How do you tell a client what you can do...?

without giving away the farm? I am meeting with a client soon to give them an SEO project scope.. but how do I tell them what I can do and what I will do without giving away all the "secrets"? In other words - I have notes for my meeting.. I want to give them an outline of my project - whats to keep them from jsut using it for themselves?

Thanks

Rob

Be honest with them especially with your level of SEO skills and do not attempt to get a client when you are not ready or still not confident with your experience. Write down the list of things you will not prefer to discuss with your client such as trade or company secrets for example. Then here comes the most important,

Setting and Managing expectations. Be realistic with it, listen carefully and jot down the notes. Tell your client to give time to yourself to plan some good, effective and realistic actions for his website. And make sure both of you agree at the realistic expectations, consider and discuss everything that can affect client satisfaction such as potential ranking issues, site alterations, and reports. This will prevent you and your client from worrying against negative events.

Finally when you are ready, offer him a proposal containing those things that both of you agreed to do..if you're lucky with your sales pitch, you get the contract , if not, ask why; then you learn something which is important also.

Thank you - I do have a document to discuss with the client.. I have been doing SEO for a long time for a company but never really met with a client freelance wise- I just dont want to meet then tell him that " this is what you need to do" and then never hear from him again

thank you for your reply

hmmm.... your style might work... my style would be this...

Seek first to understand...

Ask them their goals. Listen, take notes, don't interrupt. It's not your project - it's THEIR project - it's THEIR money.

While you listen and take notes.. make stars beside the ones that you will address when it is your turn to speak. Then when it is your turn to speak, repeat their goals one by one... and explain how you will address it. Address THEIR goals first because it is THEIR project, not yours.

After their goals have been all addressed then tell them how you can kick it up a notch. Point by point. Now they realize the value of hiring a professional.

You might find that they are interested in visibility, more clients, brand promotion.... not backlinks, title tags and .htaccess.

The risk of not hearing them speak first is that you will reveal that you have no idea about what they really want. Listening first and then repeating back lets them know that you know who the project belongs to.

(there is a chance that they will not want to go first or do not have their goals fully in mind... in that case you can be prepared to explain generic goals such as increased visibility, increased sales, brand building, communication,)

When I'm being sold just about anything, I often have that inner voice telling me, "I think I could probably do this myself..." What closes me?

1. A sense of solid return on investment. I might know every tactic you're going to deploy, but because of your experience, scale, staff, etc., it's cheaper in the long-run for me to pay you than to do it myself.

2. Quality can help me reach my goals faster -- I'm a jack of all trades, so maybe I should just stick to my knitting and let the experts do it right the first time.

3. Fear -- I might know your tactics, but if I do them incorrectly, will I actually go backward in rankings and lose revenue?

I created as SEM plan for one of my client which is I would like to share wiht you people.

Prject Name project name

SEM Plan On-Page / Off-Page

July Ist Week
Initial Site Analysis Directory Submission in relevent category, Link Building
Keyword Competitive Analysis
Theme based Link building
website cononical Issues Check
Robots.txt Optimization if required
Sort out canonical issue.

July 2nd Week
Site Analysis,
10 Directory Submission Validation
Density Analysis and Placement
Ranking Check 404
Spider Check
W3c Validation Check
Creation of Themed link pages

July 3rd Week
Identifying Quality Links
Title Tag Revision
Anchor Tag Optimization
H1 Tags
Anchor Text
Creation of Google XML Sitemap


July 4th Week
Brief Keyword Competition Review
Theme base a Quality Link Building
Existing Web Content Optimization
Content Development Check
Submission of XML Sitemap
SEO Site Review and Recommendations


August Ist Week
SEO Audit Review
Product directory Submission
Heading Tag inclusion
20 Oneway links



August 2nd Week 1
Article writing and Submission in 10 websites
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Anchor Tag Revision
one press release in ten resources website



August 3rd Week
Content modification if required
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
on page / on the website Analysis Suggestions
Strong Inter linking user and crawler point of view
Google site map updation


August 4th Week
Editing Content Theme related
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Google Analytics (Statistics)
Current Performance Chec and Suggestions
Monthly SEO Report


September 1st Week
SEO Audit and Review
20 Directory Submission Validation
Log File Analysis/Traffic Analysis
Monthly Activity Reports
Ranking and Traffic Check



