You Know What I Got For Christmas...? My First SEO Client

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  • SEO
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Yeah, I built his site, which took the better part of last year, started in late February and the project didn't close until like early December. It wasn't me, he changed the theme design requirements early in the project after I had populated the site and almost finished...then took forever to select his choice of images.

Anyway, he didn't have money, tried to get me to do it for free, but I didn't budge and resigned to just forego it, then he came back and said he's ready to do the monthly SEO.

I had to do a custom package b/c he complained about not having the income right now and this being his last dash to save his business and make it this year, with the new site design (which was rather affordable mind you) and everything.

Here's the package I came up with...

The goal is to do a bit of everything every month to get your website ranking on the first page of Google.

The top level services included in this package
01 Actionable keyword selection - Targeting high-converting keywords that lead to actionable responses on your website. (Total of 3 keywords w/7 geo-targeted and/or long-tail related keywords)
02 On-page keyword targeting implementation - Your website must "tell" search engines the keywords in which it targets. This is accomplished through strategic, on-page keyword placement.
03 Off-page keyword targeting (link building) - Links to your website are a major indicator of popularity. In other words, search engines like Google greatly value high-profile links to your website. I will both acquire links for your website AND teach you how to find niche-related, helpful links.
04 SEO consulting and traffic monitoring - On-going SEO consulting. I constantly monitor clients' website traffic to take advantage of traffic trends.

Secondary Level Services inclded in this package are:
01 Forums account creation and management
  • 01.01 Creation of a profile for your company
  • 01.02 Creation of banner Signature for your company
  • 01.03 Creation and application of an avatar for your company
  • 01.04 Creation and application of a signature for your company
  • 01.05 Research and development for forum reputation
  • 01.06 Forum posting and management
02 Blog Commenting
  • 02.01 Blog niche research
  • 02.02 Exclusive blogs with good content
  • 02.03 Blogs with good, quality traffic
  • 02.04 Blogs that are related to your market
  • 02.05 Blog posting
03 On-page optimization
  • 03.01 Meta tags optimization
  • 03.02 Keyword density analysis and optimization
  • 03.03 Content analysis and optimization
  • 03.04 Outbound links analysis and optimization
  • 03.05 Image SE visibility analysis and optimization
  • 03.06 Site user-friendliness analysis and optimization
04 Google Analytics Reports
  • 04.01 Simple and easy to understand Google Analytics graph and results analysis
  • 04.02 Outlined and detailed explanation
05 Search engine indexing
  • 05.01 Submission to Yahoo
  • 05.02 Submission to Google
  • 05.03 Submission to Bing
  • 05.04 Submission to all other search engines
06 Free directory listing
  • 06.01 Dmoz Directory listing
  • 06.02 Other free directories listing

There are three (3) phases to your SEO package. These phases are as follows
  • 01 Research & Analysis: Performing competitor analysis and determing the most approrpriate keywords to target
  • 02 On-Page Optimization: Optimizing your website with the targeted keywords
  • 03 Off-Page Optmization: Running a link-building campaign as outlined in the "Secondary Level Services" section above.
  • 04 Monthly Reporting [this is just the monthly reporting on all the above]

Bonus
As a bonus I've opted to also give your SEO a shot in the arm by setting up at least one local listings account (Google Places) and up to a total of five as the project goes on. (Typically this is a separate charge altogether that's just about the same price as the SEO package)

What to Expect
We'll begin with the official research and analysis, determine the targeted keywords, find out your competitors and see where they rank and where you rank.
Once that's settled and agreed upon, we'll begin to optimize your page, which includes updated content
While this is going on, closer to when it's near completed the link building can begin. Usually you wait til the page is optimized so that Google sees a better/more accurate representation.
Monthly report each month to report on what has been done and to show progress in rankings.
The monthly fee is due at the beginning of the project and will be due on that date or an agreed upon date each month. This is an open contract that you are fee to cancel at any time, however we request that you let the project go on for at least 6-months to give it a fair shot of rankings and to give a one-month notice of cancellation in the event that you do want to cancel.
Use of an online project management tool to keep updated on the project at all stages.


I'll post the project breakdown in project management format later on.

Wanted to get some feedback from the good folks at WF. So what do you think?
#christmas #client #seo
  • Profile picture of the author ConnorMarc
    I'm really hoping to get some feedback from the WF family.

    Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRealRazzy
    Pretty big post

    I'll read through it and let you know what I think


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    Your breakdown seems pretty solid.

    The only thing I didn't like was this.....

    I had to do a custom package b/c he complained about not having the income right now and this being his last dash to save his business and make it this year, with the new site design (which was rather affordable mind you) and everything.
    You're going to have more headaches than you think.

    If this guy doesn't know anything about SEO and he has very little to invest... he's going to be asking hundreds of questions and then start complaining when he's not ranked #1 in a few days for all his keywords.

    If you can't save his company he's going to blame you.


    I personally would avoid this client, but if you think you can help him out then go for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Like the above poster said, I would dump this client. You are not going to be his SEO. You are going to be a bill collector constantly trying to get him to pay his invoices.

    That being said, a few observations...

    (I'm assuming from a few of the comments that this is a local business.)

    Blog commenting is something I would never, ever do for a local business. It looks spammy (even if you are going to give me that "I only leave helpful comments" crap). You never know when the owner of the website is going to stop moderating comments and leave it on autoapprove. Now you are building links for your client right next to Viagra, porn, and gambling links. Good job. They will be thrilled.

    Forum marketing is another thing I avoid for local SEO. The time and effort involved is not worth it unless you can find local community forums, but they are very rare. They also almost never get any kind of serious traffic.

    There is no reason to wait to finish any on-page SEO changes before you start link building. That is just wasting time. Also, you designed the site. Isn't it already optimized?

    Submitting to Dmoz is fine. Local directories should be your primary focus for this project. You need citations just as much, if not more, than you need links. Google Places (now Google+ for Business) is a must, but there are at least another 30-40 directories you should be submitting the site to. Yelp, Localeze, BOTW ($139), Yahoo, Bing for Business, Brownbook, iBegin, etc.

    Lastly, do not waste time submitting a website to search engines. That is complete bullshit that I see SEOs try to charge clients for all the time. If you are doing your job properly to promote his site, the search engines are going to find his website on their own.

    Anyhow, just my $.02.
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  • Profile picture of the author jking1
    Can you please pm me how much you have charged for his site last year ?
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  • Profile picture of the author kaytav
    I would say you do a strong On Page Optimization for that Client. It would do half of the work. Also submit that site to niche relevant directories including Dmoz. Also social sharing is important which has to be done. And finally go for Guest Posting which is very much beneficial now-a-days.
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