Cranky SEO customers

Darwins theory of evolution has failed these people

[Essex_boy]

Everyone one of us has them that I know, the type of people who walk upto you self assured and confident offering you a pittance to have their scabby little site ranked at number 1, for teh most compettitve term youve ever come across.

They want it done by next month or you wont get paid.

My worst (near) customer was a man with a plan, he was offering $200 per month so I could get his site to rank across all three of the main SE's, but woo be tide me if his site dropped out on just one term he wouldnt pay me for that month, even if it was for a short a period as 24 hours.

I told him that when I stop laughing Ill think about it, then I hung up.

Where do they get their ideas from ?

So whats your worst story with an SEO customer ?

[canadafred]

The whole business of SEO is tainted by tricksters and con-artists trying to fool customers, search engines and Internet visitors.

I spend most my time explaining to potential clients that there are no tricks to high quality, long lasting SEO; that I am going to create content that is worth a visit.

[cbpayne]

SEO used to be easy and based on the exploitation of loopholes - none of that works anymore, but the customers think it can.

[jimbeetle]

but woo be tide me if his site dropped out on just one term he wouldnt pay me for that month

Well, here's the thing. What metrics should be used to determine the performance of an SEO campaign? Would this "one term" have actually garnered more traffic? More conversions?

[Essex_boy]

Yeah thats what bothered me, kind of opens more questions than it fixes.

Ive just spent around 3 hours with a site(ecommerce owner) explaining in great detail what I would do and the effect on his site, it was a very low amount of money.

He disagreed with pretty much everything I said despite it being obvious he that he didnt know what he was talking about and I could back up with cold hard examples of what I said.

At the end of the meeting he offered £300 for the work or work on a commission basis - no thanks.

Honestly.

People dont really understand teh amount of time and effort it takes to get good results and hold on to them.

[macgregor]

I just got "finished" with an SEO guy who seemed sort of proficient at first but after 2 months of work there was no improvement at all and I was doing a good bit of grunt work myself. He kept telling me be patient [and then invoicing me]. I got a bit suspicious and started calling around to a few other seo people who looked my site over and commented on the "baby seo" my current guy had done. When I asked the guy for his course of action and projected expectation of results he suddenly wanted a new contract and agreement. How to find someone who actually knows what they're doing?
Thanks for any input in advance.

[macgregor]

No disrespect toward anyone intended but the IT world can be at times worse than the nastiest of used car lots.

[ken_b]

No disrespect toward anyone intended but the IT world can be at times worse than the nastiest of used car lots.

Hey! Geeze... tne next thing ya know slumlords will be getting dissed here!

[edited by: caveman at 6:04 pm (utc) on Feb. 28, 2009]
[edit reason] Fixed quote [/edit]

[macgregor]

I just call it as I see it. Ive run into some real turds.

[willybfriendly]

So whats your worst story with an SEO customer ?

Four years ago was approached by an owner about SEO. Prepared a proposal and never heard back.

Last week was approached by a colleague (mainly does design and some PPC promotion) about a potential SEO job. Took a look. It was the same site, only in worse shape now than it was 4 years ago.

Gave back the same proposal, updated for inflation, and the fact that some things (like links) are a lot harder now than 4 years ago.

Two day later heard back that they can't (read "unwilling to") afford it.

Told my colleague that they can't afford not to if they expect the site to generate referrals/income, and that things are only getting more difficult.

He says, "I know, I know..."

Haven't heard more since...

Fast, cheap or quality - choose two...