More threads by mikepcservice

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Hey guys, I can use some advice and help from you experienced Pro's here if you won't mind please? I realize that I am asking you all to give me "the key to the mint" so no worries if you can't do it but still asking :).

I am seeing the tons of kw's here for SEO services:


I have been struggling financially since covid with my local pc repair business as some of you know so right now I can start by paying my back linking guy to backlink to one kw and this is what I can use some help, which one top kw can I try to start with please? Also which other 4 kw's can I choose as secondary kw's?

I would like to start off by focusing on getting SEO customers here in NY.
 
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Before using that list, ask yourself, what is the type of client that you're wanting to attract? Are you looking for someone completely new to everything about SEO? If so, then that list is a good start. If you're looking for someone that knows the term "SEO" and knows that they need it, then you'll need different keywords.

The position you want to be in is that you don't need to sell someone on SEO. You want them to already know they need it, this way, half your job is already done for you. If I have to sell someone on why they should be doing SEO, it's going to be a constant fight to sell them every few months as to why they need it, why they're spending money, and potentially, why they're not #1 for their favorite phrase.

If they already know they need SEO, your job is much easier with the onboarding, however, depending on their experience, you may be checked and double-checked every couple of months as to why you're doing or not doing something. To me, that's good. That shows they have interest, and ultimately, I should be questioned on why I'm doing something in a particular way. But then, for us, we want to teach our clients SEO so they can do the majority of the work if they wanted to. They don't have the time in the day, so they hire us.

Going after "SEO new york" or "SEO Agency New York" or variations on that term is going to be tough going.

But, going after "SEO manhattan" has 50 searches a month with a Keyword Difficulty of 1 (ahrefs).
"local SEO company new york" has 40 searches and KD of 2
"manhattan SEO company" gets 50 searches and KD of 15
"search engine optimization NYC" gets 200 searches and KD of 14

Now, these are not EASY terms, but it's a different type of client mindset. That's really the first question you need to ask.
  • Who are you looking for?
  • What kind of revenue should they have?
  • How long should they be in business?
  • Do they need website help/rebuilt?
  • Do they have a marketing team, and you're needed to consult?
  • Is there a niche or vertical that you enjoy more than others?
  • How much do you want to train them to do SEO?
Personally, I wouldn't go after any of the terms on the list you provided. They're more geared to people that are DIY. They're great article starters, but very poor conversion terms.
 
Thanks, I used to do kw research myself years ago going through the motions with Google kw planner and using the google suggest and those old school methods. Now I pay someone who specializes in kw research. When he returns that list which should include a list of long tail kw's then I will need to choose the top kw and secondaries.

I am trying to see what the latest criteria is nowadays for kw selection. Also to clarify, this is not for "consulting" but for providing SEO services, SORRY I did not make this clear in my OP. To answer these questions:

  • Who are you looking for? Niche small businesses
  • What kind of revenue should they have? not sure about this question
  • How long should they be in business? Doesn't matter
  • Do they need website help/rebuilt? If yes, great.
  • Do they have a marketing team, and you're needed to consult? N/A
  • Is there a niche or vertical that you enjoy more than others? NO
  • How much do you want to train them to do SEO? N/A
 
The same rules apply when offering the services rather than consulting.

Just like if I was looking for someone to clean my house, I wouldn't ask "how to clean a sink" or "how to carpet clean". As a consumer, I care less about the "how" and more about the "why should I" or "who can". My top search phrase would likely be something along the lines of "house cleaners in Queens" as a result. So taking that over to the SEO world, I'd be looking for "SEO companies in Queens", "SEO services in Queens", "SEO for businesses in Queens", etc. People looking for SEO are an interesting bunch. Some only work with local companies, others work with anyone at any location. This could be a selling/search point too.

Targeting NYC is going to be tough, so targeting "Mid-Atlantic", "Bronx", "kings", "Brooklyn" etc would be better suited as there'll be less competition (generally).

If you're targeting small niche businesses, then drilling that SEO down further would be ideal. "SEO for dentists in the Bronx" or "local SEO for dentists" would be a better fit. Then you're going after variations of that seed;
  • dentist SEO agency
  • SEO for dentists in ______
  • dentist SEO services
  • dentist SEO marketing
  • SEO services for dentists
  • local SEO for dentists
The reason why I ask the question regarding the revenue the business has, or the number of years they are in business is that you would be evaluating if they can afford your services.

