It’s common for potential clients to have unrealistic expectations or to have been misinformed somewhere along the way about SEO. Because it has evolved so much in the last year, what it now takes to achieve desired rankings really goes beyond the former gold standard of keyword research. For the new complications, we heartily blame a guy named Panda, but after the finger-pointing is done, we’ve got our work cut out for us. SEOs need to keep up on all the latest and greatest to ensure proper integration and execution of SEO, and also to manage client expectations about success. That’s a pretty hefty job.
However, just because a client doesn't have a proper understanding of SEO doesn’t mean they won’t be great to work with. Instead of being frustrated with their mainstream understanding, make it your job to dispel myths and educate them about the process so that they can make informed decisions about their web marketing needs.
And make sure you do this before you're under contract. Otherwise, you’re locked into an uncomfortable situation with no easy way out.
It's important to be picky about who you work with
Qualifying and landing clients can take a lot of effort. When you’re in the acquisition phase (and you’re not yet under contract), you need an efficient process for determining eligibility and filtering prospects. One of the most effective ways we've found is by conducting a competitive domain analysis (CDA). After we've had an initial phone call to do a general qualification of the client, we put a CDA together for two reasons:
- It provides us with the opportunity to properly educate the client and help them understand where they rank (among their competitors of course), why, and what would need to be done in order to improve their standings.
- It allows us to showcase our knowledge, build trust, and get a feel for whether the client would be a good fit for us before we even bid the project.
Domain authority is usually a wake up call
You'll find that many clients are very keyword focused and want to rank #1 for some of the most competitive terms in their industry. That might be OK for a brand like Coke or Nike who have domain authorities in the 80s and 90s, but for businesses who are just starting out online (with a DA that’s less than 30), who may not have spent any time building links, brand awareness, or focusing on customer experience, and they want to go up against Amazon (DA of 97) for "baby blankets," they’re in for a rude awakening.
Instead of setting their expectations up for failure, I like to discuss domain authority right out of the gate so that the client fully understands that:
- There is a lot of work to be done (and it doesn’t just involve keywords).
- There is a lot more to competition than they've probably realized.
- They most likely will never beat Amazon (just sayin').
As you know, raw domain authority is less important than relative domain authority. The client doesn’t have to beat Amazon, or Apple, or Coke. They just have to measure up to their competition. Presenting them with a competitive domain analysis helps them to understand just how much work we need to do in order to close the gap.
How to educate your client
In case you’d like to give it a go, here is a solid process for running competitive domain analyses for potential clients:
-
Schedule a meeting
Once you’ve received a call from a potential client (and after you’ve qualified them into a second meeting), schedule the second meeting out a few days so that you have a chance to run this analysis. This will give you the opportunity to present your findings and convince them that you’re the one to go with. You can email the client this analysis ahead of your meeting, but make it a point to have a face-to-face (or a Google+ hangout) when you’re ready to review.
-
Ask for some competitors
Ask the potential client for a list of up to 4 competitors (and make sure they give you URLs so that you’re running the analysis on the right sites). Note: If the client serves different sectors in their industry, they may have a different set of competitors for those verticals. We offer to run one with up to 4 competitors at no charge of course. If you wanted, you could run another set for an additional fee.
-
Go to Open Site Explorer (OSE)
Go here: https://www.opensiteexplorer.org/ and enter the competitor URLs into OSE and let the SEOmoz tool work its magic.
-
Prepare a Word Doc
Once you’ve run the competitors in OSE, focus on the information that is showing on the “Compare Link Metrics” tab. Take screenshots of both domain authority and page authority. That is all we focus on for this analysis, but you can select additional information that you want to provide and analyze this as well. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to focus on the page specific metrics.
Make sure you organize
Our CDAs are usually about 10 pages, but don't let this freak you out. The introduction and the glossary of terms take up two pages and there's lots of screen shots taking up room. It's helpful to organize the document into four main sections:
- What is SEO?
- Domain Analysis
- Recommendations Moving Forward
- Glossary of Terms
Here’s a breakdown of each section and what should be included:
Section #1: What is SEO?
Start the document with a brief explanation (two or three paragraphs) that describe the current climate on Google and what it really takes to rank these days (we usually link to a couple good posts that we want them to read). This just helps to reiterate all of the things that we’ve been discussing with the client thus far. It also puts it in writing so that they can refer back to it (as they are likely to forget).
