Potential clients are wonderful things. “my competitor’s’ site gets these search engine results, we should too because…?

I say because WHY?!… Why do you deserve results? Why do you think you are better than your competitors? Seriously – WHY?!

Prove that you are serious about what you do, that you are actually passionate about your business or even care what kind of service you are giving to your clients – and then we can talk.

Honestly, how much better would our job be if potential clients actually cared about their offerings? Bring back some good ol’ fashion integrity and guess what – regular content updates would be a joyous time, providing good resources would come naturally because of their desire want their clients to get it – like we do.

I think the big G has actually got some things right.

It sometimes gets its delivery wrong (page rank) but what it is trying to achieve is to inject some integrity into websites.

Good websites at the top of Google and all others – well, enjoy the fiery warmth near your feet.

What you are talking about would work well for any website you can safely predict the results of your works. As for me, I can more or less precisely predict how my efforts will pull an e-commerce website in traffic and sales.

But when it comes to predicting something less predictable as human reaction to your actions and when there are no other options except for building audience-targeted content and integrating social aspects in the website architecture, there isn’t as much room to play in.

But you are right in this one: showing your previous successful projects is the best way to get a client. But here’s another thing. If I had built a really succcessful community around my site, would I be working as a SEO consultant for others?

Yes, I am not talking about other projects for other people, because I suspect it is much more rewarding (both emotionally and financially) to work for yourself than being underpaid, undertrusted and such.

I suspect my opinions are biased in a way, as I have worked for several clients for (2) years as a in-house SEO, but since they didn’t appreciate the effors (didn’t wait long enough), I’ve got fired and have nothing to show at the moment except my 6 month blog statistics. Now realize that all local clients have a mentality of a ‘get top ranking quick, cheap’ and you’ll have a full picture of my experience.

Here end the rants of a newbie (2.5 years of experience) SEO

You have to be honest with your potential clients from the very start. Do you really want that client if you have to deceive them? Those clients will never stay with you long term. Even if it’s “not what they want to hear”, you still have to properly educate them. Can you still get them as a client? Absolutely if you act as a consultant and not just a SEO. If a campaign is going to take 6-12 months there are other options. Pay per click while your waiting for your SEO efforts to kick in, target easier terms to start with (local searches, sub-categories, etc.),high traffic niche directories, etc.

As for how do you earn their trust? What works for me is showing them how I’ve helped other companies to rank in top 5 results for targeted search terms in Google is crucial. Take them through the web analytics of a high traffic site. Share success stories of your existing clients. If they still are unsure, use an existing client to provide a referral. If you’ve done a great job for existing clients they’ll have no problem doing a favor for you and giving that person a call (as long as you’re not asking them to give a referral to a competitor).

When you tell your client that he needs to pay you several thousands of dollars per month and will only see the results in several months (or even 6-12 months), how good are the chances that you will have the client?

I suspect some customers are just doomed to find this out on their own and it is also a part of a SEOs job to filter such clients (the ones who they won’t work with).

This brings us to another point: how do you tell the client the truth and still get him as a client?

Or, if you are someone looking for a SEO, what would inspire trust in you for a SEO, who tells you that you need to work hard for 6 months to get solid SEO results?

Just as with teaching anything, I try to find the common ground, which is often creating metaphors relating to their industry. From there I try to keep it simple and let them digest and grasp a “1st stage” of what can be done. I often call SEO “The Thousand Points of Light” as there are so many aspects to execute together for true success, but I start with a “top 10″ or the “basic 10″ and explain what they are and how they work together. Getting the base of understanding will allow for value to be established and further education as needed. I also agree with you … it’s not just about content/structure that attracts engine rankings but content that attracts users/links/attention. Thanks for another great post!

Setting expectations is 100% the responsibility of the SEO. Potential clients should be advised as to how long they should expect to wait before being able to rank for their targeted terms. A golden rule to live by is underpromise and overdeliver. As for those that expect to rank for “a couple hundred bucks”, that’s not the kind of client you want to have. That’s a lose-lose situation because they’re going to be unhappy and you’re going to be unsuccessful in that kind of time period. You want clients that have money to spend and can justify the cost of a solid SEO campaign. Help them understand the value if they don’t get it. For example, if the potential client is a private school that charges $5k a month per student and their goal is 4 new students a month, then charging $4k a month with a goal of generating $20k in revenue for them is not unreasonable. Just make sure you can deliver.

I call this ‘doing it naturally‘, as you are doing it for the humans, for the most part.

SEO analogies: Building a home, a successful salesman(person), and this is classic, “(SEO is)like throwing some words in the air and hoping that somebody who is interested picks them up.”

So although SEO ought to be about attracting the people that will benefit from what you have to offer, in reality it is actually more like throwing some words in the air and hoping that somebody who is interested picks them up.

The cultivation of relevance is the holy grail.

Search engines are just one of many sources of traffic and in many cases your traffic turns around and leaves since the search engine returned your site through an algorithm, not any logical matching of the user’s interest.

The future of driving traffic to your website has to lie in the Factory Records style of building the community.

An interesting topic starter. Thanks. I stop by on a regular basis.

Another good post, covering simple exampls of what SEO is. I’ve had alot of people contact me recently who are very sceptical of the whole process. What they dont realise, as you point out, that there website is just the public view of what the company is doing. Having an optimised website should be the last piece of the puzzle, not the ’silver bullet’. Look forward to your next article.

The terms of ways of explaining SEO, I try and use the website as your salesman analogy.

If your sales man attended business events once a year, then he wouldn’t expect to get any business or people speaking to him (i.e. updating your website).

If your salesman went to the same place regularly, but didn’t speak much sense or spoke on a variety of topics, you wouldn’t identify them as being worthy of a referal (i.e. no good content).

If your salesman didn’t refer to people as being good at their job, they wouldn’t get any referals in return (i.e. getting links).

This might sound a bit tenuous but people can relate to it and it is something which I regularly tell people (also that is a VERY simplified version of what ACTUALLY happens).

I first start by asking the person to imagine they have started building a building, from which they wish to sell a product or service, and explain that the building represents their website. Some already have a building, some are better than others, some bigger, taller, fancier, but everyone in this example has a building in various stages of completion. Then we discuss the importance of a good foundation for the building/site, such as the proper use and placement of title, header, and description meta tags, internal and external links, and the use of a sitemap. Next topic is the items required to properly finish the building, such as building walls, putting in cabinets, wiring, flooring, painting, finish work, etc. These building steps are also imperative in the SEOing of a site; finding appropriate keywords, creating fresh, unique content, link building, etc. In this analogy the search engines represent the building inspectors. These inspectors all are looking to insure the building is built to code, and of a measured level of quality. Each inspector might value certain aspects of the building, more than the others due to their opinion, but all of them attempt to take these aspects into consideration when determining the overall

Dharmesh, the ppc and advertising example is one I use as well. In fact, Scottie Claiborne wrote an article several years ago comparing PPC to Advertising and SEO to Public Relations. I’ve been using that example ever since.

I like to describe SEO to small business owners as a way that they can make it easier for their clients to “find” them on the Internet — and therefore much more likely that they will do so.

Another way that I’ve found helpful (once you start contrasting paid vs. organic search) is to talk about how paid search is like advertising in a magazine and organic is like getting a write-up). Not quite a precise analogy, but seems to work. It’s also helpful that it’s often harder to get a free mention in a periodical than it is to just buy an ad (but often still worth it).