We've worked with two different bars in the past, one that was fairly new, and one that was established but struggling. Their revenue dictated what they had put aside for marketing. The newer business still had a budget, and their marketing plan had allocated funds for it. The struggling business was turning to SEO as a last-ditch effort, which we didn't find out until about 3 months later, at which point they had no funds available and were considering closing. They canceled SEO and about 8 months later, sold the bar.

If you're OK with doing some redesign on websites, then going after clients that need that mix is a great way to target two birds with one stone. You may get design clients, you may get SEO clients. You "want" the SEO client, but a little side work of design might be acceptable. It opens the door and keywords for "web design and SEO services in Queens".

As much as possible, you want to target the long tail keywords with limited competition. Yes, there's less traffic, but when you combine the traffic with other terms, they can beat out other more aggressive phrases that would be tougher for a new business to break into the market.

I would recommend looking at the keyword difficulty with relation to the number of competitors. What they're doing and what you can do better (better content, SCHEMA, type of links, page speed, etc etc). Then looking at the volume of searches per month in that area. And of course, the type of keywords being targeted so that they're not "how do I' or "how to" type phrases. I wouldn't target a specific keyword, but instead a collection of keywords/phrases around a specific topic.
 
As mentioned to you before Conor, you should be a teacher. Thanks for all of this great info. I re-read it a couple of times to make sure I fully grasp everything you've written.

On the revenue part, yes I want to find clients who have a larger budget as the locals here want SEO and web design for $100 or closest to it. I can't blame them especially since covid. I had done some SEO for a local Jeweler few years ago who did not have the budget and he gave it only a 3 month try. Having to go up against Macy's and other bigwigs I had told him from the start he cannot compete.

NYC for SEO or web design is tough for obvious reasons and I do not want to target local doctors, lawyers and the like because they usually do not have a good enough budget to compete. I might be better off with Companies as opposed to Individual servicemen as they too don't have a larger budget.

This is only one example of what I had referred to in another thread about competition here:


That is what most small businesses and servicemen around here want, SEO for $200 so no wonder why that Company is doing so well [as it looks].

As you've accurately stated 'website repair' jobs is at the top of my list but mainly "website maintenance" contracts is what I would like to target but I don't know how many companies require this?

I am trying to figure out what I might offer them in a Maintenance package?

I should be getting the kw's reports from the guy today or tomorrow so I will address the kw's then.
 
As mentioned to you before Conor, you should be a teacher.
:)
NYC for SEO or web design is tough for obvious reasons and I do not want to target local doctors, lawyers and the like because they usually do not have a good enough budget to compete. I might be better off with Companies as opposed to Individual servicemen as they too don't have a larger budget.
Three industries that I no longer work with for SEO - Legal, Insurance, and Real Estate. It's not that they don't have a budget, they do, but the competition is fierce, and national. While Joey runs the best State Farm office in Omaha, $1000/month SEO isn't going to have him at the top of list for a 300 mile area. He can do well if he niches down, but generally, those clients want to be #1 for "lawyer" or "realtor" or "insurance".

On that note, I wouldn't totally write off dentists or chiropractors as 1 client can bring in 10K+. My implants cost near $20k by the time I was done. My chiropractor after a simple slip and fall, was nearly $2k by the time I was done. The money is there, but they have to see it. It'll just depend on the trade, but keep their operating and service costs in the back of your head as to whether you want to target that industry or not.
That is what most small businesses and servicemen around here want, SEO for $200 so no wonder why that Company is doing so well [as it looks].
If you're writing content, and gaining links for the content, and optimizing other areas of the site, the $200 is gone quickly. Just in outreach links, you're $50-$100 and then content runs in the same range too. Those budgets would need to be increased for sure. Yes there's others doing it for $100/month, but you get what you pay for.

As you've accurately stated 'website repair' jobs is at the top of my list but mainly "website maintenance" contracts
I am trying to figure out what I might offer them in a Maintenance package?
Maintenance is a broad term and can mean anything really. From updating content and pictures to optimizing titles, descriptions, CTAs, or if WordPress it could be Plugin Updates, website backups and similar. It's all going to come down to pricepoint and what can be done within "X" time.

