A Letter to All SEO Clients	Visited: 1634 5.0/5.0 (11 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Nick Stamoulis November 21, 2011

There are a lot of blog posts out there detailing how a site or business owner should go about interviewing and hiring the right SEO firm for their business. I’m sure I’ve written a few of my own “how to” posts on the subject over the course of my 12 year career in Internet marketing and Rand Fishking of SEOMoz even dedicated a whiteboard Friday to the topic. These posts explain the red flags site owners should be wary of, what kind of questions they should ask, tips for finding the right SEO company and so forth. But there are very few, if any, posts that look at it from the point of view of the SEO company.  I intend to change that.

This is an open letter on to all potential SEO clients on behalf of SEO firms and consultants everywhere.

Dear potential SEO client,

Let me start off by saying that I value your time and hope that you will value mine. I can appreciate that things come up last minute and you have to reschedule our phone call/meeting, but please give me a heads-up. I understand that pressures of running a business and I know how time crunched you can be so I promise I’ll understand the need to reschedule. But please don’t ask me to drive an hour to your office so we can talk face-to-face and then not be there.* 

Secondly, I intend to give you my all in terms of customer service. I promise to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge, offer recommendations based on years of experience and guide your website through the world of SEO so it can more effectively compete. I appreciate you taking the initiative in learning the basics of SEO for yourself, we can work together to create a more powerful SEO campaign, but I am asking you to trust me. You hired me for a reason, so let me do my job and help you! There is a lot of information about SEO floating around online and not all of it is reliable. I promise there are no SEO secrets I am keeping from you. Your success matters to me and I am not going to hamper it by withholding information or trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Last but not least, please don’t go crazy on me. This is a relationship and I am on your side! I did my best to explain the SEO process to you every step of the way and was always willing to answer any questions or address any concerns you may have had with the campaign. Please don’t call me three months from now and demand that I justify my actions. I promise I did nothing without first informing you or asking for your approval.** I’m not out to sabotage your website or destroy your brand. I’m not leading you in circles just so I can get a paycheck and I am most certainly not trying to make you look bad in front of your boss.

Sincerely,

Nick Stamoulis

*Yes, that has happened to me on more than one occasion.

**A former client had approved the keyword research and on-site changes and gave us the green light to implement them. 6 weeks letter he wanted to know why I had changed his site.

Is this letter to potential SEO clients a bit of a rant? Yes, I freely admit that. I’d wager a guess that I am not the only SEO professional here who has had similar experiences when dealing with potential SEO clients. I’d love to hear everyone else’s SEO client horror stories! Sometimes the best way to handle it is to rant and laugh.