Local Business SEO Journal

It has been mentioned earlier but in passing. Be careful what you tell your clients you do an do not do. You need to value what you know and keep it secret. No one gets things for free. I have lost a lot of money in business by giving too much information. I am not even certain your SEO Invoice should mention link building - but maybe something more vague. If they know you are "link building" all the time especially on your next invoice, why wouldn't they Google "link building" and find services cheaper than you?

If you do not understand this, I went to a lawyer one time for a simple easement issue. The guy new the answer. But listened to my problem and told me he would get back to me. It was a SIMPLE easement issue. He calls me back and says it will be $500 for him to research and get the answer. That was crap, he knew already. But he also knew not to "give away the store". Same for a plumber. Takes him 15 minutes to fix a problem. I asked why $200? He said $50 for his time, $150 for knowing how to do it. Lesson learned.

Sell Benefits on your site - what is in it for the customer, not specifically how you do it.

You mentioned doing the work then asking for compensation later. That would be, imho, a bad idea. What are you going to do if they do not pay? or decide to "negotiate" your fee once the work is done? You could go on a site spree of "www.clientsucks.com" but who has time for that crap.

People rarely value what they do for them over time. They love you in the beginning but over time think of you as replaceable or as a commodity. Implementing tracking etc is worth learning because it is objective proof of your value to them. (as has been mentioned earlier)



Also, it would be interesting to hear from the experienced Local SEO's what how they mitigate potential losses. For example in non-competitive niche's locally it could be that this client stops paying, stays #1 Google - end of story. Client banks forever and you go off and.... what? Take down every link you built?


omgyams said:
Have you considered call tracking?
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any recommended services?
 


phoenixrising said:
Well I have def. learned a lot, sorry for the lack of updates.

The guy has essentially been blowing me off - he will say that he's ready to do a final review on the site, then reschedule. It's about the 8 or 10th time he's done this and I'm sick of it. Learning a lot on this first client. I think I need to tell him that I need the remainder of my payment within a few days or I will be forced to take the site offline, anyone had to do this before?

Definitely fucked up my motivation a little bit I won't lie, but for the amount of money that I may or may not receive, the lessons are definitely priceless.
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Well like every person who just starts, you made the number 1 mistake and that is accepting compensation after.

In the future, charge per month and gradually get their crawl up the SERPs. Don't get them to #1 in the first month. Make sure you explain to your client all of the sales stuff like: "SEO is an on going process. You need to keep everything up to date." etc.. An example of what I do: I charge a monthly amount. Let's say $500 for the sake of things. In 4 months you're in place 3. Once my client is in the top 3, I tell them "From here on out, it's a lot tougher. We have three options: Keep things where they are at and keep chugging, retain position 3 and reduce price by 40% (but spend 50% or less time on SEO for the site), or amp things up and double it to really get it going and give them that boost. Once they reach their "goal" which is 95% of the time #1, I'll give them the option to "leave their client in the dust" or keep it where it's at. Most reduce the 40% until someone creeps up the SERPs, then they'll boost it for 1-3 months.

A smart thing to do is to deliver monthly reports. I kick it up a notch and deliver competitor reports as well. That way they know what their competition is doing and if they are catching up in any way (competition always helps.....).

If you want, we can discuss topics on Skype: jkthedesigner
I keep most of my stuff private.
 
phoenixrising said:
Well I have def. learned a lot, sorry for the lack of updates.

The guy has essentially been blowing me off - he will say that he's ready to do a final review on the site, then reschedule. It's about the 8 or 10th time he's done this and I'm sick of it. Learning a lot on this first client. I think I need to tell him that I need the remainder of my payment within a few days or I will be forced to take the site offline, anyone had to do this before?

Definitely fucked up my motivation a little bit I won't lie, but for the amount of money that I may or may not receive, the lessons are definitely priceless.
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That is way he wanted to be your BFF. Push forward and don't let this shit hold you back.

