Had one of my SEO students ask these questions.
How do you guys deal with high-paying clients who are constantly pushing for results when we all know SEO takes time?
How do you respond to “what can we expect in terms of traffic, leads, conversion rate after X months? We want numbers on what we’re shooting for.”
I got a client who pays me a good chunk of change, but his team lags on approvals for things, changes website stuff without my approval, and changes my point of contact every few weeks because their team isn’t performing – then every so often it comes back to us “I’m concerned about traffic and where we’re headed”.
I loved it, because I had forgotten how common it is?
How could I forget it if it’s common? Because it happens so much that I solved these questions a decade ago and haven’t dealt with them much since. Here is how.
- “…his team lags on approvals for things”
Lock this down.
Put in your agreements that we do not wait on approvals. They get seven days, or it’s considered approved after that.
They also get one round of revisions from point of contact, so make it count. Everyone else can argue about approvals and have opinions, but only one of them reports the final answer to you.
- “…my point of contact every few weeks”
Hard stop allowing this, too.
Also put in agreements that should the point of contact change, which is understandable, you are not the HR department. It is not your responsibility to bring them up to speed or be their transfer of knowledge on the campaign status. Of course you can help them, but now you have grounds to hold them accountable if it’s a pattern.
- “What can we expect in terms of traffic, leads, conversion rate after X months?”
Do not answer this directly, but do answer it. And be honest why.
Google removed this data over a decade ago. You can no longer definitively tie a word to traffic. Yes, there are tools that make assumptions… but I’m not betting my reputation and word on assumptions.
So you answer it in averages.
“On average, most clients move a quarter for quarter. What I mean by that is a quarter of targets usually move every three months. For example, for easy math, if you target 20 keywords, five of those will move from not found to page 10. Then three months later those five will move up a few pages, and five more will show up on page one.
For traffic, each industry and phrase has varying demand. But the goal is page one of Google, as that’s where all the traffic is. First position gets as much as 40% of the clicks. Second gets 20%, and third gets 10%, with another 10% across the rest of page one. So the money is on page one.”
Most people know SEO takes time, but they fail to explain WHY. It’s not that progress is slow. Progress can be a few months, like any other form of marketing. But nobody goes past page one. So you need enough progress for it to hit page one to monetize.”
Most clients just want to feel heard. And they will trust you response if you at least give them one. That’s how you answer it and reiterate expectations without definitives.
If they push for theoretical numbers, you can use this tool I had my team build:
https://www.seonational.com/calculator/
And if they want an estimate on ROI, can use this other tool:
https://www.seonational.com/calculator/roi/
- “Every so often it comes back to us ‘I’m concerned about traffic and where we’re headed.'”
All solved with proactive expectations and rules of engagement. Have to teach the customer to be a better customer.
I tell clients no less than 5 times that SEO is slow (and why)…
- On the lead call
- In the proposal
- In the welcome email
- On the onboarding call
- In a physically printed and mailed copy of the agreement and welcome email
You can’t solve it with a reply. It’s solved by laying a foundation ahead of time to hold them accountable to agreeing to.