The number of people that break a website with a website plugin update is shocking. The number of those people that actually made a backup before clicking the button is staggering!
 
What's the formula though for determining what to charge people for "monthly" maintenance please? Online info is showing from $35 to 5k.
Admins - we may need to split this thread.

The million-dollar question :) My mechanic charges me $65 for an oil change. There are plenty of "national franchise" places that'll do it for $19.95, and even one guy in town that does it for $9.95. But I spend $65 for what, in theory, is the same service. But it's not. They check and fill other fluids, check tires, give a once over in the car, clean the windows, vacuum the driver/passenger floor, and give a quick wipe down of the dash with ArmorAll. But it's advertised as the same service - "oil change".

I can tell you our price - $150/month - but again, we're not doing just a basic push of a button. Very few plugin update companies make a full copy of the site, test it on a separate environment, and verify everything works, and then proceed on the LIVE site (during off-hours), and re-tests again. Most companies are doing that on the fly in the middle of the day, and when they run into issues, then they figure out a solution. We also have a list of all plugins and versions installed on client sites, then cross-reference that against vulnerabilities announced, and update as patches are needed. Not every plugin version released warrants an actual site update, so we bundle them together when needed.

Can I get all that done in an hour? Usually yes, but it depends on the site and how large their site is. If they have 4GB of images, copying that site to a staging site and running updates would take longer than a normal 5 min copy. If they're a large eCommerce site, more time is often involved, and pricing is adjusted.

The important question - do I enjoy it? No. There's nothing exciting about it for me. It's for that reason that we only offer it for websites that we have built or SEO clients that we are actively working with. It's a nice upsell, and it allows us to make sure that plugins are at the latest release version, but that's it.

If a client chooses not to do updates monthly, and they want to do it on their own, have at it. If they want to contact us every few months and get it done, no problem, we track hours and do the work. It'll cost them less, in the long run, to do it monthly but it's up to them.

Do we compete with hosting companies offering plugin management? Kinda, but not really. They do everything automated and it's up to the client to complain when something is wrong. There's no proactive management or testing done usually.

All other updates on the site are via prepaid retainers (not monthly retainers, just a block of hours). We track everything. If it's a task we're doing for a client, it's tracked and comes out of prepaid hours. If it involves thought (redesigns, structure, content writing, enhancements, or troubleshooting), we try to provide estimates on timelines. Some are unpredictable, like a site hack - we get hours on the books, roll up our sleeves and get to work.

So the price, much like with anything else, is really determined by you on what you need to be paid to make it worth your time, and then evaluating what the market can support. When I ran a hosting company, I used to sell hosting at $4.95-$44.95/month. We had hundreds of servers and thousands of clients. We truly were a white-glove service as our staff offered PHP troubleshooting and assistance to clients. I don't know of hosting companies that offer that today, and certainly not for under $45/month. If I was to launch a hosting company today, I would put pricing between $75-$200/month. Yes, there would be fewer clients, but they would be a different kind of client too.

Can you offer maintenance plans at $45/month? It depends on what your hourly wage needs to be, and cover software overheads etc. If you got it all done within 1 hour, would you be happy with $45/hr. If it took 2 hours, are you happy with $22/hr? Can you offer more routine maintenance like content and picture updates on the website, maybe trickle into GMB Posts or Facebook Posts as additional services to boost the monthly maintenance price?

At the end of the day, the price is all about what you want to make, what you're offering, and what the market supports. My mechanic is not always busy, but then again, he only needs 1 customer, whereas the competition needs at least 4 to make the same money after materials.
 
I had a discussion on Warrior years ago asking if it can work to combine kw's, for example

best affordable pc Mac repair NY 11420

Most guys said that google will "piece" together all relevant kw's from a lentil kw or phrase so from this example a few kw's can be had. Assuming this is true then my question to you guys here is what's the difference or advantage in pushing any kw combination in that phrase separately please?
 
Hey Mike, @Conor Treacy has already given you tons of great advice. He's an awesome resource on this forum and I always appreciate the amount of time and the detail he provides in his answers. If there was a new forum category "Most thorough/helpful responses", Conor would probably win. :)

I'm essentially going to reinforce a few points that Conor already brought up and add a couple of my own.

