How to Retain Local Search Clients & Increase Revenue

[Linda Buquet]

Often local search consultants and SMBs as well, seem to be totally focused on finding and signing NEW clients (which of course is important) without putting equal energy into keeping existing clients well served and happily engaged in an on-going WIN/WIN relationship.

Keeping existing clients happy and on the books is much easier than finding new ones. And if you have too much churn, you are just constantly REPLACING clients - instead of building your business!

So with that in mind here are 2 really good articles I just read that I thought you'd find helpful.

Keep SEO Clients Longer and Happier in a Few Easy Steps

Retaining clients in SEO is crucial because campaigns are long-term, and results don?t just happen over night. But the problem is, many of your clients are not necessarily going to understand this right off the bat.

So what is the solution to long term client retention, and for keeping your clients happy and on board?

Following just a few of these tips will drastically increase your retention rate as well as the number of new clients you can sign up. Not only that, the clients you have will be a whole lot happier.

How to Deal with Challenging Clients SEOmoz

If you?re a consultant, you may not realise it, but a large (and difficult) part of your job is to manage people?s attitudes and behaviours. This task is made even more difficult because it is usually most apparent when clients are unhappy or disagree with you. Even the best consultants will have to deal with challenging clients at some point in their career. I want to share some of the things I?ve learnt from my experience so far as a consultant.

I firmly believe that when it comes to keeping clients happy, prevention is better than a cure. Most of the tips I?ve shared look at how to prevent clients from ever becoming a problem, but I also cover some tips to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible if things do go wrong.

There are tons of great points in both articles, but let us know if there is anything in particular that really stood out for you OR if you have any additional tips to share.

 

[David Deering]

Thanks for sharing that, Linda. That article at Point Blank SEO was excellent. He makes several great points, particularly in making sure that you educate your client about what SEO is and what exactly you will be doing for them, how long it takes, etc. And make sure that you provide them with realistic expectations. Too many SEO companies promise #1 rankings tomorrow, and they just disappoint or always intended to just take the money and run. I've always thought it was better to help them understand how things in the world of rankings really work, providing them with realistic expectations and under-promising but over-delivering.