How do you deal with lack of understanding about SEO?

[TheARKlady]

Since I subcontract out to web design people or work doing SEO for small businesses, I am wondering how others (and if others) deal with non-compliance with good SEO practices.

For instance, I had a web designer change a few of the terms for a website because the client wanted another term they thought was better instead of sticking to the SEO they contracted for and she diluted the site architecture in the process.

A former small business client called for some changes and I discovered she had made some changes she "thought were good terms."

Do you encounter such issues, and if so, how do you deal with them--or do you just oblige the request?

Also, I've been getting requests to do "partial" seo instead of entire sites. Is that ever a good idea and if so, how would you handle it? If not, how do you successfully dissuade a client from doing so? (Both small biz and web design peeps)

[ShaMenz]

Hi There,

I decided a long time ago that the best way to handle the issue of the client deciding they want things changed is to allow them to decide for themselves that it may not be such a good idea. I have found a very effective way of achieving this.

As soon as we receive a request or instruction from the client that we believe to be detrimental to the SEO for the site, we immediately forward to them a Disclaimer and Acknowledgement Form. The form is accompanied by a request for them to sign and return it so that the requested changes can be completed. Similar to Ninjamarketer's disclaimer, the most important part is that the form carries the words "hereby acknowledge and accept" and requires a signature.

We make no attempt to dissuade the client - just forward the form and require it to be executed and returned before the work can proceed.

It generally takes 5- 10 minutes for the client to call me once the form has been sent and in every case to date, they have decided before I answered the call, that they may not want to make the changes after all It is at this point that I am able to talk it through with them and do a little gentle SEO "Training" which they are very receptive to. It works for me

As to partial SEO - we offer on-page services on a per-page basis (minimum 3 pages), but for any project of more than 5 pages, our quotation includes site wide audit, structural review and recommendations for further work. We also provide on-page work via direct access OR as a detailed report which can be handed to the existing developer for action. For clients with limited budgets, this can be helpful as they can attack the work in manageable chunks. We conduct the site assessment and advise them which pages are highest priority for action.

It is nice when you have a client coming back to you for more work because they have seen marked improvement from the original project and want some more of that action

Hope that helps,

Sha

[AaronSchinke]

Introduce them to SEOmoz.

[TheARKlady]

@Ryan "hearding cats" is a good way to describe it!

@NinjaMarketer Thanks for sharing your clauses and I like the idea about the partial module.

@MagicCrob Thanks, the problem is that when I subcontract to the web design specialists, not all seem to clear the changes with the seo but instead want to make the client happy but often tothe determent to their investment and online success.

@Todd I am not one to "oblige the request" but I have one particular client that I do a lot of work for who does and it goes back to the suggestion about communcation. I believe the designer does not really understand seo. As for the partial SEO,I was referring to on page optimization and site structure.

Thanks to all of you for responding, each of your answers actually hit on different issues that I've encountered and I appreciate the insights and suggestions!

[CahabaWeb]

Just to cover part: Never simply "oblige the request". That's bad for everyone. I always let a client tell me what they THIINK they need to rank for and how. Then we explain with data why that should or should not be part of the strategy.

We have clients that make recommendations for changes they want and they understand that if we say "it's because of SEO". They will back off and let us maintain the process.

Partial SEO would be, a home page optimization? That's fine as long as long as you verify and understand the scope of the rest of the site. Nothing wrong with "doing  a little work" on your highest possible ranking piece of real estate. In the end, it's all in the reporting and measurement. You just have to be able to communicate whhat you are actually going to deliver.

Hope this helps a bit.

[magicrob]

I've had experience of this. It's good to make clear to the client that you've been hired for a specific purpose and that you can't perform your contracted job properly if a third party won't comply with your instructions.

It's in the client's (and designer's) interest to listen to you. Your reputation depends on your advice or consultation proving successful and if they're aware of that it should help you.

If you have a particularly awkward client who is keen on some useless keywords then it's kind of your job to tell them so (but in the nicest possible way). Compromising and giving them half of what they want, coupled with your own input, can help them move away from their own ideas when they eventually realise that your advice is paying off more than their own thoughts.

Partial SEO can be worthwhile. If by this you mean just on-site SEO then it can go some way, but if there are few valuable links then it's not going to stick around at the top of the SERPs for too long. If it's just on part of the website then it might be worth doing so long as the client is aware that further work should be undertaken later on to make the most of the opportunity.

[ninjamarketer]

I include the following clause in a legally binding contract for both web design and seo to make sure the client understands and agrees to it. (Please contact your legal advisor/ attorney for the exact clause. I am not a legal advisor and the suggestions presented here are for information purpose only)

--- SEO company is not responsible for changes made to the website by other parties that adversely affect the search engine rankings of the Client’s website.

--- SEO company is not responsible for the Client overwriting SEO work on the Client’s site or requesting webmaster / designer or developer to make changes to the Client's site.

As far as partial SEO goes, you may include another clause in your contract that clarifies that the client will not be able to get any significant results from a partial or selective SEO.

However, you could enhance your portfolio by adding a partial SEO module and offer this as value add with design at no cost. You can use this to sell the benefits of complete SEO and additional services such as link building.

Best

Sameer

[RyanOD]

Your question touches on a constant challenge in the SEO world that has been around as long as Marketing. In all business environments we must acknowledge the need for the following:

Communication

First, when working with an organization to assist with SEO, it is critical that all parties are aware of the the need to run any changes to site content through the SEO team. Otherwise, trying to implement a well thought out plan is like herding cats.

Prioritization

Typically, engineering resources and low when compared to engineering requests which leads to a backlog of tasks. This, in turn, leads to prioritization. Engineers have to look at requests and decide what is most impactful for the business. Those requests get done first.

In order for us to get our SEO requests to the top of the queue (or to have them supercede other competing requests) we have to make strong business cases. In the case of changes being made to a site that conflict with our recommendation, we have to first be aware the change is taking place (see Communication). Secondly, we have to make a stronger case for keeping the terms aligned with SEO best practices. However, if changing the terms will increase customer conversions by 10% and only result in a small loss of organic traffic then changing the terms wins.

Give and Take

In the 'real world' my experience has been that maintaining SEO best practices all the time is nearly impossible. Our job is to help companies add as much SEO love as possible through education, encouragement, and maybe a little donut buying. Seriously, Marketing is a give-and-take world. Don't feel like anything below 100% SEO best practices isn't good enough.