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HELP:I HAVE A POTENTIAL CLIENT WHO WANTS TO RANK FOR "WEB HOSTING"

by jstarx
30 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have been doing "offline" consulting for a little while. Business isnt great but im getting business here and there. A friend of mine who works at a webhosting company with over 300,000 customers , got called into a meeting with the CEO, and they want to be ranked on page one of google for the term "web hosting". They also want to get over 1000 facebook fans.

I have gotten a few "local" companies on page one of google. My friend is aware of this. He said he was reluctant to talk to me because there are over 250 million competing pages for the term " web hosting", and he wasnt sure if i was able to deliver such results, seeing how they competing with the big boys ...like GODADDY. He told me they just hired a company to do some backlinking, but its not working. The CEO of the company is looking to the employees to help get this stuff done. I want to help him and ME at the same time.

He has an open door to the CEO. I want any advice I can get from members of the forum I can get. I know I can come here and get the results. I have already started taking care of getting him the fans on facebook. (thats easy) I just went to fiverr.com.

Can anyone tell me a realistic amount of time and money it would take me to get these guys ranked on page one for the term " Web hosting".

This is a TALL order for me. I want to give my friend something to give to the CEO that will get me a call back, and land these guys as a client. I told my friend id handle the 1000 facebook fans for him to make him look good , but i want to land the SEO job. The owner is totally clueless and is looking to the employees to help find a way to get results... and my friend called ME.

Any advise you can give will be highly appreciated. This client could be "life changing" for me .........

Thanks guys
#client #helpi #potential #rank #web hosting
  • Profile picture of the author hotlinkz
    Let's see... "web hosting"

    Average Monthly Searches: 246,000
    Competing Pages: 142 million (with Exact Phrase search!)
    High-side Adwords Cost Per Click: $54+

    It's possible, but it's going to take a MAJOR effort. The competition for this keyword phrase is very established. GoDaddy holds 3 to 5 positions on page one on most days and Wikipedia has top billing.

    Best of luck to you.

    Calvin
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    • Profile picture of the author Summertime Dress
      maybe you can show him the benefit of targeting the long tail keyword phrases...especially since web hosting is what I would consider an information seeker vs. a buyer keyword term...
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  • Profile picture of the author rammonster
    Just sent you a PM with a report i generated from traffic travis...godaddy has like a gazzilion Backlinks..... go for long tail keywords!
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  • Profile picture of the author snginnovations
    Run Away!

    For a web hosting company, they have no concept of what's realistic in SEO marketing.

    Here's how I see it going down:

    1) You give a nice presentation and make them believe their dream can happen
    2) They pay you some deposit or monthly fee for a few months
    3) When you can't beat godaddy and wikipedia, the company starts getting pissed
    4) You lose your other clients because you're focusing too much on this one
    5) You lose opportunities for newer smaller clients with more realistic expectations
    6) The company starts to believe they've thrown away a ton of money and you didn't deliver
    7) They issue chargebacks or demand refunds and it destroys you financially

    Granted...this is a best case scenario...

    Okay, okay, I'm sorry for being too negative. It gets exciting to have such a huge "IN" like this. But it's also very very dangerous. Your emotions will keep you from hearing the voices of reason.

    If you take on this project, then take the above poster's advice and LOWER the expectations to a realistic place. Get them to measure their current organic traffic. Then when you are able to improve it, they can see the progress - and it will keep you from getting burned in the long run.

    Deliver excellence to all your clients and you'll have more than enough business.
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    • Profile picture of the author DOWORKSON
      These guys are too negative. Beating Godaddy and the other big boys is VERY possible.
















      It will just take you at least 10 years... :rolleyes:
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      • Profile picture of the author imagetypers
        Best of luck, its gonna take huge efforts, I mean really huge efforts to rank on top for the keywords.
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      • Profile picture of the author jstarx
        I apprecaite the feedback guys......... this is what i want to figure out ..... not necessarily is it possible to outrank godaddy, but how long would it take and how much money to get them on PAGE ONE.......

        they have money they are willing and able to spend on SEO..... more money than ive seen.............

        I can get them better results going here on the forum than they can get from some local SEO company and i know this........

        I dont want to promise false dreams , but can someone tell me how to get these guys results or tell me what my next move should be.

        They are going to spend money for SEO whether its me or someone else.

        I want to deliver ...... Im trying to figure out what info to give to my buddy to give to the CEO ........ and tell him what i can do for him........

        Longtail sounds like a good idea for sure .......I want to gather all advice and info before making any kind of offer .........

        Thanks guys for your responses , i appreciate it, im a realist, but i cant let this slip me by.........
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      • Profile picture of the author donkey007
        why dont u try for some other keywords.

        just check it

        google.co.in/search?q=top+hosting+in+the+world&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

        when u click on first search result you will find that site is not working completly

        why dont u try similar keywords
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    • Profile picture of the author VOnline
      Originally Posted by snginnovations View Post

      Run Away!

