Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Has their website traffic increased as a result of your efforts on their behalf? Do traffic levels continue to grow? If so I suggest realigning the conversation toward traffic levels and away from rankings.
The reason our clients want high rankings is because they really want increased levels of qualified traffic and ultimately increased sales or conversions. Perhaps you can show them that your efforts are achieving their real goals even if SERPs are fluctuating.
Another possibility is that they want to separate from your services for reasons that have nothing to do with your efforts or your business. If you can identify whether or not this is a reality you may be able to save yourself anguish, time, and money.
You may want to insert something like this into your conversation:
Since I became committed to your efforts 3 years ago you have experienced steady growth in traffic and increased revenues. There is no reason to believe this will not continue and, as always, I am deeply committed to you and your business.
I understand that a temporary setback like this can be distressing. That is why I am here to explain the situation, answer all of your questions and work hard to reverse this temporary course.
Is there anything else influencing your concern that I should know about?
Has their website traffic increased as a result of your efforts on their behalf? Do traffic levels continue to grow? If so I suggest realigning the conversation toward traffic levels and away from rankings.
I was going to say almost exactly the same thing. I actually wrote a book on consulting a few years back, and seo stuff is really a consultant role.
It really works well to help the client clarify his business objectives and how they link up with your services. Consulting is often not just about doing what the client thinks is needed, but also educating the client so they understand what they really should look at.
Results, not rankings is a much more important "business" imperative.
PS. I don't even check my own rankings, or any of the other stuff like incoming links, etc. All I care about is whether my traffic is going up or down, and whether I'm getting business results from the traffic.
Yes but higher traffic is often a result of higher ranking, isn't it? I don't think it's too unreasonable for a client to expect reoccuring SE traffic, if that's what they're going for.
Not necessarily true...
You have what are called the "money phrases" *vertical*(whether this is an ecommerce B2C, B2B or a site looking to convert traffic to leads, memberships, subscriptions...etc..)..
AND you really should know exactly what your "money phrases" are at all times...and make sure you site convert well for these at any level of traffic..
THEN you have more of your horizontal phrases...and your 3, 4, 5..etc. word searches ... which tend to get more narrow and refined for the people searching...AND... will tend to convert well if your site dialogues well with your target audience...
AND... you must educate your client that one of their biggest obstacles (and this is true for all competitive sectors ... high dollar)...is that the engines themselves are also competing for revenue from these very same sectors...and this will always have an affect on your listings...
BEST POLICY...think long term...always focus on your target market BEFORE you focus on the SERPs..and develop other traffic strategies that will help you to weather the ups and downs of the search engine bouncing ball....
I posted a comment to his post and I think it is worthwhile repeating it here:
RoyalChina, I hope you are finding this thread helpful.
