*All answers are the words of the interviewees and any opinions expressed are those of the interviewee and not necessarily of BrightLocal.

Laura Betterly

“Laura Betterly runs boutique marketing agency Yada Yada Marketing and is published by Ryan Deiss with her product for local marketers, Mobile Local Fusion. Her company is Google certified for PPC and she is also an excellent SEO ranking herself and clients for competitive terms.”

 *All answers are the words of the interviewees and any opinions expressed are those of the interviewee and not BrightLocal.

1. How often do you physically meet with your customers? 

Virtually never. It used to be that we’d do in person meetings, but now with screen sharing, we can do almost everything remotely.

2. How important is trust in your client relationships & how do you develop trust between you & your clients?

It’s vital. Trust is developed by being trustworthy and bringing value. Sometimes we do things that we weren’t contracted for because it builds value and trust.

3. How do you manage client’s expectations if progress is slow in the first few months?

If you don’t over promise this almost never happens. If it does, we are honest about the progress and if my sales person did over promise we’ll sometimes give a free month to them to make up for it.

4. Do clients take a keen interest in results & reports?

5. What KPIs do you report to your clients and how frequently do you report?

6. Once you achieve good results for a client, how do you keep them investing in their SEO?

They are told up front that SEO positions need to be maintained, if not maintained their competitors will over take them.

7. Do you find it’s more lucrative to upsell existing clients on extra services than to go out and win new clients?

Yes, extremely.

8. How long does a typical customer stay active with you?

I have many clients that I’ve had since 2005. Most stay several years. In three occasions clients who had left, came back to us

9. How do you handle problematic or difficult customers?

Refund and fire. No other option as a client that is that way will suck the life out of you and you’ll end up neglecting the good ones. 

Now, you can do this in a manner that they are not upset–things like you’re over extended and cannot give them the service they deserve but there’s no way to avoid getting rid of them if you want to stay in business and enjoy what you do.

10.What’s the ‘key’ to good customer relationships?

• Honesty
• Proper Expectations
• Results
• Good Communication

Google Places SERP Changes

There are some significant changes to the now ‘defunct’ Google Places search. These are both design changes & functionality changes. Below is a screen shot of new Google Places search page. These pages are not accessible from main Google SERPs anymore but you can click here to view these new results.

So what’s changed?

The style, layout & content of the search results has changed - 

• Google has added back in star ratings with promenant red stars and standard 5 star rating (no google score showing on these pages)
• Image display is also updated and shows count of available photos on a Google+ Local profile
• Hovering over each listing in the results moves the map pin to relevant location on the map
• Map design is updated and has new color scheme
• The 3 organic search results at the bottom of the page have been removed (zero organic results on the page)

These changes appear to bring old places search closer to new Maps design. These places results now sit under the ‘Maps’ tab in the main navigation but they do not replace Maps results.

This is pretty confusing – 2 separate interfaces with different results style, both under maps???

Design update to Google+ Local pages

We also noticed that Google has tweaked the designs for Google+ Local Pages. These changes are purely cosmetic and revolve around the display of review count & star rating. These changes are only shown if you come to Google+ via the old google places search and not through Maps or Main search (google adds parameter to search string to alter display - &rfmt=s)

See example Google+ listing with design changes

The big question about this changes is WHY?

• Why is Google made these updates to the defunct Google Places SERPs which users can no longer access?
• Why are they testing star ratings again and not using Google Score?
• Is this a genuine test or just Google messing around with designs on pages that don’t matter because users can’t easily access them?
• Is Google going to re-release Places SERP pages or is this part of a more complete merge between Google Places & Google Maps?

Another oddity…missing review data in new Google Places results

Another odd thing we noticed in the new Places SERP results is that some data is missing. Check out the following results for the same business – Downtown Dental Center in Boston

1. Google Main search (blended): Shows 5 reviews & link through to Google+ Local page.

2. Google Places search: There are no reviews and no link through to the Google+ Local page.

3. Google Maps results: Listing shows 5 reviews and link to Google+ Local page.

We’ll add more to this post as we notice it and make head & tail of just what is going on!

Note: These changes are affecting the functioning of our tools. We are working on solutions to fix these issues and we will update the tools once we have a solution.

*All answers are the words of the interviewees and any opinions expressed are those of the interviewee and not necessarily of BrightLocal.

Gary Donson

Gary is the Sales and SEO Director of Destiny Group, which specializes in Joomla Website Design, SEO and Social Media marketing. Ongoing research and testing helps keep our clients ahead the curve!

 *All answers are the words of the interviewees and any opinions expressed are those of the interviewee and not BrightLocal.

1. How often do you physically meet with your customers? 

Every 4-8 weeks depending on the value of the package the client is on. I prefer to meet face to face with local clients, which makes for a stronger client relationship. For non-local clients we use Join.Me and Google Hangouts (which we are using more and more)

2. How important is trust in your client relationships & how do you develop trust between you & your clients?

It is very important for client retention as most of our clients get daily emails from other SEO companies. Establishing trust begins with the very first appointment when we establish we know what we sell and then following through with results in a timely manner.