      For a web hosting company, they have no concept of what's realistic in SEO marketing.

      Here's how I see it going down:

      1) You give a nice presentation and make them believe their dream can happen
      2) They pay you some deposit or monthly fee for a few months
      3) When you can't beat godaddy and wikipedia, the company starts getting pissed
      4) You lose your other clients because you're focusing too much on this one
      5) You lose opportunities for newer smaller clients with more realistic expectations
      6) The company starts to believe they've thrown away a ton of money and you didn't deliver
      7) They issue chargebacks or demand refunds and it destroys you financially

      Granted...this is a best case scenario...

      Okay, okay, I'm sorry for being too negative. It gets exciting to have such a huge "IN" like this. But it's also very very dangerous. Your emotions will keep you from hearing the voices of reason.

      If you take on this project, then take the above poster's advice and LOWER the expectations to a realistic place. Get them to measure their current organic traffic. Then when you are able to improve it, they can see the progress - and it will keep you from getting burned in the long run.

      Deliver excellence to all your clients and you'll have more than enough business.
      QFT.
      I agree with this; tho in a lesser negative view.

      It is possible to get top search but it will take a HUGE amount of effort and time. This is a make or break your business type of thing.

      Best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    Originally Posted by jstarx View Post

    This is a TALL order for me. I want to give my friend something to give to the CEO that will get me a call back, and land these guys as a client. I told my friend id handle the 1000 facebook fans for him to make him look good , but i want to land the SEO job. The owner is totally clueless and is looking to the employees to help find a way to get results... and my friend called ME.

    Any advise you can give will be highly appreciated. This client could be "life changing" for me .........

    Thanks guys
    Obviously your friend isn't too fond of you.

    The first 30 results in Google have an average page rank of 6+.

    #41 has, according to Yahoo, 225,000 incoming links. That's one of the lower numbers in the top 50.

    Of the top 20, only 4 are less than 10 years old.

    I'd say that "life changing" pretty well sums it up.
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    • Profile picture of the author sf_Imtiaz
      Originally Posted by SteveJohnson View Post

      Obviously your friend isn't too fond of you.

      The first 30 results in Google have an average page rank of 6+.

      #41 has, according to Yahoo, 225,000 incoming links. That's one of the lower numbers in the top 50.

      Of the top 20, only 4 are less than 10 years old.

      I'd say that "life changing" pretty well sums it up.
      Exactly, it's never just number of competing sites, it's the strength of the competition, the 100+ million sites beyond first page just don't count, but I suppose OP already knows that since he's ranked some sites himself.
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  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    I'd recommend you be totally honest and realistic with your clients,
    because neither you nor they can have the luxury of illusion regarding
    victory - it will be hard, incremental, and demanding.

    Get them to sign with you for 6 months or a year.

    Otherwise tell 'em to d hire some dipsh$t bozo who will feed them
    a fantasy.

    You'll be fighting a real marketplace war. Get paid for it.

    That said, if you think you need to suck butt to get the job, you've
    already lost. See if you can manage a chance to hang out with
    the client. Golf, drinking, whatever - get the dude to at least
    think you're not a jerk first.
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  • Profile picture of the author sf_Imtiaz
    Originally Posted by snginnovations View Post

    Run Away!
    Couldn't have said it better... and I also agree with the long-tail keyword suggestion. The results you'll be able to deliver all boils down to keyword research you do.

    Here's what I'd have done if I were approached with an offer like this.

    If they are running a PPC campaign I'd ask them for the data and dig the keywords that are converting highest, yes, some keywords convert better than others and you'll be amazed by their consistent performance. I know that for a fact after running several online services related PPC campaigns, of course they'd have to have advanced tracking installed and integrated with PPC campaign to determine best converting keywords.

    Find the keywords that can be targeted, not too many, and arrange them in terms of long/short term targets, start with focusing on the short term, so you have something to show for their money, while gradually inclining the focus towards keyword that would take longer to rank for.

    And if they don't do PPC atm or don't have proper tracking installed, you may ask them to begin running a campaign and collect data for at-least a couple of months.

    BTW, I really think "web hosting" won't be the highest converting keyword in this niche. As for how long it might take to rank for it, I know I won't be able to do it in less than a year unless I have $xx,xxx budget, mostly for link building.
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    Say sure, just give me $500K then use that money to optimize his site and get him a gazillion backlinks.

    Cause that's probably about what it's gonna take.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Barrs
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    • Profile picture of the author jstarx
      Thanks alot guys...... im listening to all this advice first because i want to make sure what i offer is possible and within reason..... and if getting on page one for "web hosting" is not realistic anywhere in the near future, .... so far the best suggestion i have heard is keyword research and going the longtail route......

