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How To Deal With Impatient SEO Client?

by TotalWebsiteControl
22 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Alright so i have this client who ordered my services at the beginning of june. I am currently working on a total of 20 keywords for him (some are pretty competitive) so it has been 2 months and i have about 8 of his keywords on page one and 3 of those keywords are in the top 3. Now the problem is that he expects to start getting some sales on his websites since he has picked up a good amount traffic since some of his keywords have reached page one.

As of right now (he says) that he hasn't received one sale and that maybe the keywords HE picked out for me to rank aren't $$ keywords. Now the question is.... Was i wrong to rank his keywords without doing proper research on his keywords to make sure that they would make him money when they got ranked? He seemed pretty sure that the keywords he wanted me to work on would make him money once they reached google page one. Is he being impatient and if so how should i deal with this? This is my first time that someone got angry at me for getting them on google page one atleast for a good bit of his keywords.

Any help in this matter would be great!

Thanks
#client #deal #impatient #seo
  • Profile picture of the author nmwf
    It sounds as if you sold him sales instead of SEO services. I have no advice other than to caution you against doing that again (if you even did it at all). If not, maybe you can (gently) remind the client that you sold him a search engine position and not a sales quota.
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  • Profile picture of the author SMworkcafe
    Originally Posted by TotalWebsiteControl View Post

    Alright so i have this client who ordered my services at the beginning of june. I am currently working on a total of 20 keywords for him (some are pretty competitive) so it has been 2 months and i have about 8 of his keywords on page one and 3 of those keywords are in the top 3. Now the problem is that he expects to start getting some sales on his websites since he has picked up a good amount traffic since some of his keywords have reached page one.

    As of right now (he says) that he hasn't received one sale and that maybe the keywords HE picked out for me to rank aren't $$ keywords. Now the question is.... Was i wrong to rank his keywords without doing proper research on his keywords to make sure that they would make him money when they got ranked? He seemed pretty sure that the keywords he wanted me to work on would make him money once they reached google page one. Is he being impatient and if so how should i deal with this? This is my first time that someone got angry at me for getting them on google page one atleast for a good bit of his keywords.

    Any help in this matter would be great!

    Thanks
    Too many things are going wrong within your client's head. Remind him about your responsibility as a SEO expert. Inform him that he needs to be patient with the results especially when a SEO guy is helping him out.

    Caution: Finish this project as soon as possible and make it clear beforehand that it is not your responsibility to bring $$ into the business.
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    Cheers!

    - Sana.

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  • Profile picture of the author sany00
    Originally Posted by TotalWebsiteControl View Post

    Alright so i have this client who ordered my services at the beginning of june. I am currently working on a total of 20 keywords for him (some are pretty competitive) so it has been 2 months and i have about 8 of his keywords on page one and 3 of those keywords are in the top 3. Now the problem is that he expects to start getting some sales on his websites since he has picked up a good amount traffic since some of his keywords have reached page one.

    As of right now (he says) that he hasn't received one sale and that maybe the keywords HE picked out for me to rank aren't $$ keywords. Now the question is.... Was i wrong to rank his keywords without doing proper research on his keywords to make sure that they would make him money when they got ranked? He seemed pretty sure that the keywords he wanted me to work on would make him money once they reached google page one. Is he being impatient and if so how should i deal with this? This is my first time that someone got angry at me for getting them on google page one atleast for a good bit of his keywords.

    Any help in this matter would be great!

    Thanks
    Agreed in some point of the second comment that you are selling SEO business, not the sales quota. But also it's your responsibility to know the actual requirement of your client before proceeding your service. While beginning you should ask him what he wants? He replied that I need sales, and you need to figure it out that the chosen keywords are buying keywords or not. That's one mistake you already did, I guess. So now check the keywords again that these keywords are buying keyword or not. If they are not, then you need to discuss with him and explain the things. If you rank higher his site, he will get a good amount of traffic but not the expected sales he wants. So better you can switch the keywords that moment and start working on the buying keywords. And if the keywords have buying mood than just tell him to keep wait to see the magic of yours....All the best
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by SMworkcafe View Post

      Caution: Finish this project as soon as possible and make it clear beforehand that it is not your responsibility to bring $$ into the business.
      That is stupid. Of course it is an SEO's responsibility to bring money into the business. What the hell else is he hiring you for?

      To the OP,

      I don't know what level of service you are providing to your clients. I don't know if you are positioning yourself as a partner and professional or just promising people you will churn out "page one rankings". There is a difference.

      Anyhow, this is why people should always run an AdWords campaign first to make sure of two things:

      1) Their website converts traffic to sales/leads.
      2) The keywords convert.

      Otherwise, this can happen. They waste a bunch of money and time on keywords that bring no ROI.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dokemion
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        That is stupid. Of course it is an SEO's responsibility to bring money into the business. What the hell else is he hiring you for?

        To the OP,

        I don't know what level of service you are providing to your clients. I don't know if you are positioning yourself as a partner and professional or just promising people you will churn out "page one rankings". There is a difference.

