Cody
0
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2014
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 2
For years, the aspect that I've loved the most about Local SEO, so much so that it drove my decision to start my own agency, has been that I wholeheartedly believe in the benefit it provides a business.
As I'm sure you've learned, to be successful in sales the most important thing is to believe in whatever it is you're selling. This has taken me a long way in selling SEO, an industry that spammers and scammers have all but ruined with the stigma of snake oil.
More specifically, I have always believed in the local SEO services I provide. While I stress to my clients there is no ranking guarantee, I know that I will get my client ranked. Not because I'm the best SEO, but because I turn away a large portion of potential clients. If I even have the slightest doubt, I politely refer them to someone else and carry on.
Then pigeon came along.
Over the last month I've not only started to second-guess my belief in the local SEO services I provide, but local SEO services in general.
I wanted to seek out the view of other consultants before doing anything too drastic, so I ask, do you honestly and wholeheartedly believe in your local SEO services?
Not your ability to provide quality local SEO, but if you feel confident that you will be able to rank and satisfy the expectations you set with new clients.
The reason I ask is because of the increasing mentions of people experiencing things like the following post I came across today.
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...impact-local-search-visibility.html#post47216
This is basically identical to everything I've been experiencing post-pigeon, and it's starting to become an issue for both my client's and my agency. I'm starting to think there isn't even a method to Google's madness, or at least not one that would make any sense.
I posted this on the forum a little over a month ago following the update.
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...l-algo-update-google-pigeon-12.html#post45127
And one month later, after manually tracking daily, things are exactly the same.
For a given keyword I'll be F one day, unranked the next, C the next, and then the 7 pack for the search term will disappear for maybe a few hours or a few days. Rinse and repeat..
If they are performing some type of testing then I haven't the slightest clue what it could be. There's no pattern or consistency at all.
While patiently waiting for things to settle I've stopped taking on new local SEO clients, and I'm starting to contemplate if I should continue providing local SEO at all.
Even though I would still be putting in the same amount of work and implementing the same strategies as I have been, I feel it would be extremely unethical for me to continue selling local SEO without knowing the results I will be able to provide my clients.
Kind of hard to explain to them what's happening to their rankings when no one has a clue what's going on, so it just begs for unhappy clients from the get go.
It's reaching a point now where you can't even come up with a plan of attack for a lot of industries. Just cross your fingers and pray your keywords continue showing a 7-pack, and hopefully one that doesn't shuffle day by day.
I've shifted my business plan to providing more of a complete inbound marketing service, but local is still a huge part of our campaigns. I'm growing more and more worried with the uncertainty of local SEO's future and the future of my agency as a whole.
What do you guys think?
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content="Giving Up Due to Pigeon?"><meta property="og:description" content="That DAMN Bird has this Local Search Consultant Ready to Give up and Stop Taking Clients. See what I tell him">
<meta property="og:image" content="http://media.giphy.com/media/OAU9gxoQe2R1u/giphy.gif">
As I'm sure you've learned, to be successful in sales the most important thing is to believe in whatever it is you're selling. This has taken me a long way in selling SEO, an industry that spammers and scammers have all but ruined with the stigma of snake oil.
More specifically, I have always believed in the local SEO services I provide. While I stress to my clients there is no ranking guarantee, I know that I will get my client ranked. Not because I'm the best SEO, but because I turn away a large portion of potential clients. If I even have the slightest doubt, I politely refer them to someone else and carry on.
Then pigeon came along.
Over the last month I've not only started to second-guess my belief in the local SEO services I provide, but local SEO services in general.
I wanted to seek out the view of other consultants before doing anything too drastic, so I ask, do you honestly and wholeheartedly believe in your local SEO services?
Not your ability to provide quality local SEO, but if you feel confident that you will be able to rank and satisfy the expectations you set with new clients.
The reason I ask is because of the increasing mentions of people experiencing things like the following post I came across today.
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...impact-local-search-visibility.html#post47216
I work in the legal world, and the amount of flux is crazy. I've seen our map links come and go on a daily basis. Been tracking since it happened.
Pre-Pigeon our map links have stayed constant for almost 3 years, now major flux. Some days we go missing, sometimes we show up again but in a different position.
Many 7 packs are now 3 packs, even a 1 pack has been seen!
This is basically identical to everything I've been experiencing post-pigeon, and it's starting to become an issue for both my client's and my agency. I'm starting to think there isn't even a method to Google's madness, or at least not one that would make any sense.
I posted this on the forum a little over a month ago following the update.
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...l-algo-update-google-pigeon-12.html#post45127
And one month later, after manually tracking daily, things are exactly the same.
For a given keyword I'll be F one day, unranked the next, C the next, and then the 7 pack for the search term will disappear for maybe a few hours or a few days. Rinse and repeat..
If they are performing some type of testing then I haven't the slightest clue what it could be. There's no pattern or consistency at all.
While patiently waiting for things to settle I've stopped taking on new local SEO clients, and I'm starting to contemplate if I should continue providing local SEO at all.
Even though I would still be putting in the same amount of work and implementing the same strategies as I have been, I feel it would be extremely unethical for me to continue selling local SEO without knowing the results I will be able to provide my clients.
Kind of hard to explain to them what's happening to their rankings when no one has a clue what's going on, so it just begs for unhappy clients from the get go.
It's reaching a point now where you can't even come up with a plan of attack for a lot of industries. Just cross your fingers and pray your keywords continue showing a 7-pack, and hopefully one that doesn't shuffle day by day.
I've shifted my business plan to providing more of a complete inbound marketing service, but local is still a huge part of our campaigns. I'm growing more and more worried with the uncertainty of local SEO's future and the future of my agency as a whole.
What do you guys think?
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content="Giving Up Due to Pigeon?"><meta property="og:description" content="That DAMN Bird has this Local Search Consultant Ready to Give up and Stop Taking Clients. See what I tell him">
<meta property="og:image" content="http://media.giphy.com/media/OAU9gxoQe2R1u/giphy.gif">
)