In this part of the document, make sure to point out a few things that are likely to make their website successful (you can go into a little detail about each one):
- Good content
- Good UX
- Being a good company, having a personality, and what it means to serve your customers
- Properly integrating SEO (on-page and off-page)
- Effectively utilizing social media
Or, you could use an infographic like this:
Now you've set the stage, so you're ready to show them the analysis of their domain compared to the competition.
Section #2: Domain Analysis
This is where you’re going to put those screenshots of the charts from OSE. But don’t just put the shots in there. Analyze them.
The purpose of this document is to break down the metrics they are seeing on the chart and explain what they mean. Take the time to walk them through:
-
Link stuff
The importance of links. Provide the breakdown on the specific metrics provided from OSE so that they understand what they're looking at. Even a more technically savvy client won’t understand what these terms mean, so break it down for them without using industry jargon, talking about both quantity and diversity.
-
The trust factor
Make sure we explain what MozTrust means. Rand does a great job of explaining this concept in this video. MozTrust is based off a site’s linking distance from those highly authoritative worthies who qualify as “trusted sites.” Do you link directly to one? Do you link to a site that does? Or do you link to a site that links to a site that links to a site and so on? It’s the Kevin Bacon game, where domains like whitehouse.gov or harvard.edu are Kevin Bacon and you want the fewest possible degrees of separation between you and him. We explain that this is a contributing factor to total authority.
-
Social impact
When you look at the results of the domain analysis on the page authority level, you’ll see metrics that illustrate times shared and liked (and +1d) on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Because social signals may be associated with better rankings (even though it is inconclusive as to whether they cause them), don’t ignore the social factor in your analysis. If they have no social presence, that’s going to be something to recommend (see below in Section #3).
As you’re walking the client through the breakdown of this analysis, reiterate the fact that domain authority is measured on a logarithmic scale and that it’s easier to move from 1 to 50 than 51 to 100. Even if you’re working with someone who’s doing pretty well, they’re not going to be able to skate along if they seriously want to improve. If anything, they may have to work harder. You’re not doing anyone any favors if you downplay what has to be done to boost their standing. (Though take a moment to congratulate them on a job well-done so far. Nobody likes a Negative Nancy).
Remember that this is your opportunity to show the client your knowledge and expertise. Build some trust here and help them to get a feel for how great it would be to work with you.
Section #3: Recommendations moving forward
Hopefully, by this point, you’ve impressed them and you have their attention. Take advantage. Make the sale.
In the CDA, include some basic recommendations for what we’d suggest to raise their domain authority moving forward. This is your opportunity to let them know that you are the SEO (or SEO company) who can help them do all of these things. This is also a great place to point out what they can do to get ahead of the competition (you can do a simple review of their competition’s websites and integrate those advantages here).
Here are some common steps to recommend in this part of the CDA (and provide a paragraph or two on each):
-
Currently...
A very brief and general summary of what their link profile looks like at the moment: the types of links they have, any obvious gaps, etc.
-
Improvements to website
Usually your client will need to improve nav structure, content (make pages more engaging and valuable), UX, integrate a blog (for content marketing efforts), etc. But remember, you haven’t done a formal site audit yet, so don’t assign any numbers to anything and don’t make any promises. At this point, you’re just making generalizations about the things that you’re observing they’re going to need to do to raise their DA and rank better.
-
SEO integration
Mention both on and off page efforts in a nutshell. Explain what this means in mainstream speak.
-
Content marketing strategy
Provide a powerful sentence or two that explains how important it is that they are building value through memorable, universal content like blog posts, infographics, video, photo albums, etc.
-
Social media strategy
Clearly this is integrated with the content marketing strategy. We reiterate how important social is for desired rankings and how we approach it from the perspective of delivering value and building community.
-
Implementation
This is where the ongoing consulting work comes in. This is the phase where you're working alongside the client to guide them through the strategy and help them to generate remarkable content and forge strong relationships in their community.
Section #4: Glossary of terms
I recommend including a glossary of terms of all the terms featured in the OSE screen shots so that the client can look stuff up afterwards. As a bonus for making it through this post, you can download our glossary of domain authority specific terms here.
Now what?
