How to Divorce Your SEO Client
This next post is advice for fellow SEO consultants out there. It doesn’t happen all of the time, but from time to time you will get an unruly client that is completely unmanageable or simply not a good fit. Don’t beat yourself up over it; it simply does happen. It comes with the territory and it all depends on how you handle it. Sometimes you can get an idea prior to taking on a client that it might happen and sometimes you get blindsided 6 months into a campaign.
Here are some tactics to use to go separate ways safely:
Be Nice About It
You don’t want to burn your bridges because of how you go about this step. Always play nice regardless of what happens. You don’t want to entice the disgruntled client and push them to write any negative reviews about your business when they might not be true.
Find the Root Cause
Find out why the client is upset. When did it start? What brought it on? Maybe you have to re-educate your client on the concepts of search engine optimization. Even though search engine optimization concepts are understood early in the process they are sometimes forgotten early in the campaign.
Show Your Work
If you haven’t shown your monthly work to the client thus far they might have the right to be upset. If you haven’t shown them what you have been doing each month put it all together on a spreadsheet now and send it over to them. The divorce might be occurring because they simply don’t believe any work has been conducted up to this point.
Hold Your Ground
If you have done everything you said you would and provided the proof and the reports and the client is still very upset than hold your ground because you upheld your end of the bargain. Search engine optimization is a timely process that requires many different gears spinning at the same time and sometimes people have a hard time understanding this.
These client divorces happen from time to time and it is important to not get down on yourself, especially if you have provided everything your company possibly could. Sometimes things just clash and it is important to part ways amicably with no hard feelings.
13 Responses to “How to Divorce Your SEO Client”
SEO Journal is Written by
Brick Marketing Founder,
Nick Stamoulis:
Nick Stamoulis - SEO Bio.
Tel. - 877-295-0620
nick@brickmarketing.com
Connect with Nick Stamoulis
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
i have had a few of these type of clients, they are usually the ones that are on the minimum package and require the most maintenance. Good tips for letting them go!
Some potential unpleasantness can be avoided by making sure that clients understand the SEO process before you spend a single dollar of their budget. There are people out there who hear “This will take quite a while to work” who will leave thinking in days or even hours rather than weeks or months.
The less you assume the customer knows at the start, the more you should mention, regardless of how inane it sounds to you. It only sounds that way because you do this every day. They don’t.
Hi Stan and Tom, Thanks for reading and your comment!
Take Care,
Nick
Hey Nick,
You are a content creating machine and I agree with your recommendations!
Inevitably, some clients are going to leave. If you leave on good terms AND you have provided good service, some will come back if they find the grass is not greener.
One thing I had to learn over the years – don’t take it personally! This is easier if you’ve provided great service and value.
Thanks for reading and your comment Bryan!
I agree with you 100%! If a client is no longer a good fit and as long as you did everything you said you were going to do, then there should be no hard feelings and of course, not taking anything personal is important too!
Take Care!
Nick
Nick – I have followed you for a while now, and I believe that if it was not working out with one of your clients, it most certainly would not be because you did anything wrong. It seems like I have been reading a LOT of posts like this lately, I even wrote one on my Blog (LOL). Seems to me, if you do your job, educate your clients and they are still upset, there may be no pleasing them no matter what you do. But having said that, I still would not “fire” a client. I may give ultimatums, give them the tough decision…but in the end, it would be their choice to leave.
You can read more of my thoughts here http://click-finders.com/blog/when-is-it-okay-to-fire-an-seo-services-client/
Thanks for the share! I always enjoy your viewpoints especially on matters like this!
Mike
Alarm bells should ring if the client has no faith to begin with, daft goals or wants to pay peanuts. Equally, I have dumped clients when they have been rude or are just not very nice people.
I have also had clients go, work with other companies that will over promise and then come back.
If you are not enjoying it, try to focus your efforts elsewhere.
Thanks Mike for reading and sharing your thoughts!
Hi Marcus,
Very true! Thanks for reading and your comment!
thanks nick,
here you have provide useful teaching because client keeps important value in any business.
Hit the nail on the head, Nick. I agree with Bryan Phillips. These things do happen, I agree with holding your ground (as well as everything else). If you have completed all of your jobs and done them properly and effectively then there is no reason to be down on yourself. It just happens within the industry. Nice post again, Nick, Thanks for sharing.
Thanks again SEO Essex for reading and sharing your thoughts!
Take Care!
Nick
Hey Nick
First of all, let me thank you for writing the great post.
I would like to add one more thing that, be clear with what you have and what you’re going to do. Always do conversation (at least once in week) with clients on your work, it will helps lot.
Thanks again for sharing, and always waiting for your great post like this.
I must say that you have mentioned some great points in your article and I think every SEO must face these kind of problems somewhere in there career and same for me.