Need your professional feedback for a client
-
Hey everyone!
I have a client that got a $500 proposal from some agency that summarized their work as follows. I'm literally copy and pasting this:
- Directory submission - 100/mo
- Targeted keywords - 5
- Blogs writing - 1 per month
- Articles writing - 1 per month
- Blog posting - 10 per month
- Article posting - 10 per month
- Deep linking - 20/month
- Classifieds - 02/month
- Press Release - 01/month
- Yahoo Answer - 02/month
- Local Listing - 01/month
- Comments on blogs - 02/month
- Social bookmarking - 10/month
- Social media optimization - 10/month
- Regional directories submissions - 20/month
- Search engine submissions - 10/month
This is a national company with a strong brand. Nowhere in this "proposal" is any mention of onsite optimization, any real content marketing, infographics, brand mentions, nothing...
I have explained at length that the tasks they are suggesting are a terrible idea, that they will likely get penalized and that most budgets at this range are usually ill advised. The agency has even admitted that they source this overseas to illegitimate firms.
I would love it if I could go to this meeting and have some community feedback as to why this is a bad idea. Please share your experiences, best practices and why most of these tasks are going to get them penalized.
Thanks everyone
Kevin
-
No problem. Most of what I learned came from bad decisions or (rather less painfully) from other people on here. Happy to share!
Good luck!
Ruben
-
Ruben,
Thank you for your response, it certainly solidifies the stance I'm taking with my client. I certainly like to give people the benefit of the doubt as everyone in SEO has their own experience and perspectives. SEO is not black and white but in the case of this proposal, I needed some outside opinions because that price point to any business owner is just too appealing. That is, until their #1 sales channel is gone lol!
Thanks Ruben!
Kevin
-
I highly feel as though these tactics are remedies from the past. When it comes to optimizing appearances on the highly searched search engine "Google" you must think nearly 5 steps ahead if not more. Google is constantly changing with the updates from once "Panda and Penguin" to "Hummingbird"
Also the way users search is changing as well. Users are searching the web differently as the generation of searchers are younger and more lazily using "voice search technology" to find the items they are looking for in queries. I expect that the "search option" will become extremely difficult to optimize therefore some in depth SEO tactics would be necessary to succeed long term.
Of course if you are looking for quick results these tactics could maybe prove fortunate depending on your type of niche however I do warn you against these tactics due to the fact that "Google" is spending much more time fighting these tactics making it more than likely "not the way of the future."
I would encourage you to speak with this client about their overall goals and what they are looking to succeed and even go in depth with what their knowledge even is on SEO because based on what their asking it seems "archaic." Today quality is key therefore it really depends on the company you are wanting to perform your SEO techniques. I feel as though in today's evolution of technology as well as "google search" a mere $500 is not enough to get personalized quality links in order to build your reputation on search engines.
Moz Expert
-
The directory submissions jumped out at me as just absurd. I can't imagine there even being 100 directories worth submitting to, and certainly not every month.
Also, this firm used to have an SEO company that outsourced all its blogs and articles like it says your client is about to have happen to him or her. Tell her to look at some ODesk profiles from India and Bangladesh to see if she wants that type of content on her site. When I started here, one of the first things I did was delete every article or post they had written. It was awful. The only good part about the outsourced writing was that it was as poorly written, as it was poorly ranking, so not many people ever read them.
I can't remember if press releases were not going to matter much in the future, or if they were going to get your penalized, but either way, they aren't worth much.
Lastly, 1 local listing a month isn't going to cut it. At the end of a year, your client will have 12 listings. I doubt that will garner much benefit, and they will probably not even be accurate.