Once you’ve presented this CDA to the client and both parties have decided the partnership is a good fit, the natural next step is to bid the project for them. Do a little more investigation before you bid your project by asking some more questions, performing a general site audit, and holding a team creativity session. Whatever your routine, make sure that before you leave this meeting, you define next steps. Let them know when you'll put a bid together and schedule another meeting to present that proposal to them face-to-face.
Disclaimer of sorts
Mack Web spends a great deal of time determining whether a client is a good fit. If you perform a CDA and it’s obvious that the client needs a company with a different skill set, or different values, then you have the opportunity to refer them to someone who can really provide what they need.
This process will help you to get a pretty good understanding of a client’s personality when you’re educating them about how rankings actually work. It’s an opportunity to really “listen." Make it a point to observe how they receive the information you’re delivering.
If your client is open and receptive to your approach in this part of the acquisition process, then you probably have a green light on bidding the project, and, if you get the work, chances are it will be a great partnership. If you’re getting red flags when it comes to general practices, unrealistic expectations of results, personality, or even culture fit at this stage in the game, it’s probably not going to be a client you want to land (or a high maintenance one that you’ll require a healthy budget buffer to deal with).
Please note that using a competitive domain analysis is only one of the ways that we determine whether a client is a good match for us. It’s just one of the first steps; it’s not meant to be the end-all be-all of your client investigation. And, as mentioned, this is not meant to be a full blown site audit (for us anyway, that comes later). A CDA is a visual and data-driven way to illustrate to the client that there are layers of complexity to helping a company rank desirably. And it’s a nice little bonus that you’re getting a great feel for the client in the process before you get under contract.
The bottom line
Just because your client has spent a ton of money on a beautiful website doesn’t mean that they are naturally going to rank well. You know this, we know this. It is your unpleasant duty as an SEO to make sure that your client knows it, too. Driving home the reality of the time and effort required to successfully market their website online, build trust, and earn authority is just one of the crosses that an SEO must bear. We’ve discovered that a tool like our competitive domain analysis eases that burden a bit, helping us educate our clients and ensure that we’re working with the right ones. Give it a try and see if it works for you too.
What processes do you use to qualify and educate potential clients? What tools have you found useful?
Another great post Mackenzie :). You are exactly right that it is important to educate clients. Over the past year I can't count the number of times I've had potential clients talk about SEO as if it's comment links and keyword stuffing that matters and that they shouldn't have to do much on their home front (developing their content and site structure among other things). I think a lot of people still view SEO as a magical ingredient they just need to pay for rather than the hard work involved with improving their website(s), developing a strong social strategy, and building channels for outreach.
So true George. If you spend the time educating throughout the relationship (especially before they're a client), the client has an easier time trusting your recommendations. Then when you ask them to take risks and really go for things, they are more likely to do it.
Awesome post [and meme :) ]! I have to say that explaining proper SEO to a client is often the hardest part of the job. A lot of the clients I've worked for are very results-driven entrepreneurs or operational managers and simply want something done, they don't care how and they sure don't want an explanation. You have to clear up their expectations ahead of time so it doesn't come down on you later down the line.
The benefit of properly educating them in the beginning is that in the long run they will understand proper SEO best practices and it will help them approach their SEO in the right way which helps make your job A LOT easier. It's so hard to actually get results if no one else is concerned about great content and engagement other than you.
I've bookmarked this post for the next time I'm in this situation, because there's no doubt I will be!
Well thanks Chad. I'm glad that you found it useful enough to bookmark :)
When we run into clients like you describe who "simply want something done, [and] don't care how and they sure don't want an explanation," that's a definite red flag. In fact, in our proposals (which would be the next step after this process) we provide an introduction that explains what we expect from them. It is requisite that they are present, involved, and passionate about driving success. It is, after all, their company, and we can't do this alone. If they don't want to be in the game, they won't be excited about little victories (which is important) and they certainly won't want to take the long, arduous journey that may be required to get results.
Great post about the domain analysis, I have experienced about the clients approaches they are very keyword focused and want to rank #1. Your process for running competitive domain analyses for potential clients are brilliant. you have present creative way to audit client site. Thanks for giving such a nice way to educate clients.
Thanks
You're very welcome Sanket. Thanks for reading!
