The dream of any SEO expert is to be constantly called upon to open web traffic floodgates for clients. Below we discuss how you could attract these clients and give them what they want.
If you are starting out in the SEO business, it’s likely you’ve run the gamut trying to attract clients in need of your skills. You may have even flooded the web with cold-calling emails highlighting your skills and offering your services.
The 3 Best Practices for SEO Client ProspectingClick To Tweet
This strategy does work, and you may have even landed your first gig this way. However, you may have received far less buck for the bang you delivered.
You may have devised 1,000 of the best, personalized email messages that, when you factor in bounce, open and reply rates, may get you some leads.
The problem is, you still have to convert them into clients. To do that you’ll have to understand the best practices for SEO client prospecting.
Here are the 3 Best Practices for SEO Client Prospecting:
1. *Legally* Spy on Your Competitors
Conducting a recon operation on your competition in the field is of paramount importance. Pulling, analyzing, and exploiting info about competitors will inform your overall productivity and competitiveness.
But since our topic is prospecting clients, you can for example focus on which keywords they rank for and then implement a specific strategy to rank for these same keywords. If your competitor ranks too high for certain keywords, you can still understand what they are using so that you can capture keyword ranking for terms on the periphery of your competitor’s terms.
Granted, it’s no easy task, but heck, you are an SEO specialist! Approach it as a good rehearsal; the same strategy that you implement to outrank tough competitors in your niche could work for your future clients.
You can start with many services around the web, like Ahrefs, where you get access to an array of tools and features that help you know what your competitors are doing and how they are doing it.
2. Target the Low-Hanging Fruit: Penalized Websites
What’s the point of targeting websites that are already drawing in traffic and converting it readily?
If the bulk of your prospects that you have contacted already have an established online presence and get decent organic traffic, the chance of you helping out are slim to none.
If you turn your focus to penalized websites, reply rate should be much higher and the odds of snagging a client get better.
Google’s Penguin, Panda (content quality), and Hummingbird inflict penalties on websites for dozens of reasons, many of which deal with bad SEO. These problems are your opportunities.
The toughest part is detecting penalized websites, and we are leaving that to you to figure out. Likely, you’ll have to pay attention to websites that rank well one day and then suddenly slip off of the charts the next.
The same is true with newly-launched websites that are struggling to cut their way through the crowd.
3. Make Your Pitch pop up
Assuming you have compiled a list of prospects that are potential customers within your reach, you can go a step further than simply cold calling. Make your e-mail more personalized and enticing. Accompany your offer with keyword and competition reports, as a bonus and to show prospects the potential benefits of working with you.
You can, for example, create a custom presentation video where you would encourage the prospect to discover your services.
You may try using a one-page website (easy and quick to launch) dedicated to prospecting where you highlight your offer, and send the link with a message like the video.
Is there anything you’d add to the best practices for SEO client prospecting?
