SEO Client Management Advice

As a Boston SEO consultant, it has taken me years to understand how the client management process works for different clients. Just like no two websites are the same, no two clients are the same and each enters a relationship with your SEO company with a certain set of expectations. It’s your duty as the SEO provider to not only create a great SEO campaign, but also create a great customer experience.

Here are 5 pieces of SEO client management advice:

1. Know who you are dealing with.

The most important component of SEO client management is knowing exactly who your client is—are you working under the VP of Marketing? Are you dealing with the CEO of the company directly? Is your SEO client a small business owner? Each level of management is going to have different skills sets, knowledge levels, goals and expectations for your SEO work. It’s your duty as the SEO provider to learn what kind of customer service each client is looking for and to give it to them.

2. Establish main point of contact (but have backups!)

Who is your main point of contact? This is especially important when working for a large company. The marketing department might have varying levels of managers, VPs, consultants and so forth that you could be interacting with—who is the gatekeeper that needs to know everything every step of the way? This is very important for enterprise SEO clients, since there is often a chain of command you have to follow to get things approved. You want to make sure the right work is getting in the right hands so everything is getting implemented properly. It’s also important to have a few backup contacts in your SEO client’s office in case your primary contact is out so the process can keep moving.

3. Make sure everyone knows who you are and what you’re doing.

This management tip comes from personal experience. My company was working with an SEO client for over a year and everything was going great. We had exceeded their expectations, I had a great relationship with my point of contact and their SEO was only on the up and up. Then one day my point of contact leaves the company and I learn that they never brought the rest of their team into the loop—no one knew my company was handling their SEO! I was back at square one with this particular client and needless to say the relationship fizzled before long since I didn’t have any kind of rapport with the rest of the marketing department.

4. Establish due dates.

I like setting hard and fast due dates for things like a completed link building strategy or onsite content recommendations because it let’s your SEO clients know exactly what you’re doing for them and gives them something tangible to hold onto. Since SEO is such a long term process and can take a long time for solid results to come to fruition, these due dates help keep your SEO clients aware of what is going on and what they are paying you for. That is why routine and transparent reporting is so important—your SEO clients need to know that you are actually doing the work!

5. Know what red tape you face.

Sometimes you don’t know until it’s too late, but whenever possible try to ascertain what kind of red tape your SEO clients have to deal with. Exactly how big is that chain of command? Who needs to approve what components? How quickly or slowly do things get processed on their end? It can be very frustrating dealing with a stop-and-go client when you weren’t expecting it.

About the Author

Nick Stamoulis is a Boston SEO consultant and President of Brick Marketing (http://www.brickmarketing.com) a social SEO and white hat link building company. With nearly 13 years of industry experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting SEO tips to the Brick Marketing Blog and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers.

Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com