I am all about educating my clients. I want them to understand what is going on because they can help their own SEO campaign along if they understand the basics. If I have to fight my clients every step of the way because they don't "get it" then I'm not doing them any good as their SEO partner. The more educated my clients are about SEO the better clients they become!
I totally agree Nick. If the clients understand whats going on, not only does it add MORE VALUE to our service but it makes it easier to continue our work.
No kidding. Like James Agate mentions in his post about common client conflicts (https://skyrocketseo.co.uk/common-client-conflicts-when-building-links-and-how-to-deal-with-them/) instead of getting frustrated with a client about their lack of knowledge, take the time to educate them. They don't spend all day doing this stuff like we do, so you've got to spend the time to help them "get it."
Great post and nice guidelines here. I'm on that point too - the client should be informed and has to know "how and why" you work such way... IMO
Agreed. The more they know, the better off you are in the relationship.
I agree with Simon - practical & useful.
In my particular niche, I don't really "sell" clients so much as they come to me when they're ready for help. However, I want to move up to those mid-level small businesses and yes, I'll begin to do sales there. I can't wait - and I appreciate all the great and useful tips here. I love the graphic on making Google your pal. Evernoted. :) As far as the ways to use Moz - that's great! Thanks for the tips!
You're welcome Matt. Really, this helped us to gain more clout with larger clients. People love data, so when you show them the charts from OSE, they can't argue with the metrics. They're often impressed and know they need your help.
Great stuff, thanks.
I've always stated that some of the best clients I have are the ones that never became clients (because they are closed minded in absorbing an SEO professionals view). Your piece solidifies the lost clients!
Hi,
I've been looking around at some freelance websites, and their SEO requests mainly involve something like, 200 backlinks with a PR of 4+, in the homepage, main content area, sidebars, and generally everywhere (for diversifying link-building efforts). Is this request expecting too much (I.E. are they asking for too much) or is it that it goes against many things I know in SEO?
For me and my logic, when Google sees 200 backlinks appear to a website that all are in pages with a high pagerank, red flags should go up. Also, links from pages with high pagerank don't come easy, and they don't come cheap.
So, just for my own reference: is requesting 200 (or for that matter, 40) backlinks from pages with a pagerank of above four an unreasonable request?
Thanks.
Hi Parham-
While we do use a backlink profile to assess our potential clients' standing (as exemplified in this post), when we get into actual link building practice, we tend to use a different set of criteria when deciding what links to go after.
Nailed it. We have gone through this process with several clients lately and then found out that they simply couldn't afford it. The old saying "wine taste on a beer budget" comes to mind. So as you initially communicate with a potential client, be sure and get an idea of their budget BEFORE you go through the work of a CDA. :-o
Great Post. A lot of useful information. I run competitor analysis and this is a great way to organize it to keep the clients in the loop as well as leave room for improvement.Thanks for the information!
The process is good however each client is different and even if some or most are in the same pool SEO dosen't really have the "brand" of something creative - from outside it looks like programming or a straight forward process and only part or a small sub part of the marketing efforts. It's hard to talk with clients and explain link building when they really don't care :)
It was a nice presentation at moz con about this - how and where to "hit" the clients for them to release budget and put you in the driving seat and that is not explaining technical term and processes it's about touching revenue.For smaller clients that are also interested in knowing the process overall it might ork but for most, at least based on what I've seen, it dosen't. It's all about winning trust so they will let you do the "magic".
Yes, so very true. We've found that educating clients is one of the most effective way to earn their trust. And so is being passionate about what we do for them.
1st picture killed me, still can't concentrate and read :))))
So true though, right? :)
How about an ongoing series—say every quarter—"The Current Top 25 Myths of SEO...Debunked!"?
The points on client education are well taken, obviously. But often isn't it more like un-education and re-education? That's a lot of duplication of work among us, yes?
A simple authoritative list could be a major victory for SEOs everywhere.
Competitive Domain Analysis are a key factor to any legitimate SEO playlist, good article, i'll be using this in my daily life.
Thanks for the great info!!! You've done a great job of laying out the details for how to qualify and educate potential clients.
Unfortunately I think we've all been there though when we have gone through all of these steps only to realize that the client isn't going to be a good fit. It's depressing but I guess it could turn into a word of mouth referral down the road.