3. How do you manage client’s expectations if progress is slow in the first few months?

That can be a challenge with competitive keywords. We never promise results in the beginning and intentionally keep expectations low in case results do take longer. However we track so many metrics (over 30) that there are generally good results to show in several metrics. If a client goes 2 months with flat results then we work with them to shift strategy with their content. With the internet evolving so quickly there is always something new to show them and new strategies to employ. Research is a vital part of our business, being the first to tell a client about something new goes a long way.

4. Do clients take a keen interest in results & reports?

Yes, they generally focus on a small number of keywords for ranking. We always have to be careful to not overwhelm them with data and demonstrate how the data will correlate with their actual sales. As time goes on they do pay less attention to the reports until we are reviewing them with them face to face. In my opinion this is a bad thing as they are not paying attention to the value of the SEO service.

5. What KPIs do you report to your clients and how frequently do you report?

6. Once you achieve good results for a client, how do you keep them investing in their SEO?

By implementing new strategies based on the latest changes from google, facebook and pinterest. We are always trying to improve results through various channels.

7. Do you find it’s more lucrative to upsell existing clients on extra services than to go out and win new clients?

Yes !!! However a stream of new clients is essential to long term growth.

8. How long does a typical customer stay active with you?

12-18 months

9. How do you handle problematic or difficult customers?

We fire them! They consume too much time and energy. If a client is having a negative affect on the staff it is time for them to go and this can affect all of the clients. To avoid this we are a little selective in the selling process. We do not take on every client that walks through the door.

10.What’s the ‘key’ to good customer relationships?

Manage expectations before they sign the contract. Complete scheduled tasks on time and give them a little extra service from time to time. “By the way – your Pinterest account is now Business Verified” — giving them something they were not expecting or even aware of and then telling why they needed it !

Under Promise – Over Deliver

1. Use YouTube

If you didn’t already know – YouTube is owned by Google. With that in mind it may be a great idea to create a YouTube Channel for your business and start producing videos for YouTube. It may be surprising to you how well your videos end up ranking in Google right away with very little optimization. Even if you do not have a ton of videos to upload at first you should still setup and establish a channel for your business so you can start building that channel age equity. You’ll also want to skin your channel with your branding and give it a good description using local keywords naturally. Make sure you link your channel to your website and vice-versa link your website to your YouTube Channel so that Google knows who is behind the video content.

 2. Transcribe Videos

Looking for a way to get your keywords into your video content? Having your videos transcribed is a very easy way to give your video content some great local SEO value. There are many very affordable transcription services out there that will transcribe your videos perfectly for around $1 a minute. One service we use most often for this is Speechpad, which will serve its purpose well for all your transcription needs. You can use these transcriptions in the description of the videos on YouTube, upload them as a transcription file in YouTube, place them below embedded videos on your blog or repurpose the written transcription in many other ways.

 3. Video Titles are Important

Just like the titles of your website pages, with your videos the titles are just as important for giving Google an idea of what the video is about. Always spend a little extra time to make sure that you have the most descriptive title possible for any video you produce. Typically you should be targeting a particular keyword phrase for each video you produce and that phrase should be used in the title near the front. Placing your local phone number in the title with or without your branding or company name can also provide some local SEO value by allowing a call directly from the SERPs.

 4. Add Your Citation to Video Description

This tip is a must for YouTube optimization! Every one of your videos should include a citation in the description of your video. This means listing your NAP or business name, address, & phone number in standardized format exactly as they appear for your business across the web. Google will consider these mentions as a form of backlink to your business website. Do not skip this simple step as it only takes an extra moment and is critical to making your video content a strong local signal for the Google crawlers.

 5. Add Link to Website to Video Description

If someone is watching your video where do you want them to go in order to convert them to a customer? Well hopefully they call right away from the video title or citation in the description where you’ve placed your business phone number. Many users will want more information before they turn into a lead which is why you need to include a link to a relevant page on your website. If you do not have a relevant page it is OK to link to your homepage but your want to be more targeted if possible. Linking to a landing page on your domain can be extremely effective way to capture visitors and convert them to leads with video. Regardless any links to your domain in the video description will help pass that video’s equity along to your money site, which is very important.

 6. Add link to Video in Description

This is a strategy picked up from another highly respected internet marketer who is an authority with Local SEO that we’ve implemented with good results. When YouTube spits out the link to your video after uploading you want to add that link to that videos description at the bottom. You may think “Really? Why would I link to my video in the description of the same video?” which is a reasonable question. Trust us on this one that in some round-about way this helps funnel back the video’s equity back to that video to help rank it better. Whether you believe it or not it’s not going to hurt you to try so let us know how it goes when you do.

