What To Do When Clients Just Don't Get It?

[rustybrick]

I don't really practice full time SEO. But the sites we build here are very SEO friendly (when they need to be). After that, I try to explain the core basics to clients. Many of them get it, some it takes longer, but most eventually get it.

There are some that just do not get it. They just will never understand.

What do you do when your clients just don't get it?

[Andy Hagans]

The answer is simple: FIRE THEM.

If they don't get it, or, if they don't trust YOU to 'get it', they will waste your time, try and lower your price, ask for their money back, etc.

It ain't worth the hassle.

[Chris Boggs]

I like to save those calls for the late afternoon. helps me work on my patience skills. I just love the ones that think they know more about PPC Management than you, even though their prior behavior led them to hire you...

[rustybrick]

I personally find it such a shame. It hurts me deeply. Firing them is one thing. What add more insult to injury.

[Nacho]

A good case study or two.... or maybe 10... might do justice. Let them spend their time getting educated, not your time educating them.

[brandall]

It really depends on the client. We get hired all the time by clients who have no interest in SEO. We are always working to educate them and get them interested, but at the end of the day, if a customer is hiring us to improve the conversion rate or design a new product site, and they don't want to focus on SEO, I let it go. Still, everything we design is very SEO-friendly.

Mostly, though, I find clients very open to the SEO conversation. It is so much easier to provide a monetized story for SEO than it is for most web design/development that I find business people very easy to get interested. I usually put together a simple spreadsheet outlining the estimated number of searches for a few appropriate terms to their market, estimate the % of that traffic they can capture with top rankings, multiply it by their conversion rate and their new customer acquisition value and show them how much $$ they are leaving on the table. I find at the VP level and up, that usually gets their attention.

[Dave]

If I were your client, I would want you to be 100% honest with me regarding possible opportunities. I would also hope that you would volunteer basic info and ideas on what can be done to improve my situation, whatever it is. If I like the ideas, I’ll try to get some cash for the development. I would also hope that you would be tolerant of my ignorance and present your case at least a few times before giving up on me. After that… it’s understandable that no one wants to feel like pest. Some people just don’t get it and that’s OK. You still need to feel good about yourself that you did what you could. You can’t say you didn’t try.

Sometimes it’s just timing. The time might not be right for them. Chances are that they will ask for help again later and they might have a completely different attitude and begin to understand SEO better at that point.

I would prefer a Pro-active approach where you pitch a suggestion but some prefer a Re-active relationship with a developer where they need to specifically ask you for help in that area. Reactive people like that require more patience.

If they’re just a drain with endless questions they don’t understand the answers to, and don’t want to pay you for consulting services etc… That’s a different story.

[randfish]

I was noting to a client recently that we DON'T LET them design their own website if they choose to work with us. We hire professional designers and while they certainly get input, they don't have final say - we do. Because we've worked on a performance basis and had such success with it in the past, we've built the level of trust neccessary to get clients to buy into this.

It's certainly not easy, but it's something we do in the pitching process, so they know when it comes time to see the UI, we're in charge.

This applies equally to the SEO portion of a site - I think it's something you have to make clear in the pitch and the contract, otherwise there's going to be problems later on.

[dazzlindonna]

Do they have to get it? As long as they aren't going to undo something important, if they are willing to pay you, knowing that you get it, then they can blissfully go on their merry way.

[EGOL]

I agree 100% with Rand in that they need to hand the site over to you. Ever try pulling teeth?