"Take no prisoners, hold no hostages" FTW
 
Great journal and congratulations on going out and making it happen.

Just FYI: out of curiosity I did a goog search for your case study client and their website doesn't come up on the first page for their business name (I found the link on the Yelp review). The first result was a yahoolocal listing and it didn't include a link to the client site, just an @att.com email address. Definitely gives you more you can offer the client.

The referrals are great and should provide you the majority of your business. Show your clients you appreciate them saying good things about you and bringing new clients in the door - buy them a bottle of their favorite whiskey, a gift card for Outback Steakhouse, or at least a hand-written thank you note. It shows you have gratitude and respect and will help get you even more referrals.
 
Great to see your continual progress building up your biz.

Again...Family, friend, good looking, not so good looking clients, always follow your own rules and have them sign a contract to protect you. Not to mention, it looks darn good and professional when you hand your contract to the client with all deliverables dated and agreed upon. But you should know this by now :)

As far as your site, you need a form for potential clients to complete. Basic one answering all the basic info about their business...

For the contact page, you may grab yourself this plugin WordPress › Easy Contact « WordPress Plugins
 
All I have to say is Wow. This thread is awesome. I've had a ton of clients that promis the world only to find out they can't deliver the funds in the end.

Just had to make a comment about this thread.
 
Love the insight you've provided. I'm considering getting into local stuff and have learned a bit from your story. Which do you think is more profitable. Making small 3-4 page websites for customers or selling SEO services? How much do you charge on average? I don't even know where to start with pricing etc.
 
Very interesting read. I have just gotten into the SEO game after building some sites for a few clients with deep pockets. I had always been more of a build them and send them on their way kinda dev as I always had projects in que, but after hiring someone to help do the sites, and starting to learn, I have to say... I AM HOOKED!!! Its so much more rewarding to see results of your labor, not to mention watching the bank account grow ;)

Its posts like this that people like me feed on. After spending time on a ton of other forums, its so nice to find one where people are actually HELPFUL.

Keep up the good work!
 
Uptime said:
Great going,

Small suggestion of performance data record keeping to help with future sales. Have the ability to show potential clients hard evidence of how you took previous clients websites from x to y position. What it meant to them with the increased traffic. Presented properly should help with the cred.
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Good advice. Also be careful to stay away from billing based on time spent. It is tempting to validate your value to the client - but over time you may be better off billing for the "secret stuff" you are doing. Assuming you are delivering success.

If not then you may have to justify your bill with time spent. But employers eventually devalue you if they think of you as hourly.
 
Missing the gist. 10 hours spent on a paying clients website is a problem / not sustainable because your tweaking a premium wp theme or . . . . ?

In regards to doing custom design work, yes but it is not my forte. I have a couple of people who are worth the time to provide the rough outline and they can run with it. They can do a better job than I can in less time including the on going communication and draft updates. Technically I have the skill set and software to do just about any of the design work but my personal DNA lacks the initial creative gene that turns the end game goal into reality.

If it's quick and dirty I can put a unique twist on any design very quickly with good quality. However it is still a borrowed concept even though the end result would not be considered copying or plagiarism. To me this is where it became more profitable to outsource to someone who has that artistic gene.

There is a guy on here that probably makes more money every 10 mins than a lot of people do in 10 days. You can tell by his posts that he couldn't turn on Photoshop if it was in his startup folder. He can't spell html and probably thinks CSS is an STD. But he can put the pieces of the puzzle together and manage the outsourcing in his sleep. His set of skills will always outrank the geek genre.

I guess I say all of that to say this; Honestly question yourself on how you spend your time and what are the "REAL skills". It is good to know the basics of everything but better to know when it is more profitable to pay someone else.
 
Congrats on the latest client and appreciate your updates. Good or bad gives a kick. Keep talking out loud here. Could be an epiphany for the next guy.
 
