to you? If, after you hear what we do, you're no longer interested, please tell us. Even better, let us know why because we might be able to adjust the scope of work to better fit your needs.
11. You refuse to spend time to carefully and thoughtfully answer our questionnaire that helps us understand what your business is about.
SEO is a two-way street that can't be done without your help and information. If you are looking for a company that you can just hand off your SEO to and never have to discuss it again, you're most definitely not a good fit for us. You know your business better than we do, and we will need this knowledge as we move forward with your SEO program.
12. You don't value our expertise and reputation as a trustworthy company.
If being prominent in the SEO space for over 14 years, speaking as an industry thought leader, providing a well-respected and free SEO newsletter for 9 years, offering an advanced SEO forum for 6 years, and having hundreds of satisfied clients in nearly every industry imaginable doesn't impress you, that's okay – but that level of expertise in SEO is highly valuable. The many sites we've worked with and the numerous challenges we've faced have taught us exactly how to plot out SEO strategies for our next client – YOU.
13. You're just rude jerk.
We only want to work with people we like. If you act like a rude jerk the first time we talk to you, we're definitely not interested in working with you no matter how much money you might pay us. 'Nuff said.
Jill
Share your comments and thoughts here.
P.S. If anyone would like to republish the above article, please email me your request and where it will reside, and I'll send you a short bio you can use with it for your site.
Twitter Question of the Week ++Do you think SEO is undervalued...?++
In keeping with today's theme of being a good (or bad) SEO client, I asked my friendly and helpful Tweeps the following question this week:
"Do you think SEO is undervalued by most companies? Why or why not?"
Here's what they had to say (with my own comments scattered throughout):
JulieJoyce: "If they know what it is, no. If they don't know what it is, definitely."
Jill: Yes, that is a big problem. Unfortunately, many do not know what it is.
Andy_SEO: "I don't think it's undervalued as such – more not given a realistic amount of time to gain beneficial results."
Jill: I disagree with Andy_SEO. Good SEO can have a positive effect on a website's targeted traffic and conversions very quickly. If he meant that it can take some time to implement, then I do agree with that.
SEOaudiore: "It's undervalued b/c it's rather challenging to gauge ROI & really identify what SEO efforts contributed to conversions."
Jill: I disagree with SEOaudiore also. The great thing about SEO is that it is highly measurable, assuming you have a good web analytics package installed and you know how to use it.
seoDave: "From my perspective SEO is very much an undervalued and underutilized service by many companies."
AVirtualEdge: "Because they don't fully understand or appreciate the return on their investment, and underestimate the skill and knowledge needed." 
Jill: Agreed. The underestimation of the skills and knowledge required is a big problem. While it's not rocket science, every website you work on provides new challenges. The more you have under your belt, the easier it will be to solve future problems.
StockbridgeT: "It's easier to ignore than to understand for many people. We focus on what we know and shy away from what we don't."
visualrhetor: "SEO is undervalued: confusing to some, seen as a scam by others, or optional 'add-on' rather than integral piece of dev."
Jill: Both of the above underscore the fact that there's so much misinformation about SEO out there. I try to combat it by pointing out the inconsistencies and myths as much as I can.
macgenie: "SEO is not seen as integral to a website. It's looked at as an add-on or enhancement, rather than fundamental."
SportsGuy: "Yes, most companies undervalue SEO. They simply don't understand it and are floored by the amount of work to do it right."
leebrinckley: "Yes...companies don't take it seriously or see it as waste of time b/c they don't understand behind-the-scenes & time involved."
Jill: One of these days I'm really going to buy that High Rankings magic wand that many clients ask for!
prarthanasharma: "Yes it is. People still are not aware of its advantages & believe it's 'cosmetics' for the website, which might be costly."
Oneunder2001: "Yes undervalued 1) inertia, 2) lack basic understanding of computer sciences, 3) lack understanding of consumer-driven market."
robwatts: "By some yes – good SEM requires deep broad holistic understanding of how the pieces gel and connect."
Jill: And that pretty much sums it up!
Want to participate in the Twitter Question of the Week? Follow @jillwhalen on Twitter
Share your comments and thoughts here.
Stuff You Might Like ++What's Good for Users Is Good for Search Engines++
I know that you HRA readers know that what's good for your users is almost always what's good for search engines too, but not everybody gets this yet. In fact, in a recent SEOmoz post, Rand Fishkin vehemently disagreed. Of course, I could not let that one go!
In case you missed it, here's my rebuttal:
Choosing Search Engines Over Users Is a Fatal Flaw in SEO
Share your comments and thoughts here.
Advanced Forum Thread of the Week ++Ding Dong the Keyword Tag Is Dead (Or Is It?)++
Last week at the SMX East conference, a Yahoo representative stated on a panel that the Yahoo search engine no longer supported the meta keyword tag, and supposedly hadn't for months. Search marketers all over the world rejoiced because we're sick of answering questions about this tag. It has always had minimal to no bearing on where your page ranks for keyword phrases that are important to you.
Unfortunately, what the Yahoo rep stated was simply not true. While many took Yahoo at their word and published the meta keyword tag's obituary, I ran some tests that showed that nothing has changed with how Yahoo supports the tag. As of this writing, Yahoo does still index the words contained within it, and pages can and do show up when the only relevance to the search query is contained within the meta keyword tag.
In plain English, if you put a nonsense word into a meta keyword tag and nowhere else, the page will show up in Yahoo when you do a search for that word. Thus, they still index it, and it has some influence in rankings (or else the page wouldn't show up).
This doesn't change my recommendation of not worrying about the meta keyword tag because the influence is so minuscule. The only thing it does is reinforce the fact that you should never take anything that a search engine rep (or an SEO) says without testing it for yourself.
Read our forum thread on this topic.
Advisor Wrap-up
That's all for today!
I had a good time at SMX East last week and easily survived with NO laptop! My session went well, plus I caught up with lots of old friends. I also met quite a few HRA subscribers, which is always great.
Now it's back to business until PubCon Vegas in November. Are you gonna be there? I'm thinking of taking my daughter Jamie with me; she'll be turning 21 the week before the event. I'm hoping my buddy George will refresh me on the rules of craps because Jamie has an uncanny way of getting dice to roll the way she wants them to when she plays backgammon. We might just come back rich! ;)
Catch you in 2 weeks! – Jill
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