Good luck,
Ruben
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Need reccomodations for Good SEO company
Hello, I'm looking for seo in the gaming industry - European languages Thanks
Industry News | | Rogeroz0 -
What skills I need for a valuable SEO job
Hello, I want to get a valuable SEO job, something part time - 20 hours a week about, a top notch position - not an entry level $15/hour position. I'm in Boise Idaho. Will you look at my credentials and let me know what additional skills I need to get a good position?: I've been doing SEO since the mid 90s A lot of experience with on-site optimization. One to two years experience with quality content marketing and link building. I regular help write content that is fantastic and use buzzstream and Citation labs to push the content hard. Two years experience writing content that is high quality. six years doing ecommerce seo moderate facebook and twitter experience. I've helped create many facebook pages, and I have moderate experience as to how to best post and optimize on facebook. I've been doing twitter for about a year and have recently learned how to use it to push content or to gain traffic. I know just enough google plus for authorship and building out an account. Lots of experience with keyword research using keyword discovery and Google's tools. A lot of web design experience, mainly html, css, a little javascript and a little php I know my way around Adwords, and I've done about 10 large campaigns. My PCC experience is lacking I know good writing and grammar skills for writing and developing content. Graphical experience with photoshop, fireworks, Adobe Illustrator, of course also excel and word. 6 years of ecommerce customer service experience A couple years of using Open Site Explorer including competitive analysis and link building I may have left some things out. But that's most of it. What areas do I need to master more to get a great SEO job?
Industry News | | BobGW0 -
SEO Service Needed
Any suggestion about hiring an SEO individual? Primary focus will be proper link/relationship building. What questions would you ask them? What is a fair compensation method? Can the compensation be based on results vs. effort? Thank you, Joe
Industry News | | csamsojo0 -
Train Client to SEO?
What would you do if a potential client asked you this: Bob and I could meet with you soon to discuss how we would like to work with you regarding SEO. We are specifically curious whether or not it is worth it to have you work on SEO-related issues for a specific period of time or to pay to have you train Bob in doing so for that period of time. We would be interested in comparing rates and the value of each proposition. I am tempted to tell them that I do not doing SEO training. But, I have a feeling that there is a way for me to help the client and to make some money for myself as well. I'm curious what the rest of you would do in this situation though. Thanks in advance.
Industry News | | theBREWROOM0 -
SearchDex for SEO consultation? Price feedback?
I know the JCPenny story from 2011 and read their CEO response to that. I've been pleased with my conversations with them so far and was given a reference that checked out well. Now us. We are a small business and our expertise is in print manufacturing and fulfillment. A portion of our business is running a network of retail websites related to the print business and that network generates six figure revenue, but we rely entirely on our affiliates to promote and drive traffic. I've been learning SEO for about 9 months - primarily just so that I can be informed while managing our direct to consumer initiative. But we don't have the internal expertise to pull off a campaign that is not heavily outsourced so that is why I'm open to talking with SearchDex. Does anyone have any feelings about them one way or another? Does anyone have a recommendation for me to talk to that might be an even better fit for what we want to do?
Industry News | | rickpeyton0 -
Clients Slow to Publish Content
Hey Mozzers, Recently i have been working with some larger corporations and i have quickly found that publish new content is a nightmare. Whether re-writing current content to be more targeted or getting brand new content published on their blog it goes through an insane approval process something like this: Approval from Marketing Manager (main point of contact) Revisions Approval from Legal/Quality Control Revisions Approval from someone on the C team (CEO or CMO) Revisions Depending on content, translation for other language sites Then go live With this crazy process i have barely gotten 5-10 pages of content approved and live since the launch of the project. Now I am getting the questions of why we aren't seeing any results. The quickest and most direct answer is - we aren't publishing any new content! But you can't always blame the client. Does anyone have any suggestions, approaches, or strategies to help slow moving clients speed up? Perhaps other techniques to show your value other than publishing new/targeted content? Cheers - Kyle
Industry News | | kchandler2 -
What is your Biggest SEO selling point to prospective clients?
Typically, our SEO questions are around "how to's" and etc. So, to change it up I will ask a business question: What is your biggest selling point when presenting your SEO services to a new client? In a spirit of transparency, I will tell you mine ahead of time. With PPC, TV, Radio, and Print at some point in time that ad comes to an end. When it ends, that is it. There is no residual from that advertisement - or very minimal at best. With SEO, once you are ranked well and well optimized you continue to get clients for a much longer period of time. With clients who TV and print, this rings especially true and is easily provable. I can't wait to hear yours.
Industry News | | RobertFisher4 -
I'm looking for a freelance SEO ninja who I can pull into client projects from time to time. Any advice?
My company helps health care providers with internet and social strategy and solutions. At times, my clients need SEO services and I need a trusted and skilled pro to turn to who I can collaborate with on behalf of my clients. I may even be interested in putting together an SEO package for my clients if I can find the right person/agency to work with. Thanks for any help/advice you can offer.
Industry News | | bgeyser0