SEOs Using Tactics to Get Clients to Extend Contract?

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  • SEO
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Obviously link building and on-page optimization are the conerstones of SEO.

On-page optimizations are permanent. When an SEO performs them on your site, they can't really take them away.

So let's say you have an SEO that want's a 3-month contract and at the end of the 3 months, you aren't #1 or #2 on Google, but you are on page one and a heck of a lot higher than you were and you know the higher you go, the harder and more time consuming it will be to get even higher.

So lets say you are at #3 and you are happy where you are at. What can the SEO do to encourage you to extend the contract and get more money out of you?

I suppose they could remove some of the links on sites they have control over that have lots of link juice. But that's additional work. Is it a common practice though?

Granted over time, your rank may slide due to a stale site, algo changes, etc. etc. and then you go back for more SEO services. So do SEOs rely more on that for repeat business as opposed to removing links and erasing their work?

I realize until you are #1 their is ALWAYS room for improvement and then there is the work to maintain the ranking. But for this discussion lets assume the client is satisfied with their position at the end of the 3 months even if it's not #1 and they won't re-engage unless they start sliding.
#contract #extended #length #optimize #seos #slower
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Any SEO that removes work the client paid for is an asshole.

    There is always more potential traffic out there. It's why you don't start with a list of 5 keywords to improve. You start with 30-100+.

    Also, if they are in a niche that is at least moderately competitive, the other sites are not going to just sit back and take it when the client starts outranking them.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      Once you get them to the top of the pile for the first batch of keywords, you start on the next one and the next one. And, if you're smart, you convince them that having more than 1 position on page 1 is good for them, then you go get them a video or an article to be #2 and another one to be #3.

      You can be #1-10 for Chicago mortgage broker. Then, for other cities in Illinois, where they are active. Then you can do the same for Chicago mortgage, and for all the other relevant keywords.

      If they're one location firm, and only want one city, you add keywords only.

      If they sell nationally, you might never run out of keywords to rank.
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  • Profile picture of the author XenG
    What can seo do to extend client contract? It's pretty much obvious. Bring in results! But, do not make promises that you won't be able to keep. Be sure to set a time frame that would allow you to get your client to the top of Google search engine. Me, I don't really stop doing seo. You can have top keywords for particular keys, but you should not stop there. You know, there's a lot of competition. Just keep on pushing and rank for multiple keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    Originally Posted by consultant1027 View Post

    I suppose they could remove some of the links on sites they have control over that have lots of link juice. But that's additional work. Is it a common practice though?
    Depends on the type of backlink, but many "bought" backlinks become less effective fairly quickly. Not necessarily because the SEO practitioner is acting maliciously, but because the links are in blog posts or some such medium. Those blog posts fall to archives, and your link shifts from front page to somewhere else.

    I'm not sure how common link removal is, but I would not be surprised if it happens.
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    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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