Can you promise a percentage improvement to clients?

seo asks how to make promises to clients on how effective SEO would be

[Ride45]

I have met with a couple of clients for SEO work and the same question keeps coming up to me:
Currently we are getting X% of our traffic from search results.
If we do this, this and this, will we expect to see an increase of X%?

I find this to be very difficult to answer and it's the only thing decision makers at companies care about... the bottom line. Is there a way to calculate this? Even if I take certain items and prioritize the items, I still can't say if you do the highest priority items you will see X% or some quantifiable increase in traffic via search (organic search results).

Sure, there are best practices that should result in an improvement, but is it even possible to define X% not knowing what weight Google puts on criteria? Is it even fair to say you'll seen an increase of between X% - X% and be held accountable to that via an services agreement?

[g1smd]

I would not work in percentages.

Say that you say you'll take their organic search traffic up from 25 to 50%, and they then double their adsense and adwords spend, they might get twice as many people coming in through that route: if you also double their traffic in organic results, you will still be at 25%.

So, if you talk about anything talk about visitor numbers, and conversions. Better positions bring more people. Better content makes for more conversions. Don't go the % route (when you can't control the other factors of the equation).

[edited by: g1smd at 3:10 pm (utc) on June 19, 2006]

[Right Reading]

Nothing can be guaranteed--too much is outside your control. But, after researching the sector, you could make an estimate of what you might be able to accomplish. Then, if you wanted to, you could structure an agreement that includes performance bonuses for various percentage increases over an agreed time period.

[Ride45]

Thanks for the quick response to this.. I have considered putting performance bonuses into an agreement, but the client would have to execute "A, B, C, and D", and I would be wholly dependent on whether they do actually execute all of the items, or just *some* of the higher priority items which are easiest/most time and cost effective to implement. Controlling their implementation budget and timelines is outside the scope of the SEO recommendations (the "Service") I provide them with.

[Right Reading]

G1SMD's response is good.

[Eazygoin]

How do you double your AdSense spend? I thought it was free to put ads on a site :-)

[Ride45]

This thread is about working with a publisher/site owner who may SPEND money on an adwords program to boost traffic.

[texasville]

Turn the flow of questioning. Ask them what their expectations are and then determine their budget. Then, show examples of degrees of success in the past based on a similar program.
There are no guarantees in search anymore. Something like BigDaddy comes up and hangs around and causes too many problems.
As with selling anything, you have to determine the clients wants and desire versus their needs and budget and then tailor a suitable plan. The only variable is how much you are willing to bend in your monetary compensation.

[Lorel]

I never guarantee anything or provide a percentage on improvement--because with the way Google change's it's algorithym even if you thought you knew what would happen next week things might change drastically -- like Google's recent change with too many reciprocal links and sites loosing pages because their product descriptions are too small, etc.

Instead i mention my Goals--to achieve higher keyword ranking, etc. and always mention that Google's algorithym may change in the future requiring further changes on the site.

[leadegroot]

Nope, its unprofessional to give guarantees, short of PPC projects..
For organic SEO you cannot ethically give a guarantee. I specifically advice prospects of that and mention that if someone else does, assume they will be doing shady things with your site :(
I do promise it will improve, short of major search engine changes at exactly the wrong time, but never apply numbers or specific results.