Make damn sure your hooking yourself up with recurring income on each and every job.

It's a piece of cake really, just include your hosting contract with your design contract. Get yourself a nice vps, or reseller account and charge each client a monthly hosting fee. It's also the best defense you can have against assholes that don't pay.

I highly recommend a video that was posted a few weeks ago "fuck you pay me." Take notes, it's good shit if you want to be in this biz.

http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/122139-fuck-you-pay-me.html
 
About to start doing local work myself. Anyone mind PMing me their contracts so I can get a brief idea of what I need? How restrictive/unrestrictive do you guys make them?

I really like the recurring income idea, along with controlling the hosting. If they decide not to pay, at the least you take down their site.

Thanks for any input.
 
Just about all of my clients I host via a re-sellers account. Not so much for a control standpoint but for the server access and somewhat for the $. If it is normal size biz about every 1.5 clients pays my hosting cost for the year for that hosting account. The rest is profit but not much because every 2 - 4 clients I buy another hosting account. I like having several servers on different class c's when possible. I prefer to not bill monthly for the hosting. I give them 1 or 2 year upfront options with the 2 year discounted. Having months left on a hosting contract they have already paid for works in my favor. They have the option for cPanel access but no one ever does. A couple of clients are on a vps and one on a dedi but most get along fine with shared hosting. The biggest benefit for me is I have many servers with a variety of class c ip's that I can use for my stuff at no cost. I usually don't put the money sites on shared hosting but it rocks for tier 1 properties that I own, build and never gets deleted that points to the $ sites.

While providing hosting for a client might give you another hook it does not give you total control. If they have the domain name registrar credentials they can be on another server in a couple of hours and cut you out of the loop. Good communication and making their phone ring with targeted customers cures all.

BTW where is that "fuck you pay me" video at?
 
Uptime said:
Missing the gist. 10 hours spent on a paying clients website is a problem / not sustainable because your tweaking a premium wp theme or . . . . ?

In regards to doing custom design work, yes but it is not my forte. I have a couple of people who are worth the time to provide the rough outline and they can run with it. They can do a better job than I can in less time including the on going communication and draft updates. Technically I have the skill set and software to do just about any of the design work but my personal DNA lacks the initial creative gene that turns the end game goal into reality.

If it's quick and dirty I can put a unique twist on any design very quickly with good quality. However it is still a borrowed concept even though the end result would not be considered copying or plagiarism. To me this is where it became more profitable to outsource to someone who has that artistic gene.

There is a guy on here that probably makes more money every 10 mins than a lot of people do in 10 days. You can tell by his posts that he couldn't turn on Photoshop if it was in his startup folder. He can't spell html and probably thinks CSS is an STD. But he can put the pieces of the puzzle together and manage the outsourcing in his sleep. His set of skills will always outrank the geek genre.

I guess I say all of that to say this; Honestly question yourself on how you spend your time and what are the "REAL skills". It is good to know the basics of everything but better to know when it is more profitable to pay someone else.
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^ Easy...THE best advice around.

Keeping rocking phoenixrising and BTW, huge swell hitting south facing beaches mid week
 
phoenixrising said:
Dude, how do you deal with clients that seem driven to make sites as ugly and non user friendly as possible? . . .
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I always have this conversation when the deal is almost done.

Key word targets have been determined, competition evaluated, website / link building known to rank and the price agreed upon, we have a talk. I always start off by assuring the client this is their website and they have the final word and control. However every pixel has to earn it's keep in order to achieve the described goals they are paying good money for. While they as the customer are needed for input and encouraged, we need to have a common strategy. Should they decide to put a picture of Hemorrhoid their daughters pet rabbit on the home page I tell them it is my job to politely point out the reasons this will not help. We can talk about any points they would like and I will be glad to incorporate as long as it does not inhibit our success. I make it clear that if they insist on an image, text, layout, or content of any type that gets in the way then all bets are off on the projected goals.
 
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