Where do non pro SEO's get their clients?

Forums and of course they build their own sites promoting their services and then price themselves ridiculously low - which they can afford to do when their service is shit to begin with.

A lot of local guys in my area can operate purely on word-of-mouth as well. Throw someone some pro bono work and then if they get any results - it's a great value because it was free to begin with. Then ride the wave of referrals.

The professional SEOs that work for others don't do this typically. They don't want an uneducated customer but rather pitch themselves to a customer base that is already familiar with what SEO is, Google penalties, etc. This is the better way to go because not only will this customer likely be more fluent in the language needed to convey key concepts about the service provided but are also likely to pay more for that quality service as well.

The fortunate part in this is that the clueless SEO's for hire "don't know what they don't know" and as a result can't really pitch themselves to that customer base effectively. It really is the only silver lining in all of this SEO-for-hire stuff.

There are some days I think about going in that direction... but unfortunately I don't think I could do it without having complete control of the site and it's layout. I'd find it too frustrating to develop an actionable plan just to have a moron designer pack a theme full of H1/H2 tags and the client think they look fantastic. It'd be enough to me to explode... daily.

Try web/dev clients. Those clients have already proved they're buyers, they own a site, they have money, they're prequalified leads.

Most web/devs have portfolio pages on their own site.

Example:

• "miami" intitle:"website design" inurl:"portfolio" -"seo"
• "denver" intitle:"website design" inurl:"portfolio" -"seo"
• "atlanta" intitle:"website design" inurl:"portfolio" -"seo"
• etc...

Yes, forums, freelance, emails, would be the major places.

Warriors for hire section

Hi Xelaetaks, I worked inhouse for a SEO agency for 2 years and getting clients is one of the hardest parts of the biz. Some of my friends went out on their own and they did get a lot of their clients from word of mouth. The hardest part however was finding a place to start their business when they left the company. Some bought leads from lead vendors, it worked well for them. Then they just started doing good work and got word of mouth referrals.

SEO and other marketing services are attractive because people think that you can make a ton of money doing it and that's all they care about. Yes, you can make a lot of money, but it's freaking tough.

Really though, when it comes to offering something to a business, if there is a need for what you offer then the business is going to buy it. It doesn't matter if you are new or a pro, what matters in that situation is that you know more than the owner of the business, so your knowledge has a price tag associated with it.

Whether it's ethical or not, is a different debate.

I think a lot of these people get into the business and put all their efforts into finding a client then they realize, oh shit, I have to figure out how to do this SEO stuff. LOL. Or they think they know a lot based on stuff they read 3 or 4 years ago so they continue using outdated methods.

This is what has made a lot of business owners have a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to SEO. They've been burned countless times by SEO companies or people who claim they are SEO experts but can't deliver what they promised.

Anyway... to answer your question where people get clients...
- Cold calling
- Emailing
- Pay Per click
- Craigslist
- LinkedIn
- BNI/Chamber of Commerce/Networking Groups
- Direct Mailing

There's tons of ways to get clients... there's only one way to keep a client.. and that's to deliver what you promised.

I completely agree with godoveryou, and it's saddening because those inexperienced and ignorant SEO providers taint the reputation of other SEO providers by essentially scamming their clients and disappointing them.

You get SEO clients in the same way you get any other webmaster client, by going to the people that use these type of services.

You should be the biggest advertisement for yourself and everywhere you go online, just mention that you do SEO work. Talk about your SEO accomplishments to others, whether you are on forums, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The best advertisement for your SEO services will be the satisfied SEO customers that you already have. Just be prepared with proof that you have done this type of work before.