Advice on approach WRT SEO consulting

[ukgimp]

I have a few new opporunities to get some consultancy work. I dont have an extensive professional portfolio but have had good success with sites I have worked on. The people concerned are slightly sceptial that SEO works, I have to convince them and hopefully get more work from them.

Two of the sites are framed :( but I can offer some simple stuff to them. One of them is in development and I will urge the dropping of the frames.

One site in particular is small (4 page) site that could easily be improved as the target phrases are not too difficult. The main content is there but if I had my way I would like to redo the 4 pages as they are very dated and not optimised at all.

What do you you think about doing the redesign as a sort of loss leader in the hope of a more sustained income stream in the future.

I am a newbie at the consulting process and needing to learn fast. I have printed the post on How much should I charge and the related ones and have some reading to do.

Any advice apprciated

Cheers

[Travoli]

If it is only 4 pages, I would do it in exchange for a nice recommendation letter to get the ball rolling.

$.02

[Filipe]

Definitely do it to get the ball rolling. Consultants can be pricey (Which from your end of the bargain is a good thing) but the costs usually run parallel to demand which usually runs parallel to experience.

The first 1 - 5 jobs (give or take 4) might be throw-away jobs that you do for almost nothing. Once you've had success, and you know you can get the job done, then you can raise your rates and be picky about clients (rather than being worried about whether or not you'll get them).

[ukgimp]

Figured it was best to reply to this post.

Making Recommendations

What methods would you recommend.

1. Make alterations yourself (what if more content in required).
2. Give report detailing ammendments that need to be made and walk away.
3. Other?

I have a few jobs lined up that would address these problems and would like to find the best method based on some of the experience that members have had. Any advice appreciated.

Cheers

[DaveN]

depending on the marketplace.

If the marketplace is not that competitive create yourself a mini site register the URL in your name, optimise and get it to the top of a search engine (google is my choice), put a request more details form on the site and pass all the enquires on to your client as a goodwill gesture.

Once the site is getting quality traffic you then have a few options open to you and your client.

Bin it and optimise their site - whatever you tell them to do I bet they will bend of backwards to compile.

Sell or rent the site as part of an optimisation package to them.

See if there are any affiliate programs which you could use it for

Sell it to a competitor – never actually done that but it is always an option

If the marketplace is very competitive you need to think about the return. How much work is involved against what the client is willing to pay.

A good selling point is to point out to your client is the overture bid price if it’s high you can prove it’s competitive.

$5 per click average 1000 clicks per month = $5000 is what your competitor is paying for one SE listing and I’m willing to do this for you for $xxxx

If it’s low get them to invest a few hundred $

DaveN