      Anyone have any suggestions on price points for work like this would be greatly appreciated. Im not an idiot by any stretch. This is just the biggest order by far that ive had to try to deal with and id like to go into it with a realistic approach and be upfront with the client and get them the best results.

      THANKS AGAIN GUYS .... EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO HAVE RESPONDED
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Peters Benn
    It sounds like this business is quite unrealistic and I am surprised they are able to keep their head above water with that kind of marketing approach. I don't think that it is ever a good idea to promise the impossible, and I think this wouldn't be far off that.

    Surely they can narrow it down to something more specific.
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  • Profile picture of the author Katapilla Killa
    While definitely not impossible, you're going to need a time of at least 10 SEO masters working full time for 3 years to accomplish this goal.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    It's just not realistic, as you're going up against the big guns for such a general/wide term, and in my opinion it'd be better to tell them that it's not possible to do this anytime soon.

    I'd target local terms instead, such as 'webhosting + cityname' - this'd be a much more realistic strategy that'd enable them to attract more targeted prospects/leads as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Sorrell
      Forget about trying to rank for 'web hosting' but just see it as an opportunity to deal with a rich guy who hasn't got a clue about web marketing and that should be your in. Look to get him to No1 on google places for whatever city he's in and then look at the longer tail keywords. They could still get plenty of traffic from those tactics.

      I know of a ppc network that I've used as a web hosting affiliate that will get you pretty cheap clicks and converts well. They should concentrate on that to bring in immediate sales as it sounds they're willing to spend some serious dough on this.

      Position yourself as an all round consultant rather than the guy who's trying to rank for 'web hosting' because they need a plan B and if you can show them you're good at running and setting up their ppc campaigns, getting them to the top of google places and also can recruit some affiliates for them then I'm sure you'll make a nice amount of dough out of it. Sweeten this guy up a bit and let him know that there are plenty more ways to increase sales for his business without trying to rank for an almost impossible search term. Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Barrs
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Originally Posted by jstarx View Post

    I have already started taking care of getting him the fans on facebook. (thats easy) I just went to fiverr.com.
    I'm confused. I thought you were trying to impress this guy?

    Giving him a Facebook fanpage with 1,000 unresponsive fans is not going to impress him. Using fiverr to build your fans is a very silly idea. They are not fans in the real sense of the word and won't be worth anything to this business.

    Besides, if the idiot running this company that already has 300,000 customers cannot get a fanpage with at least 1,000 raving fans on it, he is clearly not very smart.

    It would take about an hour to setup a fanpage, put some type of coupon code or special offer on the fanpage using the fb reveal code, and then send out the promotion to all his customers. If he did this properly he could have thousands of fans in no time at all.

    And these would be REAL fans.
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  • Profile picture of the author wanna-succeed
    Just tell them to buy a 30 second ad in the next super bowl...
    A hot blond chick wouldn't hurt....Other than that, you're up against several well equipped armies.
    These are all companies that know how to handle this stuff by themselves. They are experts in SEO.
    If you even got close, they would see you coming from a mile off and ramp their SEO efforts up, while doing everything legally possible to ram yours down the toilet.
    I hate to be so negative, but you really should listen to what SteveJohnson said.
    The first 50 places are all top notch, super powerful web pages.
    I reallt don't think it's possible, especially if you're taking this job by yourself. I hope I'm wrong though.
    Best of luck to you, either way.
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    No sig, good day m8...

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  • Profile picture of the author zoobie
    Well what's the budget like for this client? Unless they have a budget that can pay a mortgage otherwise targeting this keyword is a bad idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Hey, here's another way to look at this:

    Stop worrying about it and go speak to the guy.

    Tell him "hey look, you may have been led to believe that getting the top spot on Google is easy - I can understand if that's the case because a lot of companies make false promises. Sure you can get straight onto the first page - if you want to pay $60 per click for your visitors, but let's get real here. It's a huge task and may not actually be possible within your resources. You/I/We do not control Google so there are no guarantees or promises about what can be achieved within their system. - However there are lots of ways to promote your business online that will also help as far as search engine visibility is concerned. Take a look at the first page of Google some time - they show 'news', 'images', 'videos', documents and much more - so we can definitely come up with a plan to increase your exposure and if we take it seriously and give it a sensible budget, you may find yourself on the front page for your big keyword - but rather than have a goal we ultimately don't control (Google's results), let's make the goal to increase your presence, increase your traffic and get you more customers. THAT is something we can always work on and measure the improvement on."

    Writing articles, press releases, using images, videos, social networks - are all things that will make sense and help - and you can do.

    If he says he doesn't want to spend much - just tell him you can't help him unless the goal and the resources are congruent.

    If he wants to throw money at the problem - that's great but there are no guarantees when you rely on someone else's system.

    Focus on what works and what value you CAN deliver.

    Andy
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    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Grant
    I wouldn't touch such a keyword for less than a $250k retainer and about $75k per month.
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