Is it getting harder to sell SEO services?
-
Is it just me, or is it getting harder to sell SEO services?
- SEO costs more now and takes longer to achieve results
- There seem to be more good SEO agencies out there (gone are the days where the primary competition was offshore outsourcers and web design agencies)
- It seems that the number of agencies is growing faster than the number of companies buying services
- As online competition heats up, it takes more and more budget to really "win" in a market, but so few companies are willing to invest enough
Any others notice similar trends? What will the future look like?
-
I agree that, for all the reasons listed, selling SEO may be harder. But, for all the reasons listed, you have an opportunity to differentiate yourself. You have access and knowledge of the reasons why potential clients would say no. Address the objections head on and find ways to assure the client that you are different.
If you approach SEO as something that does not differ between providers, then you will only end up competing on price. There are lots of good agencies out there. How many are truly great? In what ways can you edge out these good companies by delivering great value?
-
I agree with Bradley. Offering more than just SEO makes selling services much easier. The way SEO is going anyhow, you truly need to be multi-disciplined anyhow. There will always be a plethora of scammy seo companies because the average business owner doesn't know anything about SEO and it's too easy for them to make money.
-
IMHO, there were so many "scammy seo" companies that many companies believe it's a vodoo type business nowadays and ruined it for many legitimate SEO companies (this is mostly true for small-mid size companies).
It seems like more and more companies look for a good web design/developement company (for either a new site or routine maintenance) and this leads into the SEO work (agree w/Brad).
-
I also wouldn't discount the number of businesses that have previously been burned by so called SEO experts and were left with a bad taste for the industry.
-
Companies that offer services like Moz Analytics, Majestic, Raven Tools, and others probably aren't helping the situation for individuals
I have found it much easier to find projects and clients when presenting myself as a web developer/designer with a strong knowledge of SEO and marketing, rather than just a developer or just an SEO. Â For me, SEO is just another tool in my belt.
I think that it will become harder and harder to get strictly "SEO" work, as companies with access to the plethora of online tools (free and paid) will begin to bring a lot of that work in-house.
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
-
Weebly vs Wordpress for SEO?
Hi Mozzers, Wordpress has become a pain in the butt as far as plugins slowing down site speed and snippets of codes breaking here and there. My goal is to decrease the constant maintenance that needs to be done on Wordpress. I am curious what do you guys think of Weebly as an "SEO platform" vs wordpress? I only hear good things about Wordpress for SEOs but what about Weebly? Please share your thoughts and why one or the other is better for SEO purposes? P.S: if you have any experience with Weebly, feel free to let me know how did that go for you and if you were satisfied with it. Thanks!
Industry News | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Please critique my seo packages page on my website
Hello, I think there is a lot of room for improvement to my SEO packages (analysis) page on my website. Visit it by clicking here. I've always done SEO for our own business, so I'm new to this. Any help is appreciated. btw: I'm going to redo the chart on the page. I don't think profit and sales would ever compare like that. Thanks.
Industry News | | BobGW1 -
A suggestion to SEOs that cold call potential clients
Learn some basic salesmanship.  Do you realize that business owners are getting 3-4 phone calls and emails a day from other SEOs claiming to be the best?  Be polite, ask questions, and don't insult me or yourself through ignorance.  Ask questions.  You might just discover that we could work together. When you tell me that I'm not ranking for "competitive keywords" it tells me that you don't know what I'm trying to rank for.  When you tell me you can get me to the top of Google in 3 months or less, you're still telling me that you don't know my business and what I want from my website.  Who said I wanted national ranking anyway?  Oh right, not me because you never asked. And if I answer the question "Do you want more business/leads?" with "No." Then politely end the conversation and move on. The rare time that I do get asked about my current efforts, don't insult me by calling me an amateur.  I may be one, but talking down to me, or trying to make SEO sound like you're turning lead into gold will get a quick hang up from me. If you want a contract with me, learn to negotiate based on my needs, not your process that you feel married to.  There are a lot of business owners out there that would be willing to work with you if you treated you leads with respect rather than iteration 23 of your cold call script. And in response to the person this morning that sent a "free report" of basic SEO fixes for my website, make sure you put that report together using **my website. ** I know you're working from a template, so it should be really easy to remove the info from the wedding company and the lawyer's webpages before you email it to me.
Industry News | | wreevesc0 -
PR Releases? Do they help your SEO?
Do PR releases help? Do links from PRweb.com carry no value? Was Matt Cutts being specific to the user's website in the Google Webmaster discussion, when Matt said "I wouldn't expect links from press release web sites to benefit your rankings, however." https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/O178PwARnZw/discussion
Industry News | | Thos0032 -
Looking for Freelance SEO'ers
Hi, I wouldn't normally post a request for freelancers here, but I noticed someone else has done it and its not against the rules! so here goes... We are looking for Freelancers to help with our work load. In particular we are searching for Link Builders who can establish links on various websites through the use of article writing/blog content posting and other methods. Also, we require general SEOs who can perform the usual technical tasks such as creating 301's, canonicals and SEO audit reports on client websites. Ideally we only want UK based, white hatters with at least 2 years SEO experience. Please pm me if this interests you. Thanks Aran
Industry News | | Chiefblob0 -
SEO Referral
Anyone used an SEO or SMM company that they would recommend? I know about the recommended sites on SEOMOZ, but I can't afford to pay someone $4K a month for consulting or link building. Anyone still feel safe outsourcing?
Industry News | | inhouseseo0 -
Questions to help get to know a potential client and see what the possibilities are for there campaign?
OK so I am putting together a list of questions to refer potential clients to. The purpose of these questions is to: 1, Help them understand the difference between "just give us your keywords and we will make you rank" seo  and the full range of options that are advocated here on seo moz.  .... 2, Get them to see that there are different levels of involvement that are available for different aspects of a campaign and give them ideas and options on how much input they want to have as well as make them see that we can help them with even the stuff they are gonna do themselves or do it for them with there input and permission. Thats where things get a bit confusing I was thinking of having a list of fifty linkbuilding/linkbaiting  techniques and check box options beside each one so that they can read a little bit about the particular technique ie forum participation for example and then see how they felt like that related to there industry , wether they would want there staff to do it with some training from us wther they would want us to help them find the right forums and show them how to link back and to which page, or wether they would just want us to handle everything or simply not feel that that was right for there business .. then they would move on to the next thing ie   video creation or user generated content and in the end we would have a big list of things to discuss with them and they would have a better understandiing of how much there is to good seo and what might work for them and also how we could help them and how a relationship/ partnership might look I would love some feed back on this is it possible will it help us to build trust with potential clients (which is diffucult for a new biz in this industry)  how would you lay it out would it be a usefull resource for other seo companies etc thanks so much seo mozzers this forum is awsome and i know you will steer me in the right direction oh ps  this would be something we would keep on our site
Industry News | | duncan2740 -
Who would you like to ask a SEO question the most?
I was wondering about which people in the industry you'd like to ask a question the most in the q&a? On my list is Matt Cutts (obviously), Marshall Simmonds, Jimmy Wales and Biz Stone.
Industry News | | ThomasHgenhaven0