[.sleep]

Yes, I know there's an SEO forum. Seems like it's all spam in there though so I'm posting in here.

I got an email today from a prospective client for some SEO and web design work. He said he's been dealing with a guy who has started getting a little flaky or something so he's looking for someone else, IE: me.

Now the reason for the post. He mentioned that this other guy "he keeps my company in the top 3-4 search results (google) with about 3-4 keywords, first page with about 7-8 keywords." Now I don't really understand the sentence in the first place, somehow the math doesn't add up in my head, but I was under the impression that you can't keep a site at the top. I know you can optimize and all that jazz but doesn't it really matter on how available the content is read by spiders and how many clicks you get?

Like, it doesn't seem like a long-term type deal to me but from the tone of the email it seems like it's something he wants me to keep up all the time. Am I under-thinking this?

[Mrs Harris]

SEO is certainly helped by the content being relevant etc but to other SEO 'principles' can be applied and tweaked right throughout a site's lifetime to keep it up there on the earlier pages.

[weldo]

to be honest, it sounds like you need to know more about the whole SEO area before you agree to the task ...

if you don't understand what he's saying, you won't be aware of the issues ...

lots of things will affect the specific position of any results ... the keywords used, the domain, the site build, the content, the site popularity etc ...

would you know where to even start ?

[.sleep]

As far as the part that didn't make sense to me, I was reading it wrong. I get what he's saying now. I was a bit tired last night.

I've done a bit of SEO work at my job. I wouldn't say that's one of our specialties but we can do it. We just go through a list of stuff, meta tags, alt tags, page titles, re-write copy to get more keywords in, make sure flash has alt content, clean the code and make it standards compliant, rename files with better names, etc.

Usually it's just a one off job though. No upkeep or anything after we're done, which it seems like this guy's wanting. Maybe we don't do it correctly at work.

I'm not afraid of turning him down if I don't know enough. That's why I'm asking. I thought that what I've been doing was the norm.

[freelancr]

There are 2 types of SEO work.

1. Building the site to make the most out of search engines.

You covered this above, and yes it is mostly a one off job with a one off charge. You can also make sure you are making the most of things like Google Maps and Google Shopping if applicable. Also worth looking at making search engine sitemaps, by generating XML feeds.

I include this in all work I do as I take pride in the sites I create, if my client's site is successful, then I will do well too. In my mind this is what really works to improve results, and keeps on working for you for the life of the site. You could spend a million quid on PPC campaigns, and if you have a shit site, you will struggle to convert these visits into sales, and as soon as the campaign is over, your natural search results will suffer as you fade away into page 2.

2. Managing Advertising campaigns, such as PPC (or PPA).

This requires research of the current company to find the keywords most likely to be used for people trying to find the website, and researching competitors too. This side of things is where the money in SEO really is. Anyone who knows how to operate a web browser, that has a bit of common sense, can do this.

Usually what happens is you have a discussion with the client to discuss how much budget they have for PPC. If it is enough, then you go through which keyword campaigns will cost what, and then you charge your fee ontop of that. PPC only really suckers in the large companies who piss money up the wall, not one to bother offering sole traders and small independents. PPA might be more up their street.

[weldo]

generating backlinks, creating fresh content etc ...

thats always gonna help to keep your position ...

[.sleep]

freelancr, that's perfect. Thanks.
I'm comfortable with option 1 but I'm thinking the client is wanting more of an option 2 route. Might have to turn him down.