Should I start a web design company or an seo company?

I agree. Why not both? More services you offer - more job you have - and so more money you earn!

This.

Web development services often represent one-shot deal business models: you get a client through the virtual door, you deliver the development, you spend part of the fee on doughnuts, the client goes on his or her way.

However, when you run the model correctly, web development becomes web development and marketing, where you merely use website design (or similar) to encourage clients through the door, in order to secure ongoing subscription services.

The power of the model amounts to this: when you receive a client for, say, SEO, paying you a monthly fee, and when you do a good job, leading to good results for the client, said client is unwilling to let you go. You're the goose that keeps laying the golden eggs.

So:

1. Get the client through the door.
2. Encourage ongoing subscription business.

Best of luck to you, and I hope you remember your name!

- Tom

1. Sell the website.
2. Sell the marketing.

- Tom

I would have to agree with Sid, you are thinking way to much here and if this is the kind of problem that keeps you up at night then i don' t want to imagine when you will encounter real problems in your business... This 2 businesses are complentary so start both if you are so undecided.

I know about the reseller hosting thing, but that's not significant income, is it? it's probably like $10 per month per client?
and I agree with your second paragraph. I discovered this a long time ago. The cheaper the client, the harder they are to please.

I am talking about los angeles.

Brent has the right idea, however, let me tell you my story when I tried to start a local web design company a couple years ago.

The businesses I approached initially ranged from retail to restaurants to doctors to lawyers - all who did not have websites.

Let's start with the Doctors and Lawyers - I was never able to sell them even a simple website because they told me that not only did they not see a benefit in having one, but they did not need more businesses anyhow. I could not provide them with any real benefit to having a site given their arguments, so I was not able to convert any doctors or lawyers. I actually understood their argument. As well, many doctors see a website as a tacky form of advertising which is not fit for the for the medical profession.

Restaurants and retail - of the places I contacted that did not have a website, 99% of them had a facebook page. They all said the same thing - that they saw no benefit in having their own site since they already had a facebook page which allowed them to not only be found on the internet, but also communicate with customers. Nothing I could say or do would get them to convert into sales because they looked at their facebook presence as the end-all, be-all of internet presence. No need for a website, which costs money when facebook provides a web presence for free, which allows them to convey their promotions and just about everything else. I didn't agree with that, but it doesn't matter what I think.

So I tried targeting businesses who had websites that were very old and outdated and I knew they were paying too much for what they had. But they were a hard sell too because their mentality was "it ain't broke, so why fix it. Besides, it doesn't even do me much good to have it anyway".

I should have seen all this coming when I first started because I initially contacted businesses to give them free websites (was hoping to give away 3 websites so as to build up a portfolio and maybe some word-of-mouth). No good. I could not even give a free website away.

Within a 4-month span, I was able to sell 2 website. Both had to be sold at rates way lower than I should have sold them, but I was desperate. 1 of those businesses is out-of-business so currently I have one client. They have been my client for almost 2 years now and it's not even worth it to have them as a client. I'll just leave it at that.

I am no longer actively seeking web design clients. I gave that idea up long ago.

I'm not posting this to discourage you. But I want you to know what I was up against when I tried to do what you're thinking of doing. Will it be the same in Los Angeles? I have no idea. I live in a small city of about 60K with many small businesses of all types but I do have to admit that most people do have a tendency around here to be cheapskates (at least that is my impression of this place). Maybe you will have a better go of it.

thanks. I agree that all replies here were helpful.

For SEO, I think I know what I am doing because I have ranked competitive keywords before. but these were my own sites. But today seo takes a long time. Will I have time to do a bunch of client sites? I don't know. If I were to outsource this, I would have to find someone who is not incompetent, and I have yet to find someone like that on the freelancer sites.

For web design, I have a general idea of what is involved but there is a lot I don't know. I am not talking about coding, I am talking about the customer service side. how do I know what type of site the client wants. what if they ask for free extras at the end, how do I protect myself against that, how do I price it, how do I make sure I dont charge them less than my cost. how do I know how much my cost will be from the start. do I want to do hourly or a flat rate. I guess I will just start and learn along the way.

With the help of the people here, I decided to go with the "web design upsell SEO" route. The reason: I think people that already know the term SEO are less likely to be serious customers. people that search for web design will be sold SEO more easily. I don't know why, I don't have any justification for this, it's just a gut feeling. Does anyone disagree? what type of people search for "SEO company [city]" how would they already know the term SEO?

Content marketing or social media management are certainly more future-proof ways to go.

SEO ...is best for recurring payment

thanks bro ..an eye opener