Conducted by Bill Gentry

Academy of Web Specialists

Take search engine marketing training!

18:02:11 bill g Do either or both of you have your own business?
18:02:38 dawn Yes, I am involved in a business with a partner
18:02:51 melissa I've only just started the course - but to my amazement, several companies have already contacted me asking me to work on their site.
18:03:16 melissa Btw, I am writing from India and often get booted out.
18:03:35 webman melissa, how did these companies find you?
18:04:21 bill g To start, Robin Nobles wrote an article that was published online recently stating a lot of the things that I was going to discuss.
18:04:57 bill g The article can be found at http://www.searchengineguide.com/aws//0423_aws1.html
18:05:20 dawn I read that -- excellent article
18:06:42 bill g Part of my marketing plan is to research professionals in my local area, such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. See if they have web sites.
18:07:24 melissa Through friends and family.
18:08:04 melissa I am doing voluntary work in India, and I meet many people from all over the world and many of them have businesses.
18:08:10 bill g If they do, do a site analysis to see how visible they are in the search engines. Then contact them about improving their Internet visibility.
18:08:43 jonathanpage what are the steps in doing an analysis?
18:08:45 bill g If they don't have a web site, then offer that service as well.
18:09:51 bill g I usually look over a site and source code and get an idea of what service, products and/or information they are selling or promoting, to develop a short list of keywords.
18:10:15 bill g I then check those keywords in the search engines to see if and how well they rank.
18:10:41 bill g I also check to see if any optimization has been done, and if so how well it has been done.
18:11:09 webman ?
18:11:22 bill g Go ahead, Webman.
18:11:30 webman How do you check to see how well the optimization has been done?
18:12:44 bill g I'll check it against programs such as SE Optimizer, Page Critic in WPG, KDA and others, plus a rankings check can also tell me how well the optimization has been done.
18:13:16 webman thanks.
18:13:24 bill g I've been in the SEO field for more than two years, so I also have my own experience to draw on as well.
18:14:26 bill g Performing a site analysis accomplishes several things.
18:14:28 melissa ?
18:14:50 bill g 1) You now have a marketing tool that you can show to a prospective client.
18:15:26 bill g 2) You can also more easily determine the price for the project since you have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done.
18:15:31 bill g Melissa?
18:15:44 melissa Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt.
18:15:55 melissa Is it within the realm of this chat to ask how one goes about figuring out how much to charge?
18:15:59 bill g That's ok, go ahead.
18:16:33 bill g That's a good question.
18:17:23 webman I think John Alexander is planning a chat soon on that topic.
18:17:37 melissa okay, thanks.
18:18:15 bill g I have a couple of packages on my web site (http://www.looksharpdesigns.com) that detail what you get for a specific price..
18:18:53 melissa Great. Thanks.
18:18:58 bill g There are a couple of ways to figure out what to charge, although none of them is absolute.
18:20:02 bill g One, obviously is to charge what the market will bear, or if you'd rather, what your clients are willing to pay. You can survey other SEO firms to see what they charge, if they will tell you.
18:21:07 bill g You should also make sure that you are getting paid enough for your time (the time you actually spend working for the client. sales calls, bookkeeping, paying bills don't necessarily count).
18:21:54 bill g I had the advantage in that I used to work for a company that offered SEO services so I knew what they charged, and priced my services accordingly.
18:22:19 webman ?
18:22:50 bill g If you are just starting out and don't have much of a portfolio to show to prospective clients, I suggests charging less initially, until you can prove to the world that you are worth more.
18:22:56 bill g Go ahead, Webman
18:23:05 webman Why do you show the Top 50 in your reports? I thought the Top 30 was where the majority of the traffic is.
18:24:39 bill g It depends upon the client. All of those reports that are posted on my site are from clients that I worked with when I was with The Selling Source. Their agreement was to show ranking reports for at least the top 50.
18:25:19 webman so you just decided to keep it at the top 50 out of habit?
18:25:30 bill g This is the main reason that I expand my ranking reports beyond the top 30.
