Client claims SEO isnt working for with GOOGLE when in fact it is.

Greetings everyone.

Have a slight issue with some of my clients. After optimizing pages for GOOGLE and creating more backlinks to one my client's site, i notice a signicant in crease in ranking and in traffic.

After doing this, i normally visit the client's location a couple of weeks later and ask them how things are going?

They employees always saids things are going well and calls are coming in but the owner always saids things are slow.

Have you guys encountered similar situations if so, how did you handle it?

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http://forums.seochat.com/seo-help-general-chat-16/how-we-justify-our-seo-work-after-one-month-280468.html

It happens sometimes from my clients side also, they refused to accept the change in increase there site ranking & traffic to get even the best out of it, but we the seo guys can easily track the changes in the site bcz we have done the promotion of the site.

Offer a report with numbers and/or graphs. Something to undeniably show that you have gained results. If there are no clear contractual obligations than take this as a lesson. Nobody wants to pay, so they will do anything to discredit your work.

If you can produce a report that shows to the layman that you have made results, and still the answer is "I dont trust your results", then either sue or **** his **** up.

Discussions about results should be made before a contract is signed. Sorry for having such a leech client, but the only way to combat this, is having everything in writing and working on your client expectation management (did they realistically expect what you can offer?)

Yeah agreed - if you've established:

- A benchmark as to where the Client was when you started, so you can provide justifiable metrics
- Reasonable timescales in which the defined objectives will be achieved

Then you can return with categorical evidence as to what's been achieved, rather than 'we've done OK', 'the results are a bit slow'. etc.

The metrics don't lie - so assuming these have been met/improved, you can go back with 100% concrete evidence as to the value of your service.

Dan

EDIT: Return with a full-on stats snapshot of the before and after, so you can physically display the effect.

1. Always set realistic expectations. That way you stand a chance of over delivering and wont be faced with your current situation.

2. Find out at the start of a project whether your and your clients expectations are aligned. If not sort this out before moving forward.

3. Never ask a third party whether your project is going the way it should. Always communicate with the guy paying your bills and no one else. I schedule regular calls with all of my clients and on the rare occasions when I have to I spend more time talking to those who aren't seeing the results they wanted.

It might be easier to win a client by talking yourself up but in the end it pays be straight from day 1 as to what can be achieved.

The fact that you are seeing things going OK and your client seeing different would imply that you have neglected one of the above. SEO is a business at the end of the day and you need to learn to communicate with your customers. I would say 50% of my week is spent as an account manage.

Good question... because you can do your job as an SEO and drive a ton of traffic to your clients site but if their site really sucks, their product is garbage or they just are converting horribly they may not want to pay for that traffic... even though you did the work.

There are two solutions to this problem...

#1. When the initial agreement is signed a clause should protect you from loss of income due to low conversion rates.

#2. I always want to have the agreement give me the ability to make modifications to the site for better conversions and also make suggestions on marketing, product changes etc that would promote sales and conversions. There are countless reasons a product or service will not sell... unless they are fixed bringing in more traffic and gaining more SE rankings is not the solution.

#3. As Lewis mentioned, set goals and make sure the client realizes what the expectations are and what they get out of the deal. Make them understand that your job is to get the rankings, if that is accomplished the contract should guarantee payment for you.

Or don't accept clients when their site sucks unless they give you some level of control to unsuckify it.

If you are starving and feel you have to take the site to make payroll or pay the bills, your problems go beyond next week's paycheck.

First off, what were you hired to do? Increase sales, or improve their rankings?

You have absolutely no control over their sales. They might be priced too high, they might have a poor offer... lots of factors.

What you need to do is provide them with good solid reporting, before and after. Document your success.

And most of all, under-promise and over-deliver.

You can bring a horse to water...

SEO is very tangible. Present your results. Collect your bill. You cant please everyone.