Personally, I don't think it is the best use of your time to focus on ranking your business for SEO services. I can't remember ever getting a direct SEO client lead from our website. Not that we haven't received SEO leads from Google searches, but the prospects were actually looking for website and/or digital marketing services. As Conor mentioned, the great majority of people searching for SEO related terms aren't going to be prospects. Typically most SMB prospects looking for SEO services, don't really know what they are searching for, they simply want to get their business and website more visibility. While we occasionally do website only work, it is very rare (typically churches/non-profits). Again, the reason being is that businesses that are contacting us to build a new website are almost always looking to improve their "ranking" or generate more business, when they need to be searching for an SEO but that typically isn't in their vocabulary. We've got clients we've been doing SEO work for years and to this day when we have meetings, they will say "Hey, I know I should know this by now and you've probably told me a million times, but what is SEO again?". So as Conor mentioned, I'd use a tool like ahref to determine the difficulty to rank for SEO services versus something like "website designer".

I've always found this aspect of our SEO business quite ironic and a bit humorous, the huge majority of our new business is by word of mouth and direct referrals, not by SEO. We have wanted to do a complete redesign of our website for a couple of years to highly emphasize SEO but it hasn't been a priority because we haven't needed the additional exposure. We find that business owners looking for our services will contact other business owners that are successful and ask them who they are using or would recommend. While we live and work in an MSA, it isn't a huge city. Sounds like you are in the NYC area, so a bit different than our market. However, I would highly recommend spending your time doing face to face networking to get your name out there and to educate business owners why they need your services. For us, our Chamber of Commerce membership has proven to be the most effective method (direct and indirect) for growing our business. Some people swear by private business networking groups like "BNI", but that wasn't our cup of tea, but may be great for you to open some doors to business owners that other members have personal relationships with. If you aren't comfortable with the direct sales approach, you might want to consider a hiring a salesperson that is paid based on a closed deal and gets a residual commission (similar to how insurance agents get paid). Those salespeople often times will have more than one business they represent and have an existing portfolio of prospects they can call on.

I agree totally with Conor, you need to identify what type of clients you are after. It doesn't necessarily have to be super specific. The example of his dentist and chiropractor are perfect examples. An example of a prospect that wouldn't make a good client in our market is a florist. Our lowest monthly price that we provide SEO services is $400 a month and it is rare that we offer that. We had a local florist as a prospective client but when we informed them we didn't feel they were a good fit, they were perplexed and a little upset. We do a pretty thorough pre-sales onboarding to determine things like what their top selling services/products are, biggest margin items, items/services they would like to sell more of, products/services they provide but really don't want to market, etc. Based on keyword traffic, there just wasn't any way we could increase the average number of sales month-to-month to offset the monthly expense. We would have had to increase the foot traffic by about 50 additional customers per month and the keyword traffic didn't support it. They were totally happy in paying our monthly fee, but they wouldn't have been a long-term client and that's not the type of client we are after. However, an attorney, doctor, pool builder, dentist, building contractors, hvac companies, plastic surgeons typically are great SEO customers because often only a handful of clients (or even just a single customer) per year that are attributed to SEO can easily provide a high ROI that makes your client happy. Important note: We also work with our clients to modify their onboarding process to properly track SEO conversions which is critical to prove the value of our services.

Now I may seem to contradict myself after the last paragraph, but if you don't have a decent sized SEO client portfolio right now, it may be worth to get some new clients that you don't make a lot of recurring revenue so you have a suitable client list to show prospective clients. When we started out, we practically gave away our SEO services to existing client relationships (non-SEO) which helped to teach us and also built our portfolio which made later prospecting easier.

Lastly, I'd strongly recommend not pricing your SEO services based on fixed package prices, like bronze, silver, gold, platinum. Your pricing should be based on a thorough analysis of the amount of time required to get the desired results for each individual client. Conor touched on this in an earlier response. I can't imagine charging $200 a month (for SEO) can be effective in helping a client while at the same time making a profit for your company. Companies that claim to do SEO for low dollar amounts are typically doing nothing else than reselling services from Yext (or something similar) with no actual onsite optimization, content building, competitor analysis.
 