Some great points here on dealing with clients and managing their expectations. I've always found ti difficult when I bring up "domain authority" with a client, as it gets quite complicated. However, for the bigger jobs where more money is involved, that level of detail is required. It's also good to let them know that there is a "scorecard" for their domain and that it does count a lot, especially if you compete with Amazon! (ouch!)
Wow this is just Packed with great info I am like a little kid in a candy store thanks Mckenzie
didnt quite understand the difference between what you call 'Raw' authority and Relative authority. i do use moztrust and authoritty to determine a site's general quality.
Made me think that we need to have a document to give every SEO client. We do a lot of explaining, but the visuals of what you lay out here really make it clear what a client is up against.
Thanks for taking the time to share these :-)
My pleasure Martin. We find that graphics take a lot of the effort out of the sell.
yep, visualizing the process can make wonders in our sales project :)
Awesome post - thanks so much for sharing this. Educating potential clients in the right way is the key and not every potential client will be an ideal customer. Sometimes with SEO it's better to turn business away than take it on board as it can have repercussions further down the line.
I have learnt alot from this post and I can't wait to utilise the techniques you have talked about in the future.Thanks again Mackenzie :)
Great! Thanks so much for your kind words.
This post is awesome. It's becoming more and more clear to me that provided you know how to do good SEO, managing your client's expectations and educating them on the industry is much more important than the actual work itself.
I'm actually working with a SEO software company that is building out a very cool PDF generator for pitching clients. It's got all of the pertinent SERP and domain info of course, but also customizable sections for introductions, explanations, and plans for the future. We found that in pitching client after client, there was a lot of work that we were read doing over and over in Word documents – work that could be done more efficiently, so we started to build out this PDF system!
Nice post education is very important for working on a successful SEO campaign, if you do not spend time training up key stake holders it may be a loss for the projects as whole, as with SEO people power can really assist with the project if you have the SEM/social/PR/Devs all trained up and working as one it can be great for the project.
I love SEO memes! It is a total blend of geek and internet humor :)
So who is going to take the challenge and make inboundmemes.com?
I love how you simplified the brand v keyword link building. It's one of the more common questions that clients ask us when we build links to the brand/url and not their keyword. Thanks for sharing! Our competitive analysis process is very similar to yours - high fives all around!
Thanks Oleg!
This post is fantastic. I can honestly say it makes me wish I was still in the client world so I could point them at this as a basis for understanding and expectations.
I also really like your point on using domain authority to help level the playing field and begin to have a realistic conversation with website owners about their ranking potential and what they will need to put into it.
Cheers!
Thanks so much Nick! I'm sure that even in-house SEOs or marketers have to do their fair share of educating and justification to get their point across, get people on the same page, get budget, etc. Even though you may not have to convince through a competitive domain analysis, you can certainly apply this type of a process to set the stage, expectations, and how you're going to deliver win.
Really great job! I like how you used an infographic to educate them, I'm sure that it's very powerful to use that instead of just a bunch of words - it's quick and to the point. I also really love having the glossary of terms, I find I always am using jargon and they have no idea what I am talking about, need to make it more simple and then educate them on the industry terms!
Thanks Sean. We use infographics throughout our entire sales process and also as we work with clients. It's a really efficient way of communicating thoughts, process, or concepts that can be very technical or may require some time to absorb.
Thank you sir. This articles does help our sales process. When meeting the customer, we were lacking some fundamentals.
i love that picture!
:)
Thanks Nicola. Our design ninja Natalie is behind that goodness. We love to tell the story through graphics. Makes the education process a whole lot easier!
Superb demonstration of your message Mackenzie. Loved the picture which shows steps to make Google your best friend. Its really a hectic job sometimes to make your client understand why it takes time to rank on search engines. Your points are worthy. :)
Thanks so much Praveen. I appreciate your kind words. Providing the client both visuals and the narrative can be very powerful.
Great post @Mac! I shared your meme as well!! Explaining the SEO process to clients may be difficult however it's important to set realistic expectations from the beginning!
Thanks! Actually, it's not my meme. I got it here: https://www.webmarketers.com.au/best-seo-memes/
Great work Mackenzie! I enjoyed following along with your workflow and thought process - that was very helpful. I also liked how you talked about filtering out certain clients. I agree that this is very important - the wrong clients can be detrimental to your business.
Well done!
