Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is a growing field. Some clients are hiring one company to design the aesthetics and visual design for a website, another firm to construct the website, and yet another company to provide search engine optimization and marketing services.
So what if you hire one company to do all of them? Or what happens if you just have a small website and have never heard of SEO? How do you sell SEO to those clients? I’ve decided to take the following approach.
I’m in the process of creating a one page document that explains as simply as I possibly can all of the factors that impact your ranking on search engines. The document will be split with 50% covering on-page techniques and 50% covering off-page techniques. This way I can ensure the client will have a basic understanding of SEO and what is necessary to be ranked well before I start work on the website.
Further, my default, basic web design services will include strictly on-page search engine optimization. (With the exception of blogging about them when I desire.) I think this is what the client expects in most cases. Most of my clients don’t realize that on page optimization is only 50% of the battle.
Hopefully after reading my SEO 101 document they will realize the value of off-page SEO and decide to purchase that as an additional service. I feel this will be a win-win situation for myself and for my clients. Clients will have a better understanding of SEO up front and through this understanding I should be able to up-sell to my clients who will have a more successful online business.
