SEO Clients to Avoid - How to Avoid Being a Bad Client

If you’re a client or prospective client of an SEO, there are a number of things you can do to keep SEOs from running the other direction. It isn’t even that hard. It starts with being a good communicator, and being a good listener. SEOs know their job, but they can’t accomplish it without your help. Tell your prospective SEO what you hope they’ll do for your site – and if you have any special concerns, lay them on the table.

By the same token, you need to listen when your SEO tells you what needs to be done, and how long it will take. When they want to make changes to your site, or try optimizing for different keywords, it’s for a good reason. Stoney deGeyter, writing for the Search Engine Guide, talked about a client he worked with for several years that had selected poor keywords. Their traffic kept increasing, but their sales did not. Every time deGeyter tried to convince them to change their keywords to increase sales, they considered making the changes, but never approved them. He doesn’t know how they’re doing now, because eventually they stopped being his client.

It’s not just keywords you need to be open to changing. Sure, there might be a “good” reason to restrict what changes an SEO can make to your site, but as deGeyter notes, “when your hands are tied there is only so much you can do.”

Rummage sums things up well for what a good SEO client should have going in:

• Realistic expectations.

• A realistic budget.

• Solid information.

The last point feeds into the first one. If you have solid information about what SEO can do for your web site, you will have realistic expectations. You should also be prepared to share information about your business with your SEO, so they can do their job better.

If you’re an SEO considering a prospective client, these are the three things you need to be looking for. If even one of them is missing and can’t be fixed, you’re asking for heartache. Remind yourself that there are plenty of fish in the sea – and you just might be better off tending your own nets (sites) for a while.