You’d Want To Have A Thorough Doctor, Why Not Your SEO?

In the good old days, if you called your family doctor or GP after office hours, you’d get the nice homily… “Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning!”

That approach works well in general practice because most common ailments can be cured by rest and sleep alone. If only SEO problems can be solved just as easily, everyone would want to become an SEO consultant! The truth is, effective SEO needs a CT Scan, not just a Band-aid.

Unfortunately, many clients come to SEO specialists like myself for more complex problems.

• Their websites don’t rank well on Google
• They don’t get a steady stream of qualified prospects to visit their sites
• Their offers are not appealing to the right audience
• The conversion rate on their sales website is low

And, they are looking to SEO as the answer to their ardent prayers that things will improve.

Diagnosis Before Prescription

In modern medicine, a doctor who prescribes a medicine before running suitable tests to identify the underlying disease would be sued for malpractice. Sadly, when it comes to SEO services, we don’t stick to a similar standard of care.

Image via Crestock.com under license

Unless an SEO consultant can dig deep into your business realities, get to the heart of your business and identify areas of weakness or potential opportunity to be exploited, your SEO efforts will underperform their potential. The ship that is your business will run adrift on the high seas, get further and further away from safe harbors and lose direction, only to wander around aimlessly.

It is critically important for you, in consultation with your SEO advisor, to be able to get inside your prospect’s mind.

• Find out what they are looking for
• Recognize the needs and desires that fuel their search for your services and products
• Identify the keywords and phrases they type into search engines, and the intent behind those searches

Only then will you be able to tailor your response to match their requirements.

How To Buy SEO Services

As an SEO provider, selling SEO services is very different from other kinds of selling. Landing a new contract isn’t the ultimate goal. And, desperately lowering prices to appeal to first-time clients may be the wrong strategic choice. What is more important is to attract the most suitable clients whom you will be able to help significantly through optimizing their SEO.

Education marketing is highly effective, and co-opetition makes it easier by informing prospective clients about the benefits and advantages of SEO in their business. Still, there are multiple factors at play. Synergies exist between different elements. The ‘butterfly effect’ leads to unintended consequences for every item that you tweak or modify. And, each client has unique challenges, both internal and external.

Without knowing what the internal and external challenges are, a consultant or agency will not be able to say for sure if:

• you will benefit from SEO at all
• how much you will pay for SEO services
• what kind of impact you can expect

An Ounce Of Analysis Is Worth A Pound Of Repair

When SEO consultants invest a few hours to examine your business, learn about your business’ financial and strategic goals, and understand the ecosystem in which your business operates; then they will be able to offer a more accurate prediction of how SEO services will help — and make you a better, more realistic offer.

There is no “one size fits all” package when it comes to SEO. Every case is unique and different. Trying to speed up the process and rushing to provide quick-fixes add little value, while you risk losing focus and direction. First, take the time to diagnose what’s wrong — and only then begin your SEO treatment!