September 2nd Week
2 Article writing Submission in 10 resources
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Duplication Check 1 Press Releases in 10 websites
Anchor Tag Revision
Heading Tag Inclusion



September 3rd Week
Content Modification (as when riquired)
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Onpage/ onsite site optimization check 404 eror
Google site map updation
Alt tag chages inner pages

September 4th Week
Duplication Check
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Check Current Performance
Monthly SEO Report
Competitive Analysis



October 1st Week
SEO Audit And Review
20 Directory Submission Validation
Alt tag and Anchor Tag Optimization
Current web site analysis and check user behaviour
Check inner pages navigation


October 2nd Week
2 Article writing and Submission in 10 resources Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Interlinking with targeted Anchor tag
Inner pages alt tag optimization


October 3rd Week Ranking Analysis
20 Directory Submission Validation
Product Directory Submission in relevent category
1 Press Release in 10 resources
Onpage when Required



October 4th Week
Duplication Check
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Competion Review
Title Tag review
Editing Content if require


November 1st Week
SEO Audit and Review
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Keyword Competitive Analysis
Website Analysis and review
User behaviour Analysis
1 Article writing and Submission in 10 resources

November 2nd Week
Ranking Page Analysis and suggestions
20 One-Way Links
Editting Content if require
20 Directory Submission in relevent category
Spiderability Issues Check




November 3rd Week
Ranking page analysis and solutions
1 press release in 10 resources
Competitive website Analysis



November 4th Week
Duplication Check
Header and footer review
Title Tag review
Update Google Site Map


December 1st Week
Website Review
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Check Current Performance
Working on HTML Source Code
Google Analytics (Statistics)


December2nd Week
Contextual links
20 Directory Submission in relevent category
1 Article writing and Submission in 10 resources
20 One-Way Links




December 3rd Week
Onpage when if require
Manual Link Requests to Related Sites
Check website Navigation
Add more Content if required

December 4th Week
Revise Page Title
20 One-Way Links
Revise Header Tags
20 Directory Submission in relevent category
Spiderability Issues Check
Revise Optimised Meta Data
Revise URL Structure

Give away the farm!

Why do people pretend potential customers don't seek second opinions or come to SEO forums and ask:



In other words - "I have notes for my meeting.. I want to give them an outline of my expectation for the project - whats to keep them from just walking away with my money?"

If you're worried that you can say too much and the potential client can then do the SEO themselves...

Anyone looking only for free advice will 100% of the time only take that... it matters not how much or how little you offer.

Anyone looking for a SEO service provider will 100% look for the one they trust the most... 100 times out of 100 that's the guy that believes a client can't become a qualified SEO just by having a meeting with one... so they're not worry about giving the farm away!

It's free... surely they can come here and get the same free advice - what are you giving away?

Surely "NO ONE" can be a SEO just by listening to one for a hour... how foolish is that thinking?

Very good points we all are know that seo in not a rocket science we charge to our client just because we expend our time for their website by our seo ethical approach.
What I understand about any website a website just like your children it depends how you take care of your child and your child is just like black page and it only depends on you how you write on blank page.
If you want to save you million assert then you will not hire a watchman he is giving just a 1000 bucks you really need a good security persons and you will pay handsome salary. If I am wrong then please correct me.

Yep, if you can give away the farm in an afternoon meeting then you really have one or two pots on your back porch and are not qualified even to run a small farm.

Tell them everything and watch their eyes glaze over.

It doesn't matter, there's nothing about SEO that they couldn't get off a search engine if they wanted to, just like it wouldn't take you long to learn plumbing but you still hire plumbers though right? Tell them exactly what you're going to do and why, there's nothing worse than the snake oil charlatans who give SEO a bad name by using a smoke and mirrors approach.

The only SEO secrets are the search engine's algorithms, everything else is freely available to anyone with 2 brain cells.

I agree with this. Tell them anything you want... even if you tell them specifics they will never be able to do it themselves. Most of the time is just seems silly to them, and when they try to pick a keyword or exchange a link, its all over. I've tried to help friends out by giving free detailed instructions... and they still never do anything! And yes... if they build links too quickly or do something incorrectly, they could potentially hurt their sites.

I've had clients buy books after speaking with me... and they came right back to me after getting halfway through the book.