Hey Mike, @Conor Treacy has already given you tons of great advice. He's an awesome resource on this forum and I always appreciate the amount of time and the detail he provides in his answers. If there was a new forum category "Most thorough/helpful responses", Conor would probably win. :)
Hey Jeff, thanks a lot for all of your input/info/advice. Regarding Conor, I couldn't have put it better myself!
Personally, I don't think it is the best use of your time to focus on ranking your business for SEO services.

Sounds like you are in the NYC area, so a bit different than our market. However, I would highly recommend spending your time doing face to face networking to get your name out there and to educate business owners why they need your services.
I think location makes a HUGE difference. NY is a cut-throat super competitive area to do business in so sometimes it cannot be compared with almost anywhere else. I plan on doing some level of direct sales. I have had success in the past with getting calls from people seeking SEO but only from Craigslist which are not my target audience anymore as they are mostly seeking $100 SEO. So now I wish to give Google a shot to see if I can get the higher budget clientele.
I agree totally with Conor, you need to identify what type of clients you are after. It doesn't necessarily have to be super specific. The example of his dentist and chiropractor are perfect examples. However, an attorney, doctor, pool builder, dentist, building contractors, hvac companies, plastic surgeons typically are great SEO customers because often only a handful of clients (or even just a single customer) per year that are attributed to SEO can easily provide a high ROI that makes your client happy. Important note: We also work with our clients to modify their onboarding process to properly track SEO conversions which is critical to prove the value of our services.
Yes, I have been re-thinking going after the small businessman based on what Conor and now you are saying. [Thanks!]. My initial reason for not wanting to target them was as mentioned, those that I have been contacted by want $200 SEO.
Now I may seem to contradict myself after the last paragraph, but if you don't have a decent sized SEO client portfolio right now, it may be worth to get some new clients that you don't make a lot of recurring revenue so you have a suitable client list to show prospective clients. When we started out, we practically gave away our SEO services to existing client relationships (non-SEO) which helped to teach us and also built our portfolio which made later prospecting easier.
Yes, this is what I am thinking too.
Lastly, I'd strongly recommend not pricing your SEO services based on fixed package prices, like bronze, silver, gold, platinum.
This I am not sure about at this time. Reason being, I am tired of people calling me up, spending 30-60 minutes on the phone answering their questions and giving advice then finding out they want $200 SEO. So my thinking is when they see the pricing on my site then only if they are prepared to pay the pricing will they contact me. My base pricing will obviously state it's a "starting" package so they should know it can cost more depending on what they will be needing. At least this way no one should be contacting me for $200 SEO. This is where I'm at right now. I can adjust things as I go along.
 
I am tired of people calling me up, spending 30-60 minutes on the phone answering their questions and giving advice then finding out they want $200 SEO. So my thinking is when they see the pricing on my site then only if they are prepared to pay the pricing will they contact me.
Gotta get to the price quicker :) Or if not the price, the ballpark or "starting at". I usually bring up the starting price within the first 7-10 minutes and I try to keep our initial calls to less than 15 minutes.

Here's how it usually goes on our end;
client: Hi, I want to talk about SEO.
us: Sure, what's the website and what issues are you having
client provides the website address, I load it in a browser and view source. They explain their rankings, lack of traffic, they tried "X", and tried another company, they need results.
us: quick check of GMB page, load in ahrefs for quick view of history. Point out areas of concern.
us: ok - here's what I see on a surface level. XYZ. But before we go further, what kind of budget are we working with? Are we looking at monthly or one-time services? How much of the work do you want to do and just need guidance? Monthly starts at $X, but DIY consulting starts at $X/hr in blocks of 5 or 10 hours.
client: I want to do X, but need more info
us: no problem, lets do this. Let me get your info, I'll run a quick surface audit and gather some info. How about in 2 days, we jump on a Zoom call, I go through what I found, we figure out what we need to do, determine if we need a deep dive audit or one not so in-depth, and then figure things out from there.

Just like a mechanic can't diagnose over the phone, I need time with the website to see what's going on. I don't need login access, just what can be seen on the front end is a good start. Surface audit, no charge (hey look, your oil is low), but once we start getting into the "and what else" then we need funds to do work.

