Catch-22 for SEO Client/Vendors???

In todays newsletter from SEONews, entitled "Demystifying the Complexity of SEO", this phrase really stuck out to me...

"Can any client trust the advice they receive from any given SEO vendor? It seems like a catch 22 for the politically correct -- clients pay big bucks for SEO services, but they don't get results because they can't make the site changes..."

Look we're a small shop, outside of Toronto, with what might best be called 'regional' clients, tho some are national and we also have 1 that sells across the whole continent. And for the life of me, I can NOT fathom any seo firm that would take on a project to increase serps for a client firm and NOT be able to make site changes. This reallly is a Catch-22, eh? I mean, the author of the piece, a Paul J. Bruemmer, made some other solid points....but his thinking that any of us WOULD take on such a Catch-22 client project IMHO is plain dumb.

I wouldn't, because we would never see any success.

Would any of you?

??

Jim

The only situation I can see where that would be feasible, is if the site is already well optimized and it really only just needs backlinks. But that is rare, so in general, no, I would never take on a client that didn't allow me to make to changes to the site or to make recommendations on what they should change. 99% of the time, changes have to be made by someone!

Good question. That article has a very loose argument and one thats very one-sided. He assumes that the clients are incapable webmasters not willing to edit there own code because they "can't" for whatever reason. Thats a bunch of horse manure, he is assuming one type of client is like them all.

Typically your higher quality client will be able to make changes on there own. This is perfectly fine, and a lot of clients want to make their own changes, its a better learning experience too. Those that can't make there own changes, usually are just hopeless, but they still can make good clients as you can do the work for them. They become reliant on you and over time you build a good relationship.

My guess is that the author has only had clients that can't make their own changes, and he assumes that its a catch-22 for some reason because they are either 1) Unwilling to make the changes or 2) Can't make the changes. So for some reason that is supposed to devalued the SEO advice and make it worthless.

No I don't think so. If you pay for advice, it often up to you what you do with it. An SEO/SEM can't make all the changes for you and you need to use that information to grow your business. If you don't then you are just wasting money on an SEO. Its not the SEO's fault and its not a Catch-22.

What's striking me is that headline! http://www.14thc.com/demystifying-seo.html Interesting choice of words they used there...

Though I'm sure it's just *coincidense* their headline is a near-match for the press release I sent out last week...

I mean, I must be imagining things.

Everyone just wanders around "demystifying" stuff, I'm sure...

There are different types of clients, and even each client is different in his own way... I think it's absurd to make such generalizations like the ones made in that article.

PS: rmc - why your last reputation block has a different collor than the others?