 7. Set Video Location in YouTube

YouTube has been making lots of changes in how videos are managed with the platform. They make changes so often to their video manager that it is hard to put a procedure for local SEO with YouTube in place before the process needs to be updated. With that said they do currently offer an option to set ‘Video location’ under ‘Advanced Settings’ under ‘Info and Settings’ in the video manager. We recommend you do this and set it to your local business address as another local signal for Google.

 8. Backlink Videos

Ranking a YouTube video is much like ranking a website in that it is part on-page optimization and part off-page optimization. Videos need backlinks just like web pages. Many local SEO authorities will tell you that basic backlinking to a YouTube video will yield impressive results. You always want to strive to go after the highest quality backlinks for your content including your videos although success has been had with lower quality links to YouTube videos as well. Keeping in mind that if you are providing very high quality and resourceful video content that it will naturally earn high quality backlinks because people will want to share it. Remember that links built to your YouTube videos will in some way funnel down to your website and contribute to your overall online equity for your business.

9. Use Video in Press Releases

If you release press releases for your business and do not include video within them you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Videos placed inside press releases have the potential to rank very well. Not only will your press release be more rich with the video content but it will also give the video a boost with valuable placement on high authority press release websites. Be careful not to overdo this strategy by always making sure your press releases are highly newsworthy and the video compliments the release in terms of subject and content.

10. Self-Host Videos for Higher Conversion

When most videos show up in the search engine results page they link to the YouTube page. This is great but what if you had a video rich-snippet listing in the SERPs that linked to your business website? You could serve the user your video with all sorts of relevant info and calls to action rather than sending them to YouTube where they are easily distracted by other videos by your competition. Utilizing video sitemaps and services like Amazon s3 hosting you can self-host videos and convert better with video right from the SERPs. This is an advanced strategy but highly effective and it really takes video marketing for local businesses to the next level.

 As you can tell from the above tips there is a ton of potential for local SEO with video marketing. If you are still in doubt it might be worth it to ask yourself what you have to lose. Go ahead and give it a try and if it works for your business keep it up and if the results are lack-luster then try tweaking your strategy or maybe going another route with a better ROI. Video marketing should not be something a local business is allowed to completely disregard as the value has been proven already. Give it a try for your business and at the very least you can write it off as a strategy you are not being hurt by not doing. You’ll find that after your first video is created that they get easier and easier from there.

 Are there any local SEO for video marketing tips that we did not list above? Let us know in the comments how you’ve had success with video marketing for your local business.

 Author: Raleigh Leslie

Raleigh is the Co-Founder & COO at PageLadder, Inc an inbound marketing consultancy in San Diego specializing in helping businesses exceed their business goals with future-proof marketing techniques.

*All answers are the words of the interviewees and any opinions expressed are those of the interviewee and not necessarily of BrightLocal.

Daryl is the Local Search Manager at Glacial Multimedia, medical marketing specialists. Glacial integrates a mix of new media marketing tools; medical website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web video/audio production, website analytics, social media optimization and software development.

1. How often do you physically meet with your customers? 

Rarely, which isn’t to say I am not in constant communication with my clients. I have customers in virtually every state in America so to have consistent face to face meetings is slightly problematic. I do travel when a need arises but try to limit it where possible relying more on phone and email communication. I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure my clients feel like I am there for them to solve any issues and answer any questions.

2. How important is trust in your client relationships & how do you develop trust between you & your clients?

Trust is everything. One of the saddest things I encounter, often from new clients, are the stories of how they were wooed by a company and then once the contract is signed they never hear from that person again. I am fortunate to work for the company I do, where our reputation is built on customer trust and results. I truly believe that I could not be as effective as I am if I was not able to build a trusting relationship quickly. If my clients do not trust me I quite simply cannot do my job. I am able to build these relationships through previous work, essentially word of mouth and demonstrated results.

3. How do you manage client’s expectations if progress is slow in the first few months?

Clients expect results. If you promise something and it doesn’t happen, no amount of excuses will repair that damage which is why I am very upfront about the expectations and timelines. I make promises but not unrealistic ones as I know if I promise a thing and that thing doesn’t happen our relationship is now in serious jeopardy. The few mistakes I’ve ever made were because I was not upfront on a timeline and the client expected results far quicker than they could be achieved – that was my fault for not explaining fully enough. Thankfully that was an issue I quickly overcame.

4. Do clients take a keen interest in results & reports?

Some. Let’s face it, some clients want to be involved and see how you got to the results, while others look at it more from the angle of “that’s what I’m paying you for, just show me the results.” Either way is perfectly acceptable to me.

I’ve also discovered that as I begin to deliver on the promises I’ve made, clients tend to become less and less involved in the monthly nitty gritty details – once I’ve proven my worth I guess. I also make it as easy as possible and point out when and where they should start paying attention again if a hiccup happens, there is usually at least one hiccup along the way.

