Stinkin' phone call work!

First of all congrats!

If you could provide a little more info that would help Warriors better understand your plight. When you say he doesn't show up in the first 15 results pages, what kind of keyword phrase is he not showing up for exactly? Is it his business name or a keyword phrase he has determined converts and offers a solid roi for his business.

This is a good place to start.

First things first...when dealing with SEO - never give them a date. You can never know what google will do tomorrow or how quickly one thing will rank from the next. You must always keep your dates flexible and never make guarantees if you are uncertain.

Other than that, since you're just starting out, it might not hurt to offer him a deal (or freebie) in exchange for a positive testimonial and reference contact. If you can't swing that, you could consider subcontracting the SEO out to someone with more experience and serve as a broker until you secure more clients. If you don't want to do that, you can package the offer with the caveat that you won't charge him until he is on the first page of google (as an example).

I think the speed of SEO is certainly a misconception. Be very careful what you promise a business owner, especially one that is antsy like that. I learned long ago, antsy usually means problems into the future. This maxim has always been true for me in all businesses I have owned or worked for.

dont worry about it too much, especially if he is a local client. Ranking local clients is usually an easy task

I agree with John, be very careful what you promise without first doing a few reports such as his business domain ranking and social media reports.

If he's had a website for at least the last year, his domain should show the types of words his site rank for here: seodigger.com

If you use this site, make sure to type the domain without the "http://www."

I don't know why but the domain results won't show up with "http://www." or the "/" as the end of the domain.

If his domain does not have any results this is bad news for him and great news for you

I would also suggest you place the domains of his competitors in seodigger.com and notice the keywords that get searched the most at their respective sites. This might be a good starting point for determining the keyword you might target, of course after discussing this with your client.

Save yourself future headaches and only offer your clients feedback after you've run a seo and/or social media report. If you don't, it's kind of like driving with your eyes closed. You've got to know or at least have good knowledge about where he currently is and what he's up against. This will help set his expectations early on.

You can do the google places optimization, and while you are waiting for it to come up in the 7 pack, help him run an adwords campaign. You can get him a $100 credit to get started, search for info about google engage.

From my experience for a NEW site its very hard to get ranked for keywords others are actively competing on...Sites need to hit a critical mass and then get ranked for multiple keywords, can I ask either what the keyword is or how many people are searching it?

When dealing with SEO, never guarantee a date when your client's website will rank on the first page. This is just way too risky. Also, the difficulty of the work can depend on the keywords your client is targeting.

Congrat's for that......

Why are you deprecating "stinkin' phone work"?

It got you this opportunity, didn't it?

I suggest you revisit your conception of "phone work" and change your perception. If you feel uncomfortable about calling other people, some of whom NEED your expertise right now whether they know it or not, then you need to do something about that.

Is there something about using the phone to find business opportunities that makes you feel unethical? Did your mama say she didn't want you to be a salesperson when you grew up? Do you feel that it's rude to call people up and ask them for money in exchange for your expertise?

Not uncommon. Also not helpful.

Actually , the title was suppose to read "Stinkin' phone calls work" A bit of sarcasm. I actually love the phone because it does work! F.A.

Would like to thank everyone for their responses, everything was helpful. F.A.