Starting price on the website will definitely make the phone ring less, but you've removed those that are not going to take things seriously too.

That initial call needs to be under 15 minutes. Prove your knowledge, find a way to help (if you can), and let them, and you, get on with the day. They know the ballpark price, they're getting valuable information, now it's decision time.
 
Gotta get to the price quicker :) Or if not the price, the ballpark or "starting at". I usually bring up the starting price within the first 7-10 minutes and I try to keep our initial calls to less than 15 minutes.
Couldn't agree more. You've got to get to a ballpark price much quicker and then you can gauge the prospect's interest level based on their response. It gets easier to give a ballpark with the more proposals under your belt.

In addition to Conor's mock phone call Q&A, I'd suggest asking if they use or used another company in the past and try to find out specifically why they are looking elsewhere. Was it a combination of price and/or results? You might be able to find out what they are/were paying w/o asking directly for how much are they willing to spend. We also ask if they spend money on other types of advertising and how much they spend: radio, TV, direct mailing, billboards. How is that working for them? Prospects that are already advertising on non-digital platforms are much easier conversions than those businesses that have no advertising budget.

If a customer asks us immediately, "Can you just give me a price range, other places have package prices they were able to quote immediately?" or "Do you have certain priced packages?", that gives a lot of insight on their experience with SEO especially when you know their industry. For lawyers/attorneys, FindLaw is infamous for fixed rate pricing packages with very little value and we immediately know how to work with those prospects.
 
combine kw's, for example

best affordable pc Mac repair NY 11420

Most guys said that google will "piece" together all relevant kw's from a lentil kw or phrase so from this example
Something to keep in the back of your mind is the difference between targeting a phrase and ranking for a phrase.

Would I spend time ranking for that phrase, probably not. There's nobody really searching for that phrase. "best" in many verticals is likely going to trigger a list type result, so ranking a specific service page would be harder. When I was at the Google Webmaster Conference a couple of years ago, they talked about how certain search queries are placed into "buckets", and then presented. Doing a search for "best web camera" is going to return a "lists" type result where all the results are "Top 5 cameras for web" and variations. You'll not find Sony with their product page on that kind of query. Paying attention to what is returned in the results is going to help guide you in the type of page Google is looking to return.

The keywords on the page don't *have* to be together. Google is quite smart about reading the page, especially with all its latest updates. It's also why we say that you should have a single topic on a page rather than multiple topics. If the keywords are together, we've seen that phrase rank better than if there are words between the phrase. If you write the page naturally, your keywords should flow through the page anyway, and while keyword density is not something you should pay attention to, sounding spammy is something to watch out for.

In the case of the keyword above, I'd break that into two sections on the page where an H1 might be "New York's favorite PC Repair guy!", and then later in the page an H2 with "Did you know we repair Mac's too?" and then link that off to a page about Mac Repair which has an H1 talking about Mac Repair skills, etc. Having "PC repair" and "mac repair" as seed words is good, but still too broad, so now the keywords get filtered down and mentioned as PC Hardware Repair, CPU replacement, Watercooling systems, Graphics Cards repair, etc. All that falls under the umbrella of PC Repair, and each can be broken out into more detailed information if needed.

Keywords are still important but treat them more as topics or phrases, and the page takes on a whole life of its own. You'll naturally rank for some of those phrases as a result. And in your links pointing to your site, those would be around the general topics of repair, etc.
 
GREAT stuff, thanks! Got it on the pricing issue too.

Some SEO writers have said that it's best use the kw in a phrase instead of the kw alone as a heading for each paragraph, would you guys agree with that please? So to use the examples above best to use
"New York's favorite PC Repair guy!" before the paragraph instead of just "PC Repair" then elaborate about pc repair.
 
Some SEO writers have said that it's best use the kw in a phrase instead of the kw alone as a heading for each paragraph,
For the most part, I'd agree - when it makes sense to do it.

If you're creating a scannable list so users can quickly move down the page, then a sentence is not needed, but given the recent changes made just in the last 45 days where Google may rewrite your page SEO Title with heading tags from your page, new care and attention needs to be paid to those areas for CTA "clickiness".
 

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