7 Rules to Establish With Your Clients as an SEO Specialist

Share via

Digitalization has been increasingly popular over the years as more and more companies seek to enhance their website’s SEO. Now, what is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is essentially the practice of enhancing both the quality and quantity of a website’s traffic by utilizing search engines. It is not as simple as it seems as there is a lot of work that goes into helping websites push up their SEO. This requires a delicate understanding of what people are searching for, keywords they’re searching for and what answers they’re looking for. Knowing what the majority of people are looking for allows you to cater to their needs and offer solutions through websites. As an SEO specialist, it can be relatively challenging to educate clients on what exactly SEO offers. SEO requires a good client-specialist relationship in order to achieve results. Hence, here are 7 basic rules that you need to establish with your clients.

No Hiding

Clients can be extra secretive about their past and this could breed problems for you. In a more severe scenario, they could’ve been issued penalties or bans. If that’s the case, it is almost impossible to lift the penalty up on your own. In other instances, they may not be completely transparent with you and expect you to find out any details you need on your own. It will be extremely challenging if the relationship with your client works one way. Just like any other relationship, conflicts are bound to happen. We don’t want things to get messy here.

No Stupid Questions

It is extremely frustrating having to deal with clients who have completely no idea about what they want. Although you might have clueless clients coming up to you for help, try taking the time to explain it clearly to them while making it clear that it’s not your role to educate them. They can’t also expect you to wave a wand around and magically increase their sales. Make sure you set things straight with your client so that they don’t go wasting your time excessively where you essentially become their teacher.

SEO Takes Time

Clients want to see results, and they want it fast. Before accepting an offer from a client, make it clear that results will take time and sales don’t magically increase overnight. You’re not a magician either. It is important that your client understands this in order to save yourself from unnecessary blame. This is a perennial problem that most clients exhibit, they realize that they’re far behind many other companies and want to up their game fast. They then assume that SEO specialists will be able to help them make that change overnight, but in reality that doesn’t happen. It takes at least 6 months to see actual results.

No Wasting Time

Your time is precious. In order to achieve a better standing with SEO, you might require certain documents from your clients. Without it, there is no way that you can progress. This has to be made clear at the start of every meeting to make sure that the client provides you with what you need. If there are any miscommunications between you and your client, this can slow down processes and be extremely inefficient. Having pre-planned documents you or your client needs to get ready before a meeting would be really helpful in getting things rolling.

No Guarantees

Guarantees can act in favor of you or against you. There are tons of SEO specialists and they can be unpredictable. There are many factors that can sweep you off your feet unexpectedly and you need to be prepared for that. Before you take on a client’s request, you have to make it very clear that you can’t guarantee anything. In many instances, clients might expect you to deliver based on how much you can boost their SEO with keywords. You’ll need to stand firm on your ground and tell them that that is not how SEO works.

Learn from Each Other

Apart from teaching your client what he/ she needs to know about SEO, you have the responsibility to learn as much as you can about their company as well. Remember that you’re an external SEO specialist employed by your client. You aren’t expected to know the inner workings of their company but if you do, you stand a higher chance of boosting their SEO compared to someone who doesn’t know.

Some things you should take note of are:

  1. The Market
  2. The Customers
  3. The Process

Striving to deliver the best possible service should be at the top of your priorities. If you want to improve your skills as an SEO specialist, you will need to work more than you’re supposed to.

Befriending Your Clients

We’ve heard the phrase that your ‘client is always right’, but that does not mean that your client is entitled to treat you however they like. It’s important to keep a good relationship with your clients in order for you to deliver them your best. You can start by taking your client out for some after-work drinks. Most clients are unaware of the workings of SEO, so spending a little more time to explain it to them and your directions might help to build rapport and trust among both of you.

All in all, communication is key. Just like any other relationship we have with those around us, having constant, transparent communication is what helps us stay close. If you’re having trouble attracting clients, here are some tips on getting developers onto your site. Be bold with what you think is right and ask your clients should you have any doubts. When you’ve done your best, you will live with no regrets. Working with clients can be really hard sometimes, especially if they insist that they’re always right all the time. Sometimes, you need to break some rules in order to succeed. Content writing is not easy and sometimes the demands from clients can end up making us into robots. SEO and content marketing require lots of patience and of course, you need to maintain a steady and open communication between you and your clients.

Share via
Samantha Acuna is a writer based in San Francisco, CA. Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, and Yahoo Small Business.