Yes, so very true. It's definitely a risk to say no to clients who are not a fit. Smaller companies like us and sole proprietors don't always have that luxury. We have found in this last year however that risking the revenue is worth it because the wrong clients always cost you more than you make.
I guess in the end of the day it all revolves around what the clients budget is and what their time is on the project:- I normally work on Enterprise projects so education is a very important process of the project, you really have to get in and train the different teams with different content, because you cant teach the dev's the same stuff as you team the PR team now can you as you are speaking to different teams internally. But it is great to see the rewards of a project working well, for example if you you get 10 people in a PR team all helping you out with a project it can be amazing.- I also advise on quarterly workshops for key stake holders in the business to keep people up to date.- My best tip is make a 20 minute deck, get in front of key stake holders and show them how enthusiastic you are about the project, get them to allocate some of their employees to assist you with a project and it can really be beneficial.
Hi Mackenzie,
you spoke out of 1000 of SEO-hearts with your statements "clients too keyword focused", "want to go up against Amazon with DA less then 30" etc. :-)
We do use kind of the same process you described above and it is working really well. Additionally I can show them now that great infographic which I really find perfect! Huge thumbs up!
Thanks so much! Really happy to hear that our infographic is such a hit. Thanks again.
Superb post Mackenzie, great job, a practical & useful post.
I particularly like your emphasis on what I interpret to be 'Practical Demonstrable Education'; rather than doing it all for a client or telling them what to do & leaving it up to them, the client is taken through the process in a practical way that helps them to also become better at search themselves, all within a 'realistic' environment (also so important, laying down the reality of search and helping to set realistic expectations). Well done :-)
Thanks so much Simon. We have found that the effort put into education is really important and beneficial even pre-contract. Thanks for your kind words.
For me this post is almost perfect. It mirrors closely a lot of what I have been working to introduce since starting my new job 6 weeks ago.
I think there is a hesitancy for some to give up what they see as proprietary information at the pre-contract stage, but the benefits of being open and engaged with the prospective client will surely pay off more often than not.
Well thanks Iain. And yes, for us, transparency always pays off.
Amazing post Mack.
Actually you describe almost what I do too when receiving a request from a potential client.Said that, every client is different and, even if the Internet culture is improving also between the Italian and Spanish VPs of marketing (or the same businesses' owners... you know: small businesses structure are so many time quite absent), things like asking them their competitors' URLs is the most of the times utopian: they will tell you what they think they are their competitor, and surely are offline, but then you have to discover with competitive SERPs' analysis what are the real ones online.
All you CDA process something I define as "Pre SEO analysis", and somehow I use it also as a commercial bait. If I have to do it in any case, why not "sell it" as a way to obtain more quotes' requests.
Finally, during the first call, I usually tend to do a very analysis of the SEO difficulties the site suffers, so to introduce myself, my skills and helping the client giving me better informations. I use the SEOmoz bar for that.
That sounds great Gianluca. Your point about educating the client about who their competitors are is so valid. Like I mentioned, many companies have no idea what it takes to go up against big brands. Using this process really will help clients to understand who their true competitors are, and help them to be realistic about what it will take if they want to play at that level.
That's why I really liked Nick Eubanks' post about being deserving of a first page ranking (https://www.seonick.net/first-page-ranking). If the client wants to beat out a well established, high DA competitor, they certainly have their work cut out for them.
Thanks for the great post, Mackenzie! We currently have a package that we give clients in meetings outlining where they are and things to work on but I think we will be throwing that out and switching to yours. Great way to inform, wow, and educate clients while establishing yourself as an expert in the field. Thanks for the post and the infographic!
My pleasure. Glad you'll get some use out of the process!
Really awesome post Mackenzie. Just as being a good SEO, requires you to get into the shoes of the user, in similar way, you need to think from the client's perspective while taking up projects.
Clients are looking at good ROI and carry this belief that ranking #1 for the most competitive keywords would help them get there which is partly true but is not always possible. Educating clients rather than frowning over their lack of knowledge is the best way to go. Make clear to your client on what is achievable in the specified period of time and don't make empty promises just to land a project because it would only lead to a unhappy client and bad publicity for you or your firm.
All good points Collin. It is certainly a challenge to shift a client's perspective from #1 rankings to what value can we help you build in your company that really makes a difference to your customers. Seems simple, but not everyone can make the change.