MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

Recently, my significant other landed an opportunity to work in a retail company. Due to my past experience within the retail sector, she asked for my advice. My response was simple, “Keep your clients happy, regardless”. My reasoning was that word of mouth spreads faster than wildfire, and wildfire is bad for any company trying to make a few bills. Also, my father recently had a vehicular issue and subsequently called the insurance company to get it sorted out, but he was shunned to the extent that he is considering publicly stating his unhappiness at the manner in which the situation was dealt.

All of this got me thinking about SEO as a service, and how effective the service levels are within the industry. Even in the new e-world that we live in, the client comes first, especially since the development of social media networks and the like. The avenues to voice your concern or displeasure at any situation are widely available and are being used by all to make their voices heard. So the question therefore arises: How do I take care of my major SEO clients?

In SEO, just like any other business, the decision makers tend to be very thorough and decisive about what they expect from any service-provider company that they contract. They anticipate that deadlines will be met, expectations will be exceeded, and that they will become a priority. Unfortunately, not all these expectations can be met as the decision makers see fit.

Transparency, in my opinion, is the only way to ensure that your client stays happy with the progress of the project. You need to be very frank and clear about deliverables and timelines. Often, with regards to the Internet, progress can be hard to monitor. This is where SEO professionals should jump in and take initiative. Producing reports, graphs, trend analysis, and analytics all prove to the client that they are being taken seriously, which is good for your business’s reputation.

A fair amount of initiative will also be appreciated by the client when it comes to analysing the problem areas within the project or business scope. The idea is not to be overly critical of business processes, but rather to suggest strategic changes to effect increased business opportunities.

The Internet is a huge vat of information. More important to business is the number of potential clients that the Internet can reach. The SEO’s job is to make their clients more visible to their target audience. However, turning potential clients in paying clients is all about service. After all, a happy client is a paying client.