Local SEO doesn’t happen in a vacuum
Columnist Greg Gifford shows that when it comes to retaining local SEO clients, setting expectations and providing education is key.
If you’ve read any of my past articles, you know that I sometimes (usually) write them from up on my soap box… and this time, I’m right back up there. Nearly every SEO and online marketer I’ve talked to at conferences this year has mentioned the problems they’ve had with setting client expectations.
It seems like clients (or bosses) want bigger, more amazing results — and they want them faster than ever before. We all keep hearing “What kind of results will I get?” or “How long will it take?” or “How much more traffic will we get?” And since there’s no way to definitively answer those questions, potential clients sometimes balk (or for in-house people, bosses give you “that look”) when we tell them, “It depends.”
People assume that there’s a set task list, and if you complete those tasks, a site will magically jump to the top of search results in Google. Or even worse, they think SEO is the same as PPC and don’t understand why results aren’t instant.
The best way to end up with happy clients is to make sure they have a crystal-clear understanding of what you do for them. Don’t assume that everyone understands Local SEO like you do. Use simple examples to explain the complicated concepts and processes. I’ve shared a few tricks in this vein before — both the pizza delivery and simple math explanations are a huge help — but they don’t address the disconnect in client expectations.
Answering tough questions from bosses and clients
Lately, we’ve been answering these tough questions with an honest explanation: Local SEO doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Let me walk you through how we explain things:
We all know that there are hundreds of signals, both on a site and off a site, that influence the relevancy and importance of that site in Google’s algorithm. Unfortunately, to someone who doesn’t know much about SEO, that sounds like a cop-out. Instead, we show them the Local Search Ranking Factors study by Moz. The pie chart breaks down the different signal areas into eight main areas, based on potential weight in the local algorithm.
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