Local SEO proposal - What do you think?

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This is the 2nd local SEO proposal, other than mine (which are marketing, using SEO and other tools). The 1st one was shorter and sold the idea that whatever they were going to do will send 30, qualify phone calls. So, I liked it. (They didn't deliver half the calls, though).

But this one makes me wonder about a lot of things.

Here's the gist of one of them, I want your opinion on:

Keyword analysis: in-depth keyword analysis, 10-15 keywords targeted. 1 hour
Install webmaster tools
Set up conversation tracking, filters
Create sitemap
Webmaster install (sitemap)
Website content review
Conversion testing
Logo placement
Update metadata
Create calls to action
Create client inquiry form
Work on blog strategy
Set up schedule for posts to be published
2 blog posts per week
Set up blog distribution channels (facebook, Google +, etc.)
Distribute blogs on Facebook, Google +, etc.
Continued consulting about conversion
Domain names
Link analysis and removal


Off-site
Directory submissions
Articles/press releases
Social bookmarking
PR website links
Content creation and distribution
Blog/forum posts
Etc.
Address verification
Hundreds of business directory listings
Analyze competing websites (6-8 hours)
Content-based linking

Google + Business page:
profile setup
Integrate relevant social media buttons on your site
2-3 posts per week (with SEO in mind)

Facebook
Facebook page creation
Facebook page updates (2/3 posts per week)

Twitter
Profile page creation
1-2 tweets per day

They propose to charge $1,557 for the setup and the same each month after. Because it takes, in their estimate between 155-156 hours a month to deliver the above.

What do you think of this kind of proposal? And, is it common? Coz, it seems to me it's getting paid a lot for doing a lot of busy work and not getting much by way of tangible results.
#offline marketing #local #local seo #proposal #seo #seo proposal
  • I've seen proposals like this, and competed against them. 155 hours a month? for $1,557? Is anyone believing this? Are you?

    It may take 10 hours the first month (for everything) and half an hour a month after that. The cost isn't out of line. The customer will cancel after a couple of months, though.
    • [1] reply
    • As regards time it takes, maybe they're very slow?

      I was surprised by the busy, useless to the client work included, like the thousands of directories. They propose to create hundreds every month. How many hundreds before the directories are so obscure, so far away from the client's clients' world that they are irrelevant?

      Or that they charge for onsite optimization (4 hours) and they charge (4 hours) to fix the meta data. That's 8 hours on a 6-page, 2 products/services website.

      The setup, they estimate, will take only 23.5 hours.

      If I come upon a business owner who's worked hired someone with a proposal like this, of course I can't say the word SEO!

  • All done semi-automatically via 2 or 3 plugins...


    Only need 5 -10 niche-specific directory listings, most are free. Press releases are useless unless you have something to release. Social bookmarking is social shares, which isn't SEO, it's traffic-driving. Content creation is good. Blog posts are good if the comments are good.

    Address verification is best when automated and made to be the same across the board. Manually doing this is nuts and probably costs more when time is factored in.

    Takes about 1-2 hrs tops for profile creation and "pimp out." Posts are 5 minutes/day, if that.


    The price is fair because if they do good work in the "content and creation" part, then they are worth it. The time and manual labor estimations are complete crap.
    • [2] replies
    • I think to do it properly, or at least as properly as you can, it would take a bit more than 10 hours, I believe it would probably be 20-25 hours for all the grunt work, fully building out the properties and not just setting and forgetting...

      However... this is not local SEO.. man... for all this stuff to just get paid $1,500 is insane to me. The grunt work you can outsource easily, that's not where you're providing value, anyone can hire a VA, or intern to do that crap.

      The value in what is in the proposal is unrelated to local SEO as a whole.... You're not doing local SEO... you're doing Local SEO, Blogging, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, an entire creation of an internet marketing strategy along with implementation.

      That's not a $1,500/mo service... it should be at least in the range of $3,000-$5,000/mo.They're essentially wanting to be a marketing department. If you look at companies who have a marketing manager, marketing director, or CMO, they're making 60-100k/year assuming it isn't a start up.

      If they were REALLY providing this stuff, the price wouldn't be so low, which makes me think that you're right in thinking that this is a bunch of busy work with low impact. Don't get me wrong, if this was implemented properly, 1,500 would be an amazing deal but the fact that they're including all this stuff in an SEO proposal makes me think they don't really know what they're doing.
      • [1] reply
    • I am going to be honest here and say that I had to read the list of items 2 times. right about where the "Google + Page" was listed I was thinking < in a long slow drawn manor > "Wait a minute...." and started again at the top.

      Line #1 "Keyword analysis: in-depth keyword analysis, 10-15 keywords targeted. 1 hour" ok sounds good... but... then what? "keywords" are never mentioned again. Logo placement? Create calls to action? Create client inquiry form? Conversion testing?

      Did something happen to SEO while I took a nap today? that's not SEO, that is CRO with an attempt to boost conversions through new traffic methods. So its really not even CRO.