        Anyhow, this is why people should always run an AdWords campaign first to make sure of two things:

        1) Their website converts traffic to sales/leads.
        2) The keywords convert.

        Otherwise, this can happen. They waste a bunch of money and time on keywords that bring no ROI.
        Howdy Mike! Too many clients think that SEO's are hired just do the optimization and backlinking that's it.. They are too naive not to consider the influence of the SEOs to bring enormous amount of money to their company/business once the work done is paying off.

        Sad to say that this is how "most" corporate individuals think of us.. nothing but a mere SEO Tool. Hahahahahaha
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      • Profile picture of the author Tactical1
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        That is stupid. Of course it is an SEO's responsibility to bring money into the business. What the hell else is he hiring you for?
        lol. Yes, you're going to piss your client off even more if you tell him his sales aren't your issue.

        Couple things you can do. Research more profitable keywords to rank and quote accordingly for the additional work, or revise the current project. Stop optimizing his current set of keywords and shift to new ones. Your other option is to optimize his site for increased conversions. Setup a sales funnel, calls to action, improved UI, etc and again quote for the additional work. More money for you and the client will be happy as well.
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      • Profile picture of the author SMworkcafe
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        That is stupid. Of course it is an SEO's responsibility to bring money into the business. What the hell else is he hiring you for?

        To the OP,

        I don't know what level of service you are providing to your clients. I don't know if you are positioning yourself as a partner and professional or just promising people you will churn out "page one rankings". There is a difference.

        Anyhow, this is why people should always run an AdWords campaign first to make sure of two things:

        1) Their website converts traffic to sales/leads.
        2) The keywords convert.

        Otherwise, this can happen. They waste a bunch of money and time on keywords that bring no ROI.
        No, it's not stupid. Maybe I didn't do a good job in putting my point across. Here goes again:

        If you read the post of the OP, it clearly states that the client is expecting sales through his SEO results (given the fact that the keywords were also given by the client).

        I should have rephrased it as: It was not entirely the SEO guy's job to bring in the 'sales'. Sales are derived by many factors including SEO, effective copywriting, sponsoring and advertising, building relationship with suppliers so on and so forth. With the keywords given by the client, no wonder OP is having a hard time ranking them or producing results quickly.

        Even if the OP suggests better keywords based on his research, the client will not use them because this is what is stated within the original post:

        "He seemed pretty sure that the keywords he wanted me to work on would make him money once they reached google page one. Is he being impatient and if so how should i deal with this? This is my first time that someone got angry at me for getting them on google page one atleast for a good bit of his keywords."
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        Cheers!

        - Sana.

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        • Profile picture of the author KylieSweet
          Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

          It is an SEO's responsibility to bring money into the business. They waste a bunch of money and time on keywords that bring no ROI.
          Originally Posted by SMworkcafe View Post

          I should have rephrased it as: It was not entirely the SEO guy's job to bring in the 'sales'. Sales are derived by many factors including SEO, effective copywriting, sponsoring and advertising, building relationship with suppliers so on and so forth.
          Even if the OP suggests better keywords based on his research, the client will not use them because this is what is stated within the original post:
          "He seemed pretty sure that the keywords he wanted me to work on would make him money once they reached google page one. Is he being impatient and if so how should i deal with this? This is my first time that someone got angry at me for getting them on google page one atleast for a good bit of his keywords."
          Most of the people are solely focused on keyword as the basis on bringing them ROI or income. Ranking number 1 on Google results doesn't mean that you will have sales or conversions, as you can notice targeted users or clients are more into proven results, quality, and long time duration. Users are more wiser than you think, if they are not satisfied with your product or services despite ranking number 1 in results they will always seek for another until it meet their needs and expectations.
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  • Profile picture of the author sameera
    As you mentioned that he is getting good traffic from those keywords on website, it means that you have done your part of work. If he is not getting a single sale then it is not your fault, the fault is in his website which is not giving enough information to the user and compel them to get his services.

    For this, you can guide him on making his website according to conversion point of view. There you can show you capability that how you manage to make a proper plan to make his website good for sales. Read on this article for optimizing website for conversion and sales: How To Optimize Your Store
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  • Profile picture of the author Dokemion
    Originally Posted by TotalWebsiteControl View Post

    Alright so i have this client who ordered my services at the beginning of june. I am currently working on a total of 20 keywords for him (some are pretty competitive) so it has been 2 months and i have about 8 of his keywords on page one and 3 of those keywords are in the top 3. Now the problem is that he expects to start getting some sales on his websites since he has picked up a good amount traffic since some of his keywords have reached page one.

    As of right now (he says) that he hasn't received one sale and that maybe the keywords HE picked out for me to rank aren't $$ keywords. Now the question is.... Was i wrong to rank his keywords without doing proper research on his keywords to make sure that they would make him money when they got ranked? He seemed pretty sure that the keywords he wanted me to work on would make him money once they reached google page one. Is he being impatient and if so how should i deal with this? This is my first time that someone got angry at me for getting them on google page one atleast for a good bit of his keywords.

    Any help in this matter would be great!

