How Do I Get More SEO Clients?
Getting clients as an SEO is a no brainer in a way, still many people struggle at the beginning it seems.
One day I answered a question on Quora: “How do I get more SEO clients?” The person who asked added:
“I have a good SEO knowledge and experience, but I do not have a portfolio. Which would be the best methods for getting my first clients?”
My reply did not get the attention it deserved I think and thus I’d like to publish it here and elaborate a bit on finding clients for a SEO business.
The way it has worked for me when I started out is still the way it can work now I think. Rank first and then the clients will come.
- Try to rank for local queries like [SEO your city] for example: SEO Atlanta
- Try to rank non-profit projects for free for their respective keywords and causes and show them off
- Try to rank for SEO skills not many offer yet like [Siri optimization]
- Try to rank for questions normal people ask who don’t know yet what SEO is, example [how can I succeed on Google]
Also go where the clients aka real business people already are on
- niche forums
- Yahoo Answers
- LinkedIn Groups
Let others who already have a name recommend you or approach SEO companies whether they outsource (but please do not write generic spammy emails).
Don’t forget to socialize with your industry peers be it online or when possible in real life.
Some of my best clients were a direct effect of social networking on various social site and also blogging here.
Without a blog most people won’t even notice you so it’s better to start socializing once you have some flagship content to offer on your weblog.
- link out to others
- mention them by name
- follow them throughout social media
- share their content
- use a contact management or CRM tool
- reply to comments
Last but not least make it really really easy to contact you. You see I don’t do it here on SEO 2.0 as I have had more than enough clients throughout the years.
- Your phone number has to be big and on top (the top right corner seems to be the best place for it).
- Your mail address needs to be visible as well, ideally it’s not just “info@” but something like “sales@”
- Add a very simple contact form (without a captcha!) because many people prefer those.
* Creative Commons image by John Martinez Pavliga.
How do you have “good SEO knowledge and experience” but no portfolio? A bit contradictory, methinks.
Good point Takeshi. The question was written in a shaky English (I had to fix it on Quora) so I guess the poor guy has been a drone in one of those infamous SEO outsourcing sweatshops somewhere in India where he worked anonymously without the opportunity to get a name and/or portfolio.
Tad – 150% spot on! It took us a while to see some of these as “valuable” in the beginning. But I can tell you from personal experience, your methoids STILL work! When we finally did the above listed items in the leads started coming in. We built our portfolio and continue to do so just like this!
Great post!
Mike: Thanks for the feedback! Glad to hear that some things stay the same in the fast-paced SEO world. Sometimes the change is so fast it makes you feel dizzy.
Great tips. Found quite a couple of them useful. I always enjoy to read up on ways to increase business. Thanks for sharing – Keep up the great posts.
Good points Tad, and yes you are right many people here in India do work anonymously in SEO Firms they have the knowledge and experience but not the portfolio many times.