What services do you offer your clients?

[webmstr]

I made a website for my sister in law and she has now informed me since she isn't getting any traffic that I should also pay to have her site included on search engines! I told her that I never promised to advertise, just build the site. I submitted her to the major engines, but she isn't being picked up and blames me for it. So frustrating. Any advice? What is the norm for people building sites for others. What submissions do you include in your web building packages? TIA

[rj87uk]

I told her that I never promised to advertise, just build the site.

Do you have a contract with her? It looks like to me that you were asked to design a website and that you done.

If she wants Marketing done she should have to pay you. Since this is your sister in law I would maybe submit her website to some free directories - I definitely would not pay out your own pocket to get her listed in paid directories.

[Don_Hoagie]

In most cases, the client pays for any inclusion or advertising... as far as my experience goes, there have only been two reasons I've ever come across for the developer paying o.o.p.(out of pocket) for any of that:

1. As the developer, you contractually promised or guaranteed an SE ranking of *whatever* to the client, and your site is not delivering anywhere near that ranking under its own power.

2. To ensure that #1 doesn't happen, or to boost traffic, or for some other purpose, the developer advertises the client's site o.o.p. without notifying them. I've never done this, but I can see why perhaps a developer would.

Without knowing your situation, the only way I would side with your sister is if she already had a site, and your new design does a worse job with SEO than her previous one, effectively back-pedaling her web presence. Most designers consider SEO and advertising to be separately priced services from site design (of course, search engine optimization WITHIN the site's code refers more to good site design than advertising, so that aspect should be included with the design price).