5. What KPIs & how frequently do you report to your clients?

6. Once you achieve good results for a client, how do you keep them investing in their SEO?

Communication. Again this is where we separate ourselves from others I believe. We explain why ongoing SEO is important. Something as simple as constant monitoring of SEO work/performance or the ever changing rules of SEO are strong reasons to continue. With us there is no penalty for stopping an SEO campaign at any stage, which some other agencies mandate; instead we explain why stopping might not be in their interest and allow them the decision. I will say that virtually every client that has stopped has started again soon after.

7. Do you find it’s more lucrative to upsell existing clients on extra services than to go out and win new clients?

At Glacial Multimedia we offer a family of services – I say family because they are all truly related. We immediately begin with an assessment and then develop a long term strategy based on a clients needs, expectations and budget. Here again communication is essential, a client may feel that a particular item is necessary to accomplish their goals, but after having an honest conversation with them we help them prioritize what it is they truly wish to accomplish and set up a plan to accomplish those goals. In doing this we may end up with a wide variety of services up front, or potentially down the road.

8. How long does a typical customer stay active with you?

Forever. While we have lost clients to competitors over the years, the vast majority eventually come back. I attribute that to the fact that we simply care more than others do. We genuinely want to assist you in accomplishing your goals and do everything we can, realistically. We rarely make a mistake but always own it when we do, we never blame someone else like some others I know. I truly believe that our ability to build trusting long lasting relationships is unique in our industry.

9. How do you handle problematic or difficult customers?

With patience. Here we should define our terms however. Difficult customers tend to be the ones that simply need more hand holding and need constant attention. They also will require frequent re-explanations of how things work. While this may be slightly frustrating at times, it is perfectly acceptable – after all you know the context in which you work, they generally do not. Problematic customers I define as those that do not listen, will not engage in a conversation to strategize, have unrealistic demands, are rude and refuse to take any accountability for their own actions. I definitely work with one or two and attempt to change our dynamic. If I am unsuccessful I may put them on notice that if our relationship does not change I will not longer be able to assist them. We have had to walk away from a client or two in our years of doing business.

10.What’s the ‘key’ to good customer relationships?

Effective communication. Period.

The objective of this survey is to gain greater understanding about the health & nature of the local SEO Industry. Through this survey we aim to find out what life is like ‘on the ground’ for those in the local SEO industry and to share those findings publicly to help improve the knowledge and insight within our industry.

BrightLocal Local SEO Industry Survey 2013

This is the 2nd wave of the survey. The 2013 survey was conducted between 20th January – 20th February 2013. 1,409 SEOs completed this survey (up from 1,150 in 2011) and we thank them for giving us their time & information to make this survey possible.

The 1st wave was conducted in July 2011 and the findings can be found here - http://www.brightlocal.com/local-seo-industry-survey-2011

The survey asks questions specific to Local SEO and was promoted to the full BrightLocal user base and our network of SEOs & agencies. The majority of survey respondents are SEO freelancers, small digital agencies and web designers so the results are indicative of this audience.

We opted to update and change some of the questions asked in wave 2 vs. wave 1. There are 17 questions which cover 5 key areas:

1. Size & Turnover 
2. Clients & Industries 
3. Marketing & Sales
4. Services & Tasks
5. Future Outlook 

We have made the following charts available for download as a PDF so that you can use them as a presentation in your reports. Download it here Local SEO Industry Survey 2013.

Size & Turnover

1. How many people in your company are SEOs?

•  82% of respondents said that they have just 1-5 practicing SEOs in their company

Comment:

As a provider of local SEO tools, the majority of our users are small digital agencies, SEO freelancers and web-designers. Therefore it’s not surprising that 82% of respondents said that they have just 1-5 SEOs in their business. 

2. What was your turnover in the last 12 months?

• 34% of SEOs turnover was less than $30,000
• 17% said that their turnover was above $500,000

Comment:

It’s interesting to see the spread of revenue which local SEO/agencies earn. At one end of the market some SEOs appear to be struggling with turnover less than $30,000; while at the other end 17% said they earned $500,000 or above. Size of the agency and the quantity of clients handled is obviously a significant factor in turnover so you’d expect smaller agencies to earn less, and vice versa for larger operations. Turnover isn’t necessarily a sign of a successful agency, but we felt that asking for profit numbers would put respondents off answering 

There doesn’t appear to be a clear shift in earnings level since 2011 so it’s hard to predict which way the market is headed. There is healthy demand for local SEO services as more & more local businesses turn to online/mobile to reach local consumers. However the competition between SEOs has never been greater as more people enter the industry or expand their services to provide local SEO/marketing.

