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Loss of confidence issue - what to do?

by mocca
3 replies
Hi
I had a nice business turning around $30 000 per month selling web design and seo services to offline clients (local businesses) (I am not located in the US so this is quite a bit of money where I live)

I had basically JUST decided to focus only on SEO and had moved out the web design side to my web designer (in other words, he took that part of the business and is now the sole owner of my previous web design clients and prospective new web design business) when Penguin hit. Yes, my clients were affected - badly. Quite a lot of campaigns tanked completely, few were hit in some or other manner.

I am now sitting with the problem that I just cannot go out there and sell SEO services - what do I sell exactly? I can't guarantee any rankings any more and with the new update coming out I am not even sure what is going to happen.

I would like to hear from other offline SEO providers out there - were you affected at all and how are you dealing with clients and campaigns that have lost rankings?
Are you still trying to recover these? (Keep in mind that I have clients who have stopped paying now - do I try and rescue them using my own time and money, in the hope that they might recover (which has not happened yet) or do I cut my losses and cut them as clients - which I feel really bad about)

Should I still try to sell SEO services despite the fact that you never know when Google will roll out with its next update? Besides, I am not even sure that I WILL be able to get anything to rank these days so I have absolutely zero confidence when talking to prospective clients AND I can't really refer them to case studies etc the way that I could previously do.

Any thoughts?
#confidence #issue #loss
  • Profile picture of the author kebertt
    What kind of link building were you doing? There are plenty of SEO companies who weren't hit, and plenty who recovered. It's all about adapting.

    If you aren't confident with the services you're providing you're doing your clients a disservice. You can't offer a service you have no faith in. If you want to get back into SEO I recommend you do your research, and learn about the new methods of SEO that are helping companies currently succeed. Test it out, rank websites and get your confidence back. This industry is constantly changing, without keeping up to date on the newest methods and link building techniques your business will fail.
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  • Profile picture of the author mocca
    I would actually like to hear about SEO companies that WERE hit and how they recovered OR of SEO companies who were hit who have not managed to recover.

    I don't think any link building is really safe these days, frankly, especially with the new update coming on in the next few weeks.
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  • Profile picture of the author wally247
    Sell marketing services.....not JUST SEO stuff.


    I don't care how many guys say "Google likes this" and "Google likes that" because the fact is that Google "likes" making billions, and if you get in their way with your free SEO they will steamroll right the *&^% over you!


    With that said, all hope isn't lost.


    Learn PPC.

    Learn how to use Facebook and Twitter, and I don't mean bots and scams and annoying shit that everyone else is doing, I mean learn how to do this stuff to help your clients.


    Learn how to make websites CONVERT (screw what they look like) and how to get visitors that you are getting to be paying customers.


    Learn every single thing you can learn about marketing in general, because ONLY doing SEO stuff means that one day you will no longer be in business, and that's a shitty way to live.
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