      That is using the terminology that a prospect wants to hear, just to gain access to their wallet.

      The REAL question is, do they provide results with all the smoke an mirrors?
      • [2] replies
  • Website content review
    Conversion testing
    Work on blog strategy

    What do they mean by these? How do they follow them up?
    • [1] reply
    • Regarding the 1st 2, all they say is that they will check the content monthly to make sure it provides the best conversion.

      As regards blogging strategy: they create a publishing calendar, write up posts, optimized (meta data, keywords, and description". They will distribute each post to "key" social media sites. They will blog 2 times per week and encourage the business owner's time to blog as well.

      If you blog 2 times a week and distribute and you allot 8 hours a month to this, you're spending a bit less than 1 hour (4.33 weeks in a month, averaging) to create the blog post and to distribute it.

      I have the feeling it will not involve creating unique content that will set the business that hires them apart from the competitors, set them up as the business to go to in their niche. Or else, me and the writers I know who write than kind of content, are real slow pokes.

      I like writing. I know how to write (and have written) an article that will only get me links, an article that will get me links and a few visitors, articles that will get tweeted about and get me a couple of thousand visitors over a a month. Articles that get people to do something I want them to. All but the 1st one take me longer than 1 hour to do, usually.

      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I have a feeling this proposal is from an overseas company who prey on the ignorance of small business owners.
    • [1] reply
    • Nope, it's from a company in the States. I have the feeling THEY do not know what they're doing but can sell and don't care that they cannot deliver results...

      When I has my appraisal company, my assistant quit. The following 4 months, I hired 6 (fired 5) people to try to replace her. One of them I fired because I'd asked her to fax something from me. She faxed. Fax machine said it didn't go through. But she didn't do anything else, she considered she'd done what I'd asked her. Missed completely the point that I didn't ask her to fax something so she could go through the motion of putting a piece of paper in the fax feeder, dialing a number, then hitting send. That I wanted what was on the piece of paper to be read by the person I was trying to fax it to.

      I have the feeling the people behind this have the same attitude.

      • [1] reply
  • Have you seen samples of their work?
    Social media posts are really, easily telling.
    • [3] replies
    • The more I look over this thread.. the more I am seeing that the "Proposal" is masked as a SEO proposal, but the truth is, they are doing Conversion Optimization. To some extent they may grow the traffic, but they are more concerned with converting the existing traffic that is already there.

      I am more than sliding into the direction of Conversion Optimization, and truth be told, you go in you test, you change, you test you repeat until you get the results, and you are done. As in a single price type deal. They have molded the ideas of the SEO contract with the results of Conversion Optimization.

      The overall "Time" spent with the frivolous stuff like the social posting etc ( you can set this and forget it ) and the article writing, $7.00 here and there keeps the client happy. The real time is in the testing. and the time that takes is purely dictated by the amount of traffic present when making the test. You could have the ability to run an A / B test in a day, or it may take a week.

      Interestingly with this model, is you could probably get some just short of instant results within the optimization process, and then the efforts to increase overall traffic load would then basically have a greater impact as the client is seeing it.

      In other words, in a short amount of time the client could see increased sales with minimal to no additional traffic. And as traffic is in theory increased, the sales would rise accordingly.

      Again, looking at this more than a few times, these guys may have a winner of a model. The only issue being SEO and CRO are both a hard pitch, one is beat to death, and the other is to conceptual for many clients.
      • [1] reply
    • No, I have not. I'm trying to get samples.

      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • Samples are Ok, social media posts even better but how about a reference...now that would be telling.
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  • For me the fact that they have mixed up all the activities is not totally a bad sign. Let's face it consumers of our services do not get the difference between: local/seo/CRO/content sharing so putting them under broad cross discipline headings like "onpage/offpage" is helpful to customers.
    Now they might outsource all this but if I were the SEOer I wouldn't justify the cost with time as doing X may only take 5-10 mins but knowing how to do it is your added value. I'd cite benefits...because its all about the value it returns and that is be based on a discussion with the customer. If the 30 leads they get you are "worth" $300 each - after factoring in your close rate that's $9000. $1500 plus $1500 recurring for 3 months = $6000. If they then steadily produce 10 leads a month =$3k vs $1.5k cost. I guess what makes me wary is the inflated time estimate--just feels dishonest which is not a good indicator.
  • Hello all, I have ranked more than 27 websites by Local SEO in USA, UK and other countries.
    Local SEO requires a definite ON page pattern with mapping of Google MyBusiness via NAP and Schema coding.

    (1) Citation building plays important role in ranking.
    (2) SMO and traditional off page seo NOT required.
    (3) Rating review, and G+ activities are highly required
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    Local SEO proposal - What do you think?

    This is the 2nd local SEO proposal, other than mine (which are marketing, using SEO and other tools). The 1st one was shorter and sold the idea that whatever they were going to do will send 30, qualify phone calls. So, I liked it. (They didn't deliver half the calls, though). But this one makes me wonder about a lot of things.