SEO is a complex, skilled & intellectual profession which is in great demand. Now is the zeitgeist of our industry, so it’s surprising to hear that 34% of SEOs earned less than $30,000 in the last 12 months. It poses a few questions - 

• Are SEOs pricing their services too low?
• Do SMBs not value or understand the value provided by their SEO/agency?
• Is excessive competition in the industry forcing SEOs to price themselves low to undercut others?
• Can SEOs really provide a good quality service while earning $30,000 or less?
• How many SEOs will still be in business next year if they can’t increase their income?

Note – part time SEOs & ‘newbie’ SEOs would pull this turnover down as they are not operating at full capacity and maximising their revenue potential.

3. What does an average customer pay you each month?

• 28% of customers pay between $500-$1,000 per month for SEO services
• 70% of customers pay under $1,000 per month for SEO services

Comment:

As is the case with agency turnover, the income per customer also varies greatly across the industry. Some clients pay less than $100/month while others pay $5,000 or more. The type of services provided and the depth of service will dictate the price point, as will the size of the customer’s business – the budget & requirements of a small mom & pop business are much smaller than a multi-location franchise business.

If we read between the lines a little, what this data shows is just how broad the nature of service is from SEOs. Some operate on a high volume basis, providing a lightweight or ‘cookie-cut’ service for a very low monthly rate. These businesses typically have higher customer churn and a large, dedicated sales team. Other SEOs offer a much more comprehensive service with a tailored approach for each client and therefore they service a lower number of clients.

As an SEO you can pitch yourself at the point where you operate best, which matches your set-up. There is demand from businesses for services the whole way along this value range; although you can guarantee that every client out there wants more of your time for less of their money.

Clients and Industries

4. How many clients do you personally handle?

• Most SEOs handle between 6-10 customers
• 71% of SEOs handle 6 or more customers
• 23% of SEOs handle 21 or more customers
• 11% are new to SEO this year

Comment: 

SEOs are handling more clients this year than they did last year. 40% of SEOs handle 11 clients or more, with 23% handling 21 or more customers. That mounts up to a lot of audits, research, tasks, reports and client calls each month. Efficiency is the key to working successfully with this many clients; effective SEOs are process-driven creatures who know how to strip away unnecessary tasks and focus on the critical tasks which deliver results for their customers.

Or maybe they just work every hour god gives them! Probably both!

5. Do you serve a particular vertical industry or do your clients come from many different industries?

• Just 14% of SEOs/agencies target 1 vertical industry
• 20% of SEOs target 2-3 specific industries

Comment: 

The majority of SEOs/agencies don’t target their services at specific industries but take on clients from any sector. There are pros & cons from both approaches -

• All Industries – this approach keeps your client pool broad allowing you to take on any potential client. It keeps work interesting because you’re learning about different sectors and which tactics work best for different business types. You are exposed to issues & solutions which you can bring to bear on your clients in other industries. It reduces competition between clients because they’re not all in the same sector. You can focus your sales/lead-gen to a tighter geographic area because you won’t exhaust your supply of potential clients too soon.

• Specific Industries – this allows you to develop a specialism in 1 or 2 industries and build up a reputation as an expert in this sector. You can develop an efficient set of strategies and apply these to all your clients making your work effective and efficient. You can easily target your marketing & sales to reach businesses in these sectors and develop relevant case studies and success stories which gives confidence to owners of similar businesses.  
  

Marketing and Sales

6. Which channels are most effective for attracting new customers to you / your agency?

• 3 of the most effective channels for attracting new customers are offline channels
• Word of mouth is the most effective channel – 91% said bought them most leads
• SEO was the 2nd biggest driver of leads & customers (46%)
• LinkedIn (18%) is more effective than Facebook (11%) & Twitter (10%) 

 *Note - respondents were asked to select max 3 answers 

Comment: 

The results of this question show how important reputation & relationships are when selling & buying SEO services. The 4 most effective sales channels are all driven by trust, reputation & relationships. Local business owners are far more likely to commit their precious (even scarce) marketing budget to someone they know, like and trust; and a big portion of this trust comes through recommendation by others.

A increasing number of our agency customers tell us that LinkedIn is a good driver of new business. SEOs are B2B service providers so LinkedIn is a better fit for networking & lead generation vs. facebook, twitter & pinterest.

It’s also interesting to note that SEO far outstrips PPC as a lead gen channel. The proof is in the pudding for local businesses – “if they can get their own business to rank well in search, then they can do the same for me”.

7. How many new leads do you proactively contact each month?

• 32% of SEOs don’t make out bound sales enquiries (down from 46% in 2012)
• 11% of SEOs make over 50 sales enquiries each month

Comment: 

It appears that SEOs are having to work harder to win new customers. In 2012 46% of respondents didn’t do any outbound sales but that dropped to 33% this year. At the other end of the scale some SEOs are supercharging their outbound sales and hitting more than 50 potential clients each month.

We speak to a large number of SEOs every week and the approach to sales varies greatly. Some agencies are very sales focused with dedicated sales teams and aggressive growth strategies. For freelancers & smaller agencies the job of lead-gen & sales typically falls to the SEO or agency boss; it’s 1 task in a long line of daily tasks and gets done when it gets done. And some, more established agencies, are not interested in growing; instead they want to maintain the current status quo and focus on maintaining their existing customer base.

