Great article overall. I get this question all the time, particularly because my company has built a solid reputation for practicing “true” SEO and showing incredible results.

We have had some huge engagements – very successful. One that I have permission to mention is cars.com. Two very large ones I have strict NDAs (I feel like there is always a sniper ready to take me out if I violate the NDA ). I can say that one is one of the largest coffee franchises on the west coast and the other is one of the largest hospitals on the west coast. That I was given permission to relay.

It is unfortunate that so many “SEO Experts” really know very little about SEO and make people skeptical about the industry. Therefore, I find myself going into great detail about what SEO is. I would say that 90% of the time, my comments are too overwhelming, and convince the person that I know what I am talking about. At that point, they usually say something like “This is too confusing, I am convinced you know what you are doing.”

However, the 10% of people – in general highly intelligent individuals – love to hear all about SEO and I am so passionate about the subject, I can talk about it for hours.

In fact, I was at a banquet once and talking to a very smart friend about it, and what we were doing. Sitting next to me was the Director of Marketing for the hospital I mentioned above. I noticed that he was listening into the conversation, so I included him. Later that evening, he came up to me, introduced himself and told me his position. He also told me that the number one initiative on his plate now was to hire someone to optimize the hospital’s site. He said he has spoken to many professionals and read many articles and never once heard 90% of what I said. He offered me the job right then. So, it is sometimes beneficial to get into the details.

The number one question that potential clients have is “What is this going to cost me.” This question is pretty quick to answer (not provide an actual number – just “a fair amount”, or “not that much”) as I can tell by looking at the source code, site architecture, navigation, hosting server, content, etc., whether or not this is going to be a big job, or not so bad. Most of the time, it is a big job, as the original developer did not consider SEO in coding the site, the designer did not do a good job on the site architecture/user experience, and so on. Often the answer is that it would cost them less to scrap the current site, and build a new one.

Not to be annoying – just to provide advice, I have two comments on statements you made in the article.

1. “Sure, I can give you the basic definition of what SEO and SEM are…” – SEM is commonly used incorrectly to describe paid search. It is actually the umbrella term that includes both SEO and paid search. Most people do not realize this.

2. “…explain why link building is important” – Inbound links was the foundation and most critical factor in Google’s algorithm, when Sergei and Larry first launched. Now, because people abused this knowledge, it plays very little role, if any, in determining SERPs. When we SEO a site, we do no link building at all. We simply follow the guidelines and best practices that both Google and the W3C have provided to us. We actually often get First page SERPs, positions 1 – 3 in 2 weeks or less now (HTML5 is a huge factor). We let natural inbound links occur. Google will actually penalize you if your site suddenly has tons of inbound links, as they consider this a “Black Hat” technique. They published a manual called something like “A Beginners Guide to SEO” and they mention the concept above, while placing little emphasis on its importance.

You see – this is the longest reply and I held myself back from writing more – I am very passionate about the topic.

Hope this information was useful.

Best,

Yoni

That being said, the best quick answer to a quick SEO question is often, “I could give you a brief answer that would still leave you in your current situation, but I’d prefer to review your website and develop a customized plan with you that would actually get you where you want to be; where you should be.”

Good point, Nick, and in all the comments.

Thanks,
Ben

Take Care!
Nick

At the end of the FAQ you can put a form or call to action to schedule a formal evaluation that begins the sales process.

By the way Nick, I have greatly enjoyed your terrific blog.