Are You Giving Your Clients What They Want?
Being immersed in SEO every day, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. It’s all too easy to get hung up on keyword positions and analytics graphs, without really taking a step back to look at what it all means for the success of the campaign as a whole.
As part of an SEO agency in particular, it’s important to
remember that every campaign means something different to the each client, and vital to really understand what your client wants from their campaign. If your goals and those of your client don’t align then nobody is going to be satisfied: it’s no good stressing good keyword ranking performance to an ROI fixated client if that performance isn’t converting into business.
Key to keeping this sense perspective is to have a comprehensive understanding a client’s needs from the
outset of their campaign. It’s your job, as an SEO, to achieve these goals, as far as is realistic. Some clients want to make more money; some want to appear above their rivals; and some just want the satisfaction of seeing their company name come up first when they search for a specific keyword.
All of these goals require slightly different approaches from a campaign and so understanding where your client wants to be is key to giving them their own particular perception of a successful SEO campaign. If you don’t know what your client wants, there’s no way that you’ll be able to make sure they get it, and an uninspired paint by numbers campaign will be the result. Speak to your client, find out their motivations for seeking SEO, and tailor their campaign to maximise success in that direction.
As a final point, that initial assessment of a client’s desires isn’t the end of the story. As businesses develop, aims can change and so too can their idea of SEO success. A small plumbing firm, for instance, may begin focussed on ROI but upon achieving that and growing larger, attention may shift to building a brand presence for themselves. In being a successful SEO, it’s vital to keep on top of these changes and ensure that the campaign can adapt.
