I get asked on occassion by new SEOs about how to start getting new business for SEO. There are many answers to that ranging from doing pro bono work for charities or local civic organizations to networking with SEO peers and partnering with web design agencies.
For some reason, whenever I leave town for a conference or in the case of the last 10 days, go on vacation with no blogging, no phone, no emails, no internet, nada – the requests for SEO business just roll in. Well, they don’t really just fall in our lap, they come in as a result of reputation marketing, networking and search engine rankings.
Some of the tactics that have been successful for our SEO company and for other successful search marketing firms include the following. They are not in any particluar order:
- Organic search engine rankings
- Referrals
- Speak at industry events: SES, Pubcon, ad:tech, DMA
- Published articles in marketing publications
- Blog about SEO
- Networking: conferences, forums, social networking
- Public relations
- Sponsoring tradeshows
- Booth at tradeshows
- Pay per click
- Discussion threads
- Outbound telemarketing or cold calling (WE NEVER DO THIS)
If you’re a SEO practitioner, what methods have you found to be most effective for generating new business?
If you’re a company that outsources SEO, what channels are most credible to you?