So there’s no right or wrong approach to sales, and certainly no ‘golden number’ for new customers you should contact each month. It really depends on how you position your business, what your ambitions are and how established your business is.

8. What is your success rate at converting leads to customers?

• 42% is average success rate for converting new leads to customers
• 29% of SEOs covert more than 70% of leads to customers
• 17% convert less than 10% of leads

Comment: 

Sales conversion rates vary greatly in the industry. With average conversion at 42% that’s a decent level, however 17% of SEOs say they convert less than 10% of their pitches.

However the chart only shows part of the picture. Conversion rates are a product of a number of factors including method of approach, quantity of leads contacted, sales structure & ability, business reputation, local market competition etc…. I would expect that agencies who take a more considered & tailored approach to pitching will covert more than those with a high-volume, sales-led model.

Chart 6 above shows how important ’Reputation’ is to selling SEO services. Having a solid & demonstrable reputation (e.g. client testimonials, success stories, positive online star rating) will considerably improve sales conversion so SEOs/agencies should focus on building a positive reputation and building their sales approach around this. Client testimonials and published success stories are excellent devices for demonstrating your ability & publicizing that hard earned reputation. 

 Services and Tasks

9. What SEO / online marketing services do you offer? 

• 91% of SEOs offer on-site optimization
• 86% of SEOs offer Google+ Optimization
• Only 11% offer affiliate marketing

  *Note - respondents were asked to select max 3 answers

10.  Which service is most in demand from your customers?

• On-site SEO & Google+ Optimization are most in-demand services.

 *Note - respondents were asked to select max 3 answers 

Comment: 

The services most & least in demand from clients closely mirrors the services which SEO/agencies provide (& don’t provide).

In our regular workshops with our SEO agency customers it’s clear that in most cases the take up of new services by clients is driven by what their agency supplies. Most SMBs aren’t aware of the opportunities presented by video & mobile marketing so they need to be educated by their agencies on the benefits and potential of these channels.

In the local arena, digital marketing is driven by the supply side because knowledge resides firmly in the minds of SEOs & digital marketing professionals. The services offered often dictate what customer’s purchase. It’s simple business practice – develop a new service, learn how to effectively sell it and up sell your customers to grow your revenues.

Interestingly 43% of SEOs offer video marketing & 41% offer mobile marketing services. These percentages are small in comparison  to on-site SEO & Google+ optimization but they are growing. Forward thinking SEOs are embracing these offerings and selling them in to new & existing customers.

11. Which of these online channels is most effective at generating customers for your clients?

• 82% of SEOs said that ‘General search’ is the most effective channel for generating leads/customers 
• ‘Local search’ is the 2nd most effective channel (62%) 
• PPC is 3rd with 53% and social media 4th with 26%.
• Only 1% of SEOs said that Daily Deals were effective at generating leads/customers.

 *Note - respondents were asked to select max 3 answers

Comment: 

It is clear that the majority of sales come from 3 channels -

1. General Search
2. Local Search
3. PPC

Social media is more effective than local directories and mobile. In future we expect the contribution of social & mobile to grow but directories to drop as audiences find less & less value in using local directories. Why? well…

• Recommendations from friends carry more weight & significance than simple business listings and reviews by strangers
• Mobile usage is growing at a staggering rate and is particularly relevant for local businesses

About ‘Daily Deals’ – we would have got a different answer has we asked specifically about ‘sales’ rather than ‘customers’. There is plenty of debate about the long term benefit of Daily Deals for businesses. Yes they generate short term sales (no disputing that) but the jury is out on whether DD is effective at generating genuine, new customers & value long term value for businesses – a criticism often leveled at the likes of Groupon, LivingSocial and others in this space.

12. Do you believe that Social Media is an effective marketing channel for local businesses? 

• 82% of SEOs said that social media is an effective channel for local businesses (vs. 76% in 2011)
• 25% said that social media is ‘very’ powerful, while 57% said it works well for certain business types
• 18% of SEOs are undecided or felt social media was over-hyped (vs. 24% in 2011)

Comment:

It appears that social media is winning over more local SEOs. 6% more SEOs believe social media is an effective channel year than last year. The majority still believe that social media works for some businesses types but not all, meaning that different businesses will see different levels of return and impact from promoting themselves & engaging their customers on twitter, Facebook etc…

As social shares become an ever more important factor in SEO performance, the impact of social media stretches well beyond direct sales & customer engagement on these platforms. Some SEOs believe that likes, tweets, check-ins, pins etc… will grow to rival links as a critical SEO signal and therefore it will become important for all businesses to engage with social media. Now is the time for business owners who don’t use social media to work out how & when they should use it and get committed to ‘social’. 

