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Adding Value to Long-Term SEO Clients: Don't Stay in Your Lane

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John S.
John S.
Oct 27, 2024, 10:29 AM
For those with long term SEO clients. Up to now, I have not really gone beyond an audit and initial "clean up" type optimization. What services/deliverables do you offer clients of 6+ months, or even longer? TIA
 
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Oct 27, 2024, 10:52 AM
Dependent on client type:
 
content (new opportunities), monitoring what's working and not for objectives/conversions, changes to improve ranking.
 
I personally dont focus only on SEO so on top of that it's often looking at processes to optimize them, PPC, finding other monetization/profit/margin improvement/channel or partner opportunities, etc. anywhere I feel I can squeeze to get more juice.
John S.
John S.
Oct 27, 2024, 11:11 AM
I see, I guess, I shouldn't have assumed it was a client for SEO services only. For new clients, you are selling top level digital marketing services then and not just a niche SEO service?
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Oct 27, 2024, 11:28 AM
Well, this is an SEO community so that focus makes sense which is why I often add detail.
 
I'm usually engaged in these ways in marketing, primarily digital:
• fractional marketing director, may have reports or may need to find talent
• Advisory
• hourly
I am not a "stay in your lane" type, and question everything. So that leads me down paths that may be out of scope but I will still look, see if there might be inefficiencies, and start the conversation or send my thoughts.
 
I'll give you a few examples:
• Google maps API cost was high, but very few were interacting on page with it initially. Made zero sense to call that realtime until a user wanted to interact. Came up with a solution and it dropped by 90% ish.
• Often notice page speed can be improved, so make specific recommendations, sometimes implement if it's something I can do.
• Generally offer UX/UI feedback since I'm looking at the site from the outside and don't have familiarity bias.
If I think there's a way to make something I see more
Efficient or better, I mention it.
 
Growth (revenue/profit) & optimize are my focus.
John S.
John S.
Oct 27, 2024, 11:44 AM
Well said. Thank you for the insights. It sounds like our brains work in similar ways. Over the years, I have gained plenty of digital marketing experience, however tend to get clients interested in just the SEO part. I may have to broaden my scope initially to gain the type of clients that can utilize all my experience. Thanks again.
Dani Leitner
Dani Leitner
Oct 28, 2024, 5:12 AM
Most of my clients are in a 12 month contract. I do not use hourly retainers - like you will get 10 hours every month. Although in the back I do calculate hours to know my availability.
 
I plan deliverables for this 12 months. Which always include monthly reportings, monthly strategy sessions. And from there it depends a lot on the client. If it is a new one I add a keyword research and audit, to define the strategy. Then normaly there is new content or at least content briefs and templates. For Audits I include consulting for the implementation of the audit. I have a complete list of deliverables with the estimated hours it take me to calculate this fast for the offer.
 
Also, I always communicate that if we see that another deliverable is more important (e.g. we get a lot of spam links and should make a backlink audit 6 months in) we can change them.
I hope this helps, it is always interesting seeing how other SEOs work.
John S.
John S.
Oct 28, 2024, 6:04 AM
Thank you for the info. I have started a longer form deliverable list with estimated hours and that is a huge help.
Katherine Watier Ong
Katherine Watier Ong
Oct 28, 2024, 9:48 AM
I help my clients build internal SEO capacity, so I always provide SEO training, re-working their content process, setting up SEO goals and measurement dashboards, creating checklists/tools to implement the internal process, and sometimes providing tech tickets q/a. Depending on the client I might move on to social/video strategy or working on improving their podcast promotion. Over the years, some have had me help with migrations, strategic re-focuses of website properties, job descriptions to hire internal SEOs...
ah
ah
Oct 28, 2024, 9:37 PM
That’s a long list but start with implementation plus site management. A couple clients coming up on 15 years now.