Here is our recent email conversation with one of our prospect clients (we will tell you at the end whether we won the deal or not!).

Client: Thanks for your proposal. We will be sitting down to discuss soon how to proceed further with regards to our SEO. I have a few questions about your company.

Are you confident having seen our website that you could help our company stay at the top of Google consistently for the keywords?

3R: I cannot guarantee anything, Google can change their rules at any time. So I am basically no more confident than anyone else would be. However, we have some solid experience along with some very happy clients and that’s what I rely on here.

Client: Are there any contracts between your company and clients or after the initial set up costs is it up to the client to decide on how many months they require your services?

3R: No, you can cancel any time. Some clients just go for the SEO setup (first month), others stay with us for several years.

Client: Does your quotation include for managing and making better use of our social media to boost rankings and help with marketing?

3R: This is what we do for you.

• Setup your facebook, twitter and Google+ pages,
• Share new articles we publish on your website (blog)
• Guide you on how to manage your social media.
• We can also setup some facebook ads.

All this is included in the quotation I sent you.

However, the day-to-day management of your Facebook page (this is probably the one most important) should be done by yourselves, such as:

1. Comments, news, reviews, tips, funny stories, discounts, competitions, etc.
2. We don’t want to take responsibility to post something you would not agree with, because it’s your business.
3. We also believe it’s best when you talk to your facebook fans (potential, or existing clients) yourselves.
4. Also, in terms of getting new fans on board, we can advise best strategies, but it will be down to yourselves to invite all customers, partners etc. to join you on facebook etc.

Client: Can you give me any examples of companies you have helped and the key words they requested?

3R:

1. www.officetechnology.ie – #1 for “photocopiers”, “photocopiers Ireland”, #5 for “copiers”, #3 for “copiers ireland” etc.
2. www.ntc.ie – #1 for “pilates courses”, “pilates courses dublin”, “pilates courses ireland” etc. This site was hit by Penguin, and we are still working to bring it back for keywords like “massage courses”(currently #10, they used to be #1 for about 2 years), “fitness courses”(currently #5, they used to be #1 for about 2 years) etc.
3. www.easybuycarparts.ie – #1 for “roof racks”, #4 for “car accessories”, #3 for “wind deflectors” etc.
4. www.larryokeeffe.com – #2 for “living room furniture”, #4 for “furniture ireland”, #2 for “furniture cork”, there are dozens of related keywords etc.
5. www.homelinefurniture.ie – this one was extremely successful before Pengiun, there was some sort of penalty recently, and we are working to bring it back for keywords like “furniture ireland” and “bedroom furniture”, however, they are doing great for many other phrases, eg #2 for “cream bedroom furniture”, #4 for “corner sofas ireland”, #6 for “wardrobes”, #3 for “sideboards”, etc. again, dozens of keywords.
6. www.promowear.ie – #1 for “personalised hoodies”, #5 for “workwear ireland”, #2 for “corporate wear”, “corporate uniforms” etc.

While it’s important to rank for highly popular and competitive keywords, I also very often see that the “long tail“ (longer phrases) keywords deliver about the same number of visits and sales. All our websites do rank well for lots of keyword phrases and combinations, which are often difficult to keep track of and we usually don’t monitor their rankings, but can see them in Google Analytics delivering leads and sales. 

Please, do let me know if you have any other questions.

Happy Ending

Guess what? We won the deal and now have a great new client!

[Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net]