10 SEO Client Archetypes to Beware of
In case you offer SEO for clients like I do, after some years you see several kinds of patterns. My nerves get sometimes a little strained with some and I guess I am not the only one. Other than that it would be very funny.
Especially the potential clients I refuse to work for are a strange folk.
So here I present to you the 10 non-ideal archetypal clients who you surely will encounter sooner or later. Of course one or several archetypes can apply to a single client.
1. The clandestine one: Assumes that SEO is evil and does not want you to know who he is and what kind of website should be optimized, even when you have to assess how much the optimization can cost. Juts like you would ask: How much does a car cost?
2. The quick one: Wants you to start right away, assuming he is the only client you have but in most cases very slow to pay.
3. The busy one: Once you are done with a step and need info for the next step, he will need weeks over weeks to reply.
4. The PPC client: Prospective clients who do PPC, especially Google Adwords are not ashamed to tell you how many thousand Euro or Dollars they spent for completely automated ads in search results but they will cringe at paying you 500 for your hard work.
5. The calling prospective client: This one will call you at the evening, while you are busy like hell or when you’re at lunch and you can’t explain to him that you’re not in front of your screen and basically can’t tell him much right at that moment. If you try to explain what do to, how, how long it takes anyway you can be sure that he won’t call you ever again.
6. The diligent one: You will negotiate with him for weeks or or longer even before you can start. You will show him your portfolio, send him or her papers on the exact measures you will undertake, you will talk to his programmers, you will meet him or her and the team personally but you won’t get the job.
7. The experienced one: “I had 3 SEOs already and I’m still not on top”. You may also discover doorway pages from two years ago in his code. The most respectable companies are like that.
8. The big or multi-client: He has either many websites he wants you to optimize at once or he will offer you a connection with Sony or something after you optimize the first site. He of course does assume that optimizing many websites does not cost more than just one and he will pay you less for the first website as he wants to see how you perform before he connects you with Sony.
9. The discontent: He or her will receive the same treatment as all the other clients, pay the same price or even less, he will see the same results as the others but he will be discontent all the time. This one is amazing, because other clients in his shoes are really satisfied.
10. The friend: He will treat you like a friend and he is doing you a favor when paying but he will treat you like an employer or boss when you do the work. He will want to pay less than the others but he will call you Sunday on your private line to ask you if you’re done.
So you might wonder now: Are there clients who are OK at all? Yes, they exist! I had the opportunity to work with some great clients. There are basically several kinds of clients who I adore and really am highly motivated to work for:
- Those telling me that they heard about me or where referred to me or that they read my website and feel comfortable with what I write and like my style.
- Those sending a prepayment ;-) to show a commitment. Some people pay even 100% in advance!
- Those who do not expect me to have just one client (them) and start right away without even asking for it. Imagine a barber where you enter while people are waiting or having their hair cut and you expect him to to start immediately.
If you consider to ask a SEO freelancer for a quote for SEO services:
- address him personally
- just send them the URL
- tell them what you do in one short sentence
- and how much you want to spend (if you like).
The first three will be enough and if you address the SEO or the SEO company for a start.
In case you want to sell SEO services beware of the above 10 kinds of SEO clients.
They will make you wish you never started client work in the first place. Focus on the valuable clients instead.
Interesting read. A lot of them could apply to web design clients as well.
Yeah. I did seo for this small chinese clinic and she paid me in arrears and also installments! I was ok with it since I thought my girlfriend works for them (doing them a favour). Did keyword analysis and found out alot of people search for tanning slaons in that area. From that they wanted to be on page one of google for those key phrases. I told them it may not be good for conversion since their clinic is for chinese medicine not tanning beds (they had 3 tanning beds there). But the boss still wanted to target tanning salon as she thinks people will go onto her site and then buy her services.
Ok, managed to get them into page 1 in 2 weeks for tanning salon. She is not happy since she is not seeing people asking for massage and chinese medicine. She did not pay the final installment which is 1/3 of the entire cost. So dumb she is. Nevermind, lesson learnt.
Steven, indeed #2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 can apply to any client but I guess the SEO industry is worse than other trades…
“double your dating”, thank you for your comment. Nonetheless I had to de-spam it as Akismet assumed it’s unsolicited. I do SEO myself but for the sake of netiquette: Do not exxagerate, a name is always better than a complex keyword in the name-dialog.
Neil, I guess it’s one of the reasons.
How about The Referred Friend?
Is someone you (or your boss) knows. He or she pays near zilch and expects a lot. And if you don’t cope with his expectations, he or she is going to tell all your mutual friends…
Not bad, Wiep kind of a subcategory of “the friend” but also with unique aspects.
onreact, thanks for de spamming the comment. As such I have changed the pen name to david deangelo.
Neil, these business thinks SEO not only bring traffic but also increase their conversions. Which is fine if they state that in their requirements and not assume it. However, conversions is more in the realm of marketing than SEO
Thanks David. It’s alright with me if people use the name of their site or blog, even if it’s a keyphrase, but using a keyphrase from a subdirectory crosses the line in a way.
How about the “Be My Product Manager Because I am a Lean & Mean Start-Up CEO and Interface Directly With My Cheap Inept Development Team In India at 2am to Tell Them for the Millionth Time That They Have Caused Yet Another Major SEO Problem With Their Fifth Release of the Week” client?
Not that I’m bitter or anything…
Andrew
Andrew, fortunately Indians do not speak German so I do not have to deal with those issues…
Don’t forget ‘The Doormat’! Whatever you do, you’re always right and the client will worship you.
Oh, and the ones who, each month, say “Well we will have to cut our budget by 10% this month as business hasn’t been good”. It’s not going to get much better if you’re cutting the spend on your high-ROI online marketing, is it? This client is the one who has the hardest time comprehending that, in the service industry, time = money and less money = less time.
Actually, the ideal client is the one who keeps you on retainer, pays and requires you to do … no work.
So you’re saying you dislike difficult clients and you like clients who think you’re great, pre-pay you and understand that you’re really busy? Wow, what a whiner.
As others have pointed out, you’re describing standard client services and getting 10 clients you hate for every 3 clients you like is absolutely expected. Deal with it.
Jeff, well no, the ideal client is someone who respects what I do, respects me as a person and does not think that he owns me or is my boss because he is paying me.
xmobilemafia: Well, I work as a freelancer and I can work only for a few clients at a time, so often I have to choose and refuse to work with potential clients based on several factors. Moreover my experiene taught me that retaining difficult clients does not pay. The contrary is the case.
So why wasting time, money and resources on people who think paying a robot 5 times as much is better than paying you for hard work?