Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
Do I just charge them for every hour that we spend talking about SEO? I'm kind of lost on how to go about it, provide my service, and charge them.
Also, am I acting more as a "consultant" (in that they ask me questions when they have them, and I offer advice whenever possible) or am I acting more as a "directory" where I oversee their project?
The thing with consulting is that the value of the knowledge has to be considered. Something may take 6 months or a couple of years of study and experience to learn and take 15 minutes to tell a client. So supposing someone's hourly rate is $100, it's hardly fair to get paid $25 for telling them.
Are they wanting you to explain to them what needs to be done and why so they can do it themselves, or do they want you to just tell them "what" to do. There's a big difference between the two, which is the problem I've got with hourly without an up front charge.
Are these sites you've designed, or have others done them?
In terms of "consultancy" do they want you to teach them what to do or do they want you to check what they have done ?
If you do go for the onsite consultancy, make sure you charge them for your travelling, be realistic with it but bear in mind that however you get there it will take a long time.
For example I am based near London, but to get anywhere it's at least 2 hours travelling (that's the actual time not me being clever), so even if I spent an hour on site a client will get invoiced for 3 hours consultancy and travel costs. The alternative is we carry out the work remotely (we prefer that and so do most clients). But if face to face has to be done we do it no problem.
We have clients that give us a retainer of sorts, it isn't a large amount of money but it rolls in every month and we are there for anything they need. If they don't need anything for a while it isn't so much money that they stop.
We also do different types of one offs. An initial consultation and plan development is a set price but we do different things for each client. If they want us to start positioning the site then we get into a monthly. We stay away from hourly rates except for programming. Everything is done based on what the client wants and then we set a fee and they decide from there.
we do SEO consulting rather than just going in and fixing their site...
That can be a grey area with possible confusion. I'm wondering what a very clear explanation to give explaining the difference between the two would be so there would be no misunderstanding.
An initial consultation and plan development is a set price but we do different things for each client. If they want us to start positioning the site then we get into a monthly.
This can be a very hard point to figure out. Sometimes clients want to go with monthly from step one, or need the costs spread out over several months even for the initial setup and plan development. Where can the line be clearly drawn between what's done right off and spread over several months, since the initial work is really where most of the footwork gets done. Researching the market and keywords, setting up the navigation to best advantage and planning ahead for link strategy, both the inbound and internal linking structure, are most of the battle. What's left is pretty much minor in comparison, the optimization of the individual sections or pages.
At what points can the line be drawn between what's initial setup all at once, done over a period of a few months 'til setup is paid for to cover the early heavy workload, or done in future with a monthly maintenance agreement?
If your current role is design and going in and fixing their site means - changing logos, ads, adding new pages, adjusting the "look and feel", or fixing typos, etc., then your obligation to the clients is design.
SEO implies improving ranks, search query click-throughs and link traffic. Your obligation to the client is now performance and rigidly based on an "upward direction" and solely on your decision-making processes vice theirs.
It great to consult and advise others (whether you or someone else implements) and getting paid more is a benefit, but that benefit can turn sour pretty quickly.
If performances are "lackluster" your creditability drops, and the moment you lose creditiability you generally lose the client as well, even if you were a great designer.
If you are confident in your abilities, you can most certainly improve your clients market reach and penetration, and this has enormous rewards, but the confidence needs to be there first.