18:27:09 bill g It can take a while to reach the top 30. If I am only looking at the top 30, and it's not in there, I have no idea if the page is sitting at 31 or 99. Without some sort of feedback, it's difficult to know whether how much you should change things.
18:28:29 bill g If the page is sitting at 31, I may not make sweeping changes to improve rankings. On the other hand, if the site is at 99 or out of the top 100, I will probably take a more aggressive approach to changes in order to improve rankings.
18:29:04 webman ok, thanks
18:29:21 webman Got to go. Thanks for the info. Bye
18:29:51 bill g Plus, often you'll get good rankings for several keywords and mediocre rankings for other keywords. I want the client to know that those mediocre rankings do exist. And that I will be working to improve those rankings
18:30:26 bill g Dawn, do you have any questions?
18:32:04 bill g Some ways to establish credibility without paying clients is to do stuff pro bono with an agreement that you can use the site and results for promotional purposes.
18:32:37 bill g This works well for charities, churches, nonprofits, family and friends, etc.
18:33:31 bill g I did my cousin's new site for free (still waiting for her to make it live!) and offered to do my father-in-law's business site for free as well.
18:33:34 melissa Yes, I am working on a site voluntarily now - and things are going well, and therefore I am passionate about it, and that seems to be what turns people on.
18:34:45 bill g I also have a site that's all about my hobby (collecting and trading sports cards) that I use a s a guinea pig and use it for promotional purposes as well, so you can do the same thing.
18:35:21 melissa Thanks for the tips.
18:35:27 bill g No problem!
18:36:24 melissa ?
18:36:30 bill g Don't ignore the smaller search engines or specialty engines and directories either. You might not get a lot of traffic from them, but they can help in the beginning since they usually don't cost anything to get in.
18:37:24 bill g For example, I live in Las Vegas. We have a site called VegasValley.com that has a search directory. Turns out it is one of about 70 City Guides powered by LookSmart.
18:38:07 bill g IT cost nothing for me to get added to the directory, and have gotten a little bit of traffic from it. I think my site was approved in about a week.
18:38:47 bill g VegasValley.com also has FREE classified ads, so I placed a couple promoting my services, and got a few visitors from those ads as well.
18:39:28 melissa Great little tips.
18:39:31 bill g So, I also suggest looking for sites that offer free classified ads and place a few to see if they work for you.
18:39:46 bill g Another little gem.
18:41:15 bill g If you offer something for free, get a link at those sites that list free stuff! For example, I have free web site templates with basic optimization available for download. As soon as I develop a few more designs, I intend to submit my site to these Free Stuff sites for links.
18:42:40 bill g So, I would look at my business model and see if there isn't something that I can give away (nothing that's too expensive) in exchange for some free advertising. And those Free Stuff sites get A LOT of traffic!
18:43:49 bill g (Changing gears again) A lot of the recent buzz about link popularity is that you shouldn't link to a site that has a low PageRank or one that is lower than yours.
18:43:57 bill g I say phooey.
18:45:15 bill g If the site is appropriate to link to then ask for a link back. It'll help with link pop., but more importantly, you are building traffic. Just because a site has poor PageRank does not mean that they don't get a lot of traffic from other sources.
18:45:47 melissa ?
18:46:19 bill g Also, PageRank is just one method for calculating link pop. There are many other methods to calculate link pop.
18:46:24 bill g Sure, go ahead.
18:46:54 melissa Is it ethical to show a prospective client ranking reports of other sites you've worked on?
18:46:57 bill g Sorry, I missed your first ?
18:47:22 melissa No problem!
18:49:34 bill g I don't see why not. You need to show prospective clients what you can do for them, and justify your prices. You may not want to show ranking reports to a client who may be a competitor of that client, but I build into all my contracts that I have the right to use ranking reports and site designs (I do web design as well) for promotional purposes.
18:50:01 melissa Great, thanks.
18:50:57 bill g If a prospective client demands that I take out the right to promotional use, then I either don't take the job, or I raise my price.
18:52:21 bill g We're just about out of time. Any other questions?
18:52:53 melissa No more questions for now. Thanks - this was helpful!
18:53:41 bill g You're quite welcome. I am going to go get something to eat not. I'm hungry. Have a great evening (or morning)!