    Thanks
    As an SEO you are also responsible to education a dumb Client. To be able to get to your goal you need to make your client understand how things work nowadays. You have to speak up or these kind of clients will continue to harass you with their bla bla bla bla bla. If you notice something is not right with their keyword research inform them. Tell them that those keywords wont give them a better ROI or that this keyword will take a lot of time to rank due to the demand of the competion.

    Educate your client for they will always think they are better than you because they are your boss but once you manage to prove that what you are saying is the right thing and that it must be done and be completed to help them achieve their goal. You'll find out that they'll slowly begin to listen to your suggestions, act on your ideas and respect you as a professional SEO.
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    Contact me for any SEO Services you need I'm glad to be of your service.

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  • Profile picture of the author legendcrest
    I quite understand your predicament but different things happen within the seo sphere.
    1. What is your client's objective- more sales or higher ranking? Once you understand that, you will know if you want the project in the first place.

    2. What did you sell your client- ranking or sales?

    3. How well did you educate your client- I make it a point of duty that my client understands exactly what online marketing means and how seo ties in.

    Having said all theses, there are clients that will really be impatient. Avoid them as early as possible
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  • Profile picture of the author TotalWebsiteControl
    I appreciate everybodys comments and suggestions.
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  • Profile picture of the author gybno
    Originally Posted by TotalWebsiteControl View Post

    Alright so i have this client who ordered my services at the beginning of june. I am currently working on a total of 20 keywords for him (some are pretty competitive) so it has been 2 months and i have about 8 of his keywords on page one and 3 of those keywords are in the top 3. Now the problem is that he expects to start getting some sales on his websites since he has picked up a good amount traffic since some of his keywords have reached page one.

    As of right now (he says) that he hasn't received one sale and that maybe the keywords HE picked out for me to rank aren't $$ keywords. Now the question is.... Was i wrong to rank his keywords without doing proper research on his keywords to make sure that they would make him money when they got ranked? He seemed pretty sure that the keywords he wanted me to work on would make him money once they reached google page one. Is he being impatient and if so how should i deal with this? This is my first time that someone got angry at me for getting them on google page one atleast for a good bit of his keywords.

    Any help in this matter would be great!

    Thanks
    Have you got a website? I wrote an article on mine Why does SEO take so long? | SEO for beginners and I just send them that when they start moaning. I found I come across as rude otherwise.
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  • Profile picture of the author TotalWebsiteControl
    Thanks everyone for your feedback. The issue has been resolved (on a positive note!)
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  • Profile picture of the author alvinchua91
    Well, explain to him that SEO is strictly about rankings on search engines.

    Sales on his website is more about conversion optimization.

    Since I don't know what keywords you suggested to him, him not getting sales may be down to one or both of the following reasons:
    i) Not choosing the right keywords
    AND / OR
    ii) His website is not optimized for sales (e.g. copywriting e.t.c.).

    The best SEO for the most appropriate buyer keywords will not be able to get the website owner sales if the website is not even primed for getting sales. Him not getting sales could be due to the website's copywriting/design/layout/e.t.c. Without us knowing the keywords and website, you need to decide yourself which of the above is the main reason and explain to him.
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  • Profile picture of the author aviopty
    SEO is a just like newspaper ads but on the internet. The advertiser is responsible for advertising. Whether or not the client's sales increase is not the responsibility of the advertiser if they have done the advertising work as paid for.
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    • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
      Originally Posted by aviopty View Post

      SEO is a just like newspaper ads but on the internet. The advertiser is responsible for advertising. Whether or not the client's sales increase is not the responsibility of the advertiser if they have done the advertising work as paid for.
      That's a poor analogy. SEO is something you can track and measure to the point of individual conversion, that keeps on working even when you don't pay for an ad, and something you can do with very little investment.

      Not only that, but some agencies do sell and price their SEO and other internet marketing activities based on results.

      Also, an ad agency is the specialist who needs to make sure that the campaign can work. They may not be responsible in the legal sense, but usually it's not just following orders.
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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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  • Profile picture of the author Mehwish84
    your jobs is to rank their keyword not sale their products,it may be possible that the product they are selling people are not interested to buy online or other issue you rank all their keyword as soon possible and say that i am responsible for ranking your keywords not sale your products,if sale product contain in your package then also give classified in local site,social media to sell their products.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ben West
    A few things.

    Firstly, if you are doing SEO for your client, yes, you should have done your own keyword research.

    If your job is to simply build backlinks, then no, the keywords aren't your problem to worry about.

    Best thing you can do right now is to do your own keyword research, and if you find out that the keyword he picked are still the most optimal keywords to target, you should point this out and tell him the problem with converting the traffic into sales is not an SEO issue and is not your problem. However if you discover that the keywords he picked out are not optimal, find him the optimal keywords and start working on those instead.
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  • Profile picture of the author windrider07
    I am currently working on a total of 20 keywords for him (some are pretty competitive) so it has been 2 months and i have about 8 of his keywords on page one and 3 of those keywords are in the top 3.
    Could you elaborate more on your strategy? How do u outrank competitive sites?
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