13. Which of the following SEO & business tasks do you tackle in a typical week?

  *Note - respondents were asked to select max 3 answers

Comment:

SEOs tackle a wide range of tasks each week, from analytics & auditing through to manual link building to social media to self-marketing.

This is proof of the huge diversity of tasks a modern SEO has to deal with and the range of skills they need to do it well. SEO is such a complex discipline (especially at the freelance/small agency level where specialization is a luxury not many people have) which requires great adaptability and the ability to multi-task at great pace. But it also requires a good analytical brain to process the data we work with, draw conclusions and act on them.

Long live SEOs! – multi-tasking superheros of the modern business world (IMHO anyway)

14. Which of the following SEO & business tasks do you find to be the most time-consuming and tedious?

• 55% of SEOs say they find link building the most time consuming/tedious task they do
• 15% of SEOs say that content writing is the most time consuming/tedious task they do

Comment:

Who’d have thought it?! Most SEOs find link building boring – go figure?!

Disclaimer – I’m a little biased because I’m impatient and don’t have the meticulous & persistent nature that good link builders have. In fact I would say that I suck at link building because I just don’t draw any satisfaction from it, but i respect those that do it well

Future Outlook

15. Do you expect to grow your business in 2013?

• 93% of respondents said Yes (vs. 82% in 2011)

16. Are you planning to recruit more staff in 2013?

• 82% of respondents say they will recruit more staff this year

17. Which of these phrases best describes your hopes & expectations for 2013?

•  84% of respondents are confident that 2013 will a good or great year for their business
• Just 4% said that it’s going to be a difficult year

Comment:

Confidence is running high in the SEO industry. There can’t be many industries in the current economy that can boast such a positive outlook. 

Agencies are looking to grow in 2013 and recruit staff to help drive & fulfill that growth. 

The only blot on the horizon for the Local SEO industry is the nearly perpetual change it goes through. Our industry is very dynamic & innovative but this constant change makes life uncertain for SEOs and means we need to be ready to adapt our services and approach at all times. This can be frustrating and difficult as we need to keep clients abreast of these changes; this in turn frustrates them and makes SEO an even more impenetrable subject.

What this industry is desperately in need of is simplification and consistency with fewer options and less change. This may sound like a negative view but we need to increase understanding of SEO/social among business owners and give them confidence in the services we provide so that they keep investing and keep transferring the budget from other channels to digital channels.

There are many positive aspects to using social media, such as…

• It is free to set up a social media profile
• Social media profiles and posts are displayed in SERPs
• Retweets, likes, +1s and other shares create a link back to your site which helps ranking
• Followers can become advocates for your business, boosting your word of mouth

The list of benefits goes on; some apply to all business types while others are specific to certain industries. But it’s fair to say that virtually every business has something to gain from engaging with social media and connecting with their customers & potential customers. 

Given that SEO agencies exist to advise clients and deliver strategies that will make them more successful online, it is only natural that social media is a channel they promote. 

Some agencies ‘Say’ but don’t ‘Do’

However, despite their championing of social media, some (by no means all) SEO freelancers and agencies don’t have an active social media presence themselves. Being active within social media doesn’t necessarily mean having thousands of followers, but is about the consistency of their efforts to engage with customers & contacts on the right social platforms.

For any SEO who promotes the use of social media to their clients, it defies logic that you wouldn’t use effectively yourself:

• Why would any business promote a service or a product but not engage in it themselves, if it is filled with so much potential?  Can you imagine Tiger Woods appearing in a Nike advert but then turning up to play golf in Adidas apparel? 

As an SEO or agency boss you need to display expertise & best practice with your own use of relevant social channels.  You can blog about the topic and preach it to the heavens but if you don’t practice what you preach then customers will see through the facade and may question the validity in you offering these services. ‘Doing’ not ‘saying’ will help to build credibility and convince customers that you know what you’re doing so they trust the advice & services you provide.

Why aren’t some SEOs & agencies engaging in social media?

Firstly, let me reiterate a point I made above. Many agencies do a great job of promoting themselves socially and do practice what they preach. But in our line of work we come across a lot of agencies – a surprising number in fact – who don’t actively use social media to the level you would expect.

We know that running an SEO agency or being a freelance consultant is a busy, challenging role.  It is easy to see why, with so much happening on a daily basis, you might not see social media as a priority vs the other daily jobs on your plate. Typical reasons why agencies don’t spend enough time on social media - 

• Time constraints; most SEOs would love to spend more time on social media, but simply don’t have the time
• Put clients first – a small agency or freelance SEO is likely to allocate most of their time working with/on clients
• Social media might not be viewed as part of a key lead-gen channel for an SEO
• Social media is (wrongly) seen by some as a B2C marketing platform, while SEO clients are typically other businesses (so B2B rather than B2C)

There are ways around all of these impediments and viewpoints, whether it involves outsourcing social media activities, using software to aide your social media work, or simply just carving out time for it in the busy working day.

