Selling SEO: How I Lost a Big Potential Client
To the potential client with whom I recently talked, who said that organic SEO will be critical to the success of his yet-to-launch web site, who needed specific tips about how to optimize for long-tail phrases in an ultra-Flash-heavy environment, I have something to say.
I am sorry.
I am sorry that I offended you when I asked what your site was going to be about. I am sorry that I asked what industry you were going to target. I am sorry that I asked about your intended audience. I am sorry for all those things, even for volunteering to sign an NDA; the login on the home page should have warned me that the contents are super-secret -- too secret to be exposed, even with a contractual obligation to keep my mouth shut.
Maybe you've been burned before. Who hasn't? But let me tell you what I won't do with any information a potential client gives me:
- I won't tell anyone outside my company.
- I won't steal your idea.
- I won't start a competing web site.
- I won't call your competitors and tell them what you're up to.
- I won't tell you you're stupid or that your idea sucks.
Now, let me tell you what I will do with the information you give me:
- I will do some preliminary keyword research on your topic, so that I can discuss -- intelligently -- what your target audience is searching for, and how they're phrasing it.
- I will see how other sites in your market are building their sites to see how -- or whether -- they are integrating best-practices SEO into their sites, and how the engines are reacting to it.
- I will see who links to sites like yours to get an idea of how your future site can compete out of the gate.
- I will take a look at what you've developed so far to let you know if you've done anything that will cause grave harm to your organic efforts.
- I will tell you, honestly, whether I think we can help you.
So again, please accept my apologies. I wish you the best of luck in finding that SEO company who will give you the exact advice you need without having even the slightest notion of what you do.