How do you deal with lack of understanding about SEO?
-
Since I subcontract out to web design people or work doing SEO for small businesses, I am wondering how others (and if others) deal with non-compliance with good SEO practices.
For instance, I had a web designer change a few of the terms for a website because the client wanted another term they thought was better instead of sticking to the SEO they contracted for and she diluted the site architecture in the process.
A former small business client called for some changes and I discovered she had made some changes she "thought were good terms."
Do you encounter such issues, and if so, how do you deal with them--or do you just oblige the request?
Also, I've been getting requests to do "partial" seo instead of entire sites. Is that ever a good idea and if so, how would you handle it? If not, how do you successfully dissuade a client from doing so? (Both small biz and web design peeps)
-
Hi There,
I decided a long time ago that the best way to handle the issue of the client deciding they want things changed is to allow them to decide for themselves that it may not be such a good idea. I have found a very effective way of achieving this.
As soon as we receive a request or instruction from the client that we believe to be detrimental to the SEO for the site, we immediately forward to them a Disclaimer and Acknowledgement Form. The form is accompanied by a request for them to sign and return it so that the requested changes can be completed. Similar to Ninjamarketer's disclaimer, the most important part is that the form carries the words "hereby acknowledge and accept" and requires a signature.
We make no attempt to dissuade the client - just forward the form and require it to be executed and returned before the work can proceed.
It generally takes 5- 10 minutes for the client to call me once the form has been sent and in every case to date, they have decided before I answered the call, that they may not want to make the changes after all
It is at this point that I am able to talk it through with them and do a little gentle SEO "Training" which they are very receptive to. It works for me
As to partial SEO - we offer on-page services on a per-page basis (minimum 3 pages), but for any project of more than 5 pages, our quotation includes site wide audit, structural review and recommendations for further work. We also provide on-page work via direct access OR as a detailed report which can be handed to the existing developer for action. For clients with limited budgets, this can be helpful as they can attack the work in manageable chunks. We conduct the site assessment and advise them which pages are highest priority for action.
It is nice when you have a client coming back to you for more work because they have seen marked improvement from the original project and want some more of that action
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
Introduce them to SEOmoz.
-
@Ryan "hearding cats" is a good way to describe it!
@NinjaMarketer Thanks for sharing your clauses and I like the idea about the partial module.
@MagicCrob Thanks, the problem is that when I subcontract to the web design specialists, not all seem to clear the changes with the seo but instead want to make the client happy but often tothe determent to their investment and online success.
@Todd I am not one to "oblige the request" but I have one particular client that I do a lot of work for who does and it goes back to the suggestion about communcation. I believe the designer does not really understand seo. As for the partial SEO,I was referring to on page optimization and site structure.
Thanks to all of you for responding, each of your answers actually hit on different issues that I've encountered and I appreciate the insights and suggestions!
-
Just to cover part: Never simply "oblige the request". That's bad for everyone. I always let a client tell me what they THIINK they need to rank for and how. Then we explain with data why that should or should not be part of the strategy.
We have clients that make recommendations for changes they want and they understand that if we say "it's because of SEO". They will back off and let us maintain the process.
Partial SEO would be, a home page optimization? That's fine as long as long as you verify and understand the scope of the rest of the site. Nothing wrong with "doing a little work" on your highest possible ranking piece of real estate. In the end, it's all in the reporting and measurement. You just have to be able to communicate whhat you are actually going to deliver.
Hope this helps a bit.
-
I've had experience of this. It's good to make clear to the client that you've been hired for a specific purpose and that you can't perform your contracted job properly if a third party won't comply with your instructions.
It's in the client's (and designer's) interest to listen to you. Your reputation depends on your advice or consultation proving successful and if they're aware of that it should help you.
If you have a particularly awkward client who is keen on some useless keywords then it's kind of your job to tell them so (but in the nicest possible way). Compromising and giving them half of what they want, coupled with your own input, can help them move away from their own ideas when they eventually realise that your advice is paying off more than their own thoughts.
Partial SEO can be worthwhile. If by this you mean just on-site SEO then it can go some way, but if there are few valuable links then it's not going to stick around at the top of the SERPs for too long. If it's just on part of the website then it might be worth doing so long as the client is aware that further work should be undertaken later on to make the most of the opportunity.
-
I include the following clause in a legally binding contract for both web design and seo to make sure the client understands and agrees to it. (Please contact your legal advisor/ attorney for the exact clause. I am not a legal advisor and the suggestions presented here are for information purpose only)
--- SEO company is not responsible for changes made to the website by other parties that adversely affect the search engine rankings of the Client’s website.
--- SEO company is not responsible for the Client overwriting SEO work on the Client’s site or requesting webmaster / designer or developer to make changes to the Client's site.
As far as partial SEO goes, you may include another clause in your contract that clarifies that the client will not be able to get any significant results from a partial or selective SEO.
However, you could enhance your portfolio by adding a partial SEO module and offer this as value add with design at no cost. You can use this to sell the benefits of complete SEO and additional services such as link building.
Best
Sameer
-
Your question touches on a constant challenge in the SEO world that has been around as long as Marketing. In all business environments we must acknowledge the need for the following:
Communication
First, when working with an organization to assist with SEO, it is critical that all parties are aware of the the need to run any changes to site content through the SEO team. Otherwise, trying to implement a well thought out plan is like herding cats.