Research, plan, implement

The key to successful social campaigns is to devise a clear, simple strategy and then stick to it. You need a strategy you can fulfill and not be overly ambitious. You need to weave ‘social media’ into your daily tasks and make it a ‘must do’ task -  like setting the office alarm as you leave at night, or responding to emails within 12 hours. Once it is a part of your daily routine and work culture you will quickly see your social activities start to reap rewards.

Here is an 7 point check list for researching, planning & structuring your social media activity:

1. Determine & write down your main objectives

You need to be clear what the objectives of your social media activity are. You can have multiple objectives but you should prioritize them so they contribute to your wider business goals - 

• Generate leads & customers
• Establish credibility 
• Showcase industry/local knowledge
• Brand awareness
• Build wide, social audience
• Support your clients

Determine what your goals are, write them down, share them with your partners & team and then evaluate the results of your activity against these goals.

2. Know who your audience is & where they are

Knowing your audience is key. Once you know your audience you can determine which social networks they use and where you should focus your efforts.  You have probably done this lots of times for your customers so turn the spotlight on your own business.

As an SEO agency or consultant, time is not something you have much of, it is important to focus your efforts where you’ll get the greatest return.

You don’t need us to tell you the different channels open to you….but we’re going to anyway

Our suggestions would be to focus on Twitter, Google+ & LinkedIn.  These are the best platforms for connecting with a larger B2B audience. If you’re a local SEO specialist then you might want to consider using Facebook over LinkedIn; smaller, local business owners aren’t typically heavy LinkedIn users. That said we’ve heard from a few of our SEO agency customers that LinkedIn is a great source of leads for them and local businesses owners are using LinkedIn for networking more & more.

3. What topics do you have license to talk about?

One of the potential pitfalls of using social media is a tendency for businesses/people to go beyond the borders of what topics are relevant to them and their audience. You should define a set of topics which you have ‘license’ to talk about and which your audience will be interested in. Be creative and think laterally about what these topics are but don’t stray beyond these unless you are confident your audience/clients will be interested.

4. Nominate a ‘Social Champion’

Decide who in your business is going to oversee & manage your social activity.  This might be you, an employee, or you could outsource to a freelancer or virtual assistant. You may want to manage the strategy yourself but share the daily tasks among a few employees in order to split up the workload across the week. In the early days it would be wise for you to keep a close eye on the process until it’s working smoothly and everyone knows their role; then you can remove yourself from the daily process and give ownership to others involved. If you have an in-house social media team or SEO then they are the obvious candidates to draft in; utilize their know how & passion and make it work for you as well as your clients.

5. Post Smartly

You probably already know the peak times when people log into their accounts, as you advise your clients as such or post on their behalf.  Trends for business log-ins do not differ much from consumer ones, remember that they will be online targeting their own customers at the same time.  Posting at the start of the day, at lunchtime, and at the end of the day can work as a good, logical starting point for a basic campaign.  This gives you easy reference points for when you should be doing it.  Having a mini, editorial style calendar detailing when posts should happen, even if it is just a reminder on a device, will serve as a prompt.

6. Keep it fresh & mix it up

This applies to everything related to your social media activity. To keep your activity fresh you need to to mix things up and keep your activity diverse and engaging -

• Post different content on each social network depending on your audience on each channel;
• Use a mix of automated posts and ‘human’ posts
• Promote your own services & blog content;
• Promote things your clients are up to; 
• Subscribe to RSS feeds of five or six influential SEO/social media websites so that you aren’t spending hours looking for high-quality content to share each day;

7. Respond as well as initiate 

A thorough social media practice includes responding to questions and queries, as well as posting your own fresh messages. You don’t always have to be a source of exciting/interesting information but can simply spread the word. Of course you need to keep the content relevant to you and your audience. It is much faster & easier to re-tweet or share content which others publish & share so factor these into your social content mix. 

 Image source: www.edudemic.com

New citation tracking charts

Now you can visualize your active citations and how they grow over time in our new citation tracking charts. Each column on the chart represents 1 report run and the banded colors show how many new citations we identified each time we re-ran your citationtracker report.

For optimal results we advise customers to set up their CitationTracker reports to update monthly. Weekly tracker reports use up 4 credits per month (vs monthly = 1 credit) and the week-on-week growth in Citations is not usually that significant. So monthly tracking will display more encouraging growth in citations and will create a prettier chart for your customers to see (hey, design matters right!)

Citation notes – keep track of tasks & actions 

A number of customers requested the option to leave notes for themselves about certain citations – e.g. so they know which ones have issues or have been claimed etc…

We have added a neat ‘pen’ icon next to each citation. Clicking on this will open up a notes window and you can leave a message for yourself about that citation. These notes are for your own benefit and don’t get reviewed by BrightLocal staff. 

• Time constraints for managing own marketing and