Turning down a client
The majority of SEO clients I get contact me after reading an article that I wrote. The last article (published in mid-December) has yielded such a steady flow of business that I haven't written one since. A few weeks ago I received a "typical" email from someone overspending on PPC looking to get some organic traffic. I had a phone chat with him and prepared a quote. He was an extremely nice guy, but he kept saying that he wanted me to get him on the first page of Google. The more we talked/emailed, the more he just kept saying "I want to be on the first page of Google."
I explained to him, that his goal is probably not a good goal to have. First off, ranking for the term "Adam McFarland's Blog" is a hell of a lot easier than "Sports Collectibles" but there's no one searching for my blog so being on the first page of Google is pretty worthless. I also said that for really competitive terms (like the ones in his industry) it's tough to be in the top 5 or 10, but that there are also a ton of "long tail searches" for specific products that very well may outweigh the traffic for the key terms. In short, there's more to search engine traffic it than just trying to rank on the first page.
I also pointed out that all the traffic in the world is worthless if you don't convert it into sales. If you run your site like a business (which I hope is the case), your goal is to be as profitable as possible. The same traffic converted 5 times better is a more effective site (and a more profitable business) than getting twice the traffic at the same conversion rate.
In the end he just replied that he's excited to try to rank on the first page in Google and never accepted or declined the quote. Some people just don't get it, and the headache isn't worth their money in my pocket. If he called me tomorrow and accepted the quote (I doubt he will, it's been a while) I would turn him down. The more I thought about it, I just didn't want to work with someone who doesn't have the necessary perspective.
One of the most important things in a relationship with a client (or in any relationship in that matter) is setting expectations throughout the course of the project so that at the end nothing comes as a surprise. If you do a good job of setting expectations, you'll rarely have an unhappy client. And if they won't agree to your expectations like this guy, it should raise a huge red flag and make you question whether or not you want to enter into a relationship with them.
I explained to him, that his goal is probably not a good goal to have. First off, ranking for the term "Adam McFarland's Blog" is a hell of a lot easier than "Sports Collectibles" but there's no one searching for my blog so being on the first page of Google is pretty worthless. I also said that for really competitive terms (like the ones in his industry) it's tough to be in the top 5 or 10, but that there are also a ton of "long tail searches" for specific products that very well may outweigh the traffic for the key terms. In short, there's more to search engine traffic it than just trying to rank on the first page.
I also pointed out that all the traffic in the world is worthless if you don't convert it into sales. If you run your site like a business (which I hope is the case), your goal is to be as profitable as possible. The same traffic converted 5 times better is a more effective site (and a more profitable business) than getting twice the traffic at the same conversion rate.
In the end he just replied that he's excited to try to rank on the first page in Google and never accepted or declined the quote. Some people just don't get it, and the headache isn't worth their money in my pocket. If he called me tomorrow and accepted the quote (I doubt he will, it's been a while) I would turn him down. The more I thought about it, I just didn't want to work with someone who doesn't have the necessary perspective.
One of the most important things in a relationship with a client (or in any relationship in that matter) is setting expectations throughout the course of the project so that at the end nothing comes as a surprise. If you do a good job of setting expectations, you'll rarely have an unhappy client. And if they won't agree to your expectations like this guy, it should raise a huge red flag and make you question whether or not you want to enter into a relationship with them.
posted by Adam McFarland at
2/02/2007 05:57:00 PM
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