~~~Writing for the Search Engines~~~
From: Sandy
Hello ladies,
In general, when working with small business' on tight budgets, which
are the best steps to take? Besides writing rich text,
keywords/phrases, links, etc.? I ask simply because small business'
often can't afford to pay necessary fees to do it correctly. Many
times, they are also overwhelmed by the idea of hand registering
themselves or the thought of paying someone to do it.
Trying to better service small business' site optimization.
Sandy
~~~Heather's Response~~~
Hi, Sandy-
That's a great question!
You're right, small businesses may be leery about paying for search
engine optimization. Chances are, their marketing budgets are small
(and that budget may be already committed to other marketing venues).
However, small businesses have an automatic advantage as they can (a)
typically make decisions quicker and (b) immediately integrate SEO
strategies faster than their corporate counterparts. (In fact, we're
working with many corporate clients that are just having their sites
optimized NOW.) For more information on this topic, check out Rank
Write 036.
Now, having said all that, *all* of the techniques we support in Rank
Write are equally important and interdependent. That is, without
keyphrase-rich content, your coding won't be nearly as effective.
Additionally, you can have the best copy and Title tag in the world,
but if your site isn't submitted correctly, you won't see the rankings
you want. So, except for making a link campaign as an additional
"phase two" service, or starting with a directory submittal only, I
can't imagine what step(s) to cut. For maximum success, it's an
all-or-nothing deal.
(Of course, you *could* always split your services and only offer one
piece of the pie. However, you should tell your clients up front that
what you're doing is only one aspect of SEO and you can't guarantee
results.)
I don't know what you're charging for your SEO services, but I can see
it being a dilemma when you're pricing for small businesses (hey,
we've been there!). Perhaps there's something you can do to
demonstrate how your services will increase their company's bottom
line. If a prospect understands the value of what you're offering,
they're more apt to change their preconceived ideas of how much your
services will cost.
HOWEVER, if you have the ability and expertise to charge higher fees,
it may just be that a small business budget isn't your target market
anymore. If that's the case, simply find an alternative small
business SEO vendor and farm out the work. It's a win-win for
everyone - the client gets served, you get a referral fee while still
working on larger accounts, and your SEO vendor gets a constant stream
of clients.
I hope that helps! Thanks for your question!
Heather
~~~Jill's unsolicited 2 cents~~~
There is one other thing you can do for small business clients with a
small budget. You can offer a reasonably priced report, where you
outline what's wrong with the site and what is needed to have it
"fixed." That way, your client still gets the benefit of your
experience, but will also save some money by attempting to do it
in-house. At the same time, outline how much it would cost them to
have you implement the changes. You may be surprised that many of
them will be willing to have you do it, once they see how much work it
is! We've been doing these reports for years, and it's really worked
out great for everyone. Many of the clients choose to go it alone,
but many others opt to have us do the work for them.
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