Prioritization
Typically, engineering resources and low when compared to engineering requests which leads to a backlog of tasks. This, in turn, leads to prioritization. Engineers have to look at requests and decide what is most impactful for the business. Those requests get done first.
In order for us to get our SEO requests to the top of the queue (or to have them supercede other competing requests) we have to make strong business cases. In the case of changes being made to a site that conflict with our recommendation, we have to first be aware the change is taking place (see Communication). Secondly, we have to make a stronger case for keeping the terms aligned with SEO best practices. However, if changing the terms will increase customer conversions by 10% and only result in a small loss of organic traffic then changing the terms wins.
Give and Take
In the 'real world' my experience has been that maintaining SEO best practices all the time is nearly impossible. Our job is to help companies add as much SEO love as possible through education, encouragement, and maybe a little donut buying. Seriously, Marketing is a give-and-take world. Don't feel like anything below 100% SEO best practices isn't good enough.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Are provincial third-level domains bad for SEO?
My prospect's domain ends in ".on.ca" (Ontario, Canada). The structure of their site is companyname.on.ca (main page) and all other pages are sub-folders (companyname.on.ca/page-name-1 All pages are no more than two levels deep. I'm wondering if anyone knows if the provincial sub-domain (.on.ca) presents an SEO challenge?
Web Design | | 22Eighteen1 -
Migration from HTML to Wordpress - SEO Implications?
I am in the process of having a wordpress site developed to replace my current HTML site. (I currently have my website in html and a blog in wordpress in a sub directory). I am doing this in phases to try and preserve as much of my good rankings as possible. My first phase is to replicate my site with the exact same pages, meta data, and site structure. I'm hoping that google will see this as not much change and not change my rankings for the worse. I also made it a goal that my site speed tests be at least equal to what they are now. We will have to 301 all of the URLs however since it will be going from /example.html to /example. I believe my blog will also need to move into the root directory as well, so I need to 301 all of those pages. I plan to wait a couple months for Phase 2. Phase 2 involves replacing old content (photo galleries), and introducing new content (virtual tours, videos, new pages, etc.) One of my reasons for moving to wordpress is to keep up with current trends a little easier since I have very little time. (I am owner, website maintainer, SEO - all on my own). My question here is three parts. 1. Do you think this strategy will work to preserve my current rankings? 2. Do you have any lessons learned or advice to share with me to make this as smooth as possible? 3. Do I really need to wait to add new content? I might get antsy and want to do it sooner! 🙂 Thank you in advance!
Web Design | | CalicoKitty20001 -
Web Developments and Breakpoints for SEO
Google likes fast and clean pages. Pages load better when they are optimized for each platform. With the new Ultra HD resolutions and ultra phones, what is the optimal number of breakpoints for web page with images on them?
Web Design | | Atlanta-SMO0 -
Wordpress Blog Providing SEO to Main Site
Hi, I recently started a very much "learn on the job" SEO position, transitioning from a copywriting background. We currently have a wordpress blog up and running (and producing some decent quality content too I hope!) at example.com/blog/ and a sign up page located at example.com (sorry, can't put the address right now) for a site that is being custom built as it's got some nifty software linking to back end systems. My question is whether the content on the blog will bring SEO benefits to the main domain or whether it'll just be for the blog itself? If the latter, should we navigate the blog onto the a separate page of the main site? Thanks so much! I'm learning as much as I can as quickly as I can, but somethings still get me in a little bit of a tizzy.
Web Design | | LeahHutcheon0 -
SEO and Modal Windows
Hi all, My website has a Login and Join Us option on every page in the site. Each Login and Join Us window pops up as a modal window. In other words, the user must interact with it before they are taken somewhere else (whether they close it or fill it in). It has come to my attention that this is being counted as duplicate content. Is there any way around this? It's calling duplicate content on practically the whole website. Thanks in advance!
Web Design | | Info12340 -
I am looking to improve my on page seo, can you provide any recommendations or suggestions for how?
I am relatively new to the world of SEO and recently built a new site. I have read as many books as I can to help increase my skill set rapidly, and have attempted to implement the best of what I have learned but I know many of you have been in this arena for a while and I would be extremely appreciative of any suggestions you can offer with regard to on page. Thanks in advance. http://luxuryhomehunt.com - home page http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/orlando.html - city level http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/orlando/bay-hill.html - community level
Web Design | | Jdubin0 -
How will engines deal with duplicate head elements e.g. title or canonicals?
Obviously duplicate content is never a good thing...on separate URL's. Question is, how will the engines deal with duplicate meta tags on the same page. Example Head Tag: <title>Example Title - #1</title> <title>Example Title - #2</title> My assumption is that Google (and others) will take the first instance of the tag, such that "Example Title - #1" and canonical = "http://www.example.com" would be considered for ranking purposes while the others are disregarded. My assumption is based on how SE's deal with duplicate links on a page. Is this a correct assumption? We're building a CMS-like service that will allow our SEO team to change head tag content on the fly. The easiest solution, from a dev perspective, is to simply place new/updated content above the preexisting elements. I'm trying to validate/invalidate the approach. Thanks in advance.
Web Design | | PCampolo0 -
Lazy Loading Content and SEO
I'v been seeing a lot of websites use a technique to present content to website visitors when the scroll down the page called "Lazy Loading". Does this hinder SEO and indexing since the content is not actually on the page until the user acts/requests it?
Web Design | | JusinDuff0