Working in bulk

[James]

Hi - I have a client who I advise on web issues and have for some time, they are not really a marketing or SEO agency, more of a traditional development agency that has seen an oppertunity to get into SEO and local promotion because they have 1st stab at their existing clients. They also have clients come to them and ask how they can improve their local listing a lot.

The issue I see is that they have over 1000 clients an are getting more all the time, they also are buying smaller businesses so it is not unusual for them to suddenly get 100 new clients.

I can handle improving search rankings and local listing positions when I am able to sit down and look at one site and one setup and review it then make recommendations but hey are really after a solution that they can apply to their clients en mass.

I am not sure what to advise here or really how to approach it, everything from a search purist perspective is saying that you cant take this approach and you need to review everything case by case but then from a business perspective its all about more clients and automating as much as possible......

Does anyone have any guidance on how to handle this kind of situation?

 

[James Watt]

The big issue with local, is there's a ton of different pieces of the puzzle that can make a difference. It's certainly possible to optimize an approach that will work for hundreds of single location businesses, but you're likely going to need some pretty intense organizational effort to make it happen. Companies like Imprezzio make their money doing local SEO for a large number of different businesses, so it can definitely be done. Look at it in terms of teams specializing in aspects of the work might make the most sense. Your citation cleanup and building team, technical SEO, PR and backlink building, review building, auditing, and monthly reporting for example.

If they're looking at hundreds of locations all under the same brand umbrella though, that's a whole different topic, with many new considerations, opportunities, and potential pitfalls. It can all be done, either through organized human training and labor, or through automation and programming, but it's going to be non-trivial. I'll say this much at least... looking for a simpler approach will get you inferior results. Local SEO isn't a box to check off after all, you're wasting your time if you're not actually moving the needle. If they're going to attempt to do this, they'll need to make sure they have a few people on who already know local SEO well, and they're going to need to make sure they have the skillset to train and organize the number of people they'll need to manage that many clients.

 

[Bruce Bird]

Have you considered offering yourself as a paid consultant to advise on their expansion. So employing teams, the cost of software, office space etc is all on them while you keep your involvement simple but highly profitable.


As you will share in both the research and the implementation this will grow your expertise and your profile putting you in a better place to win more of your own type of business.

 

[Sherry Bonelli]

Hi...

I'd be happy to help, too, if you or your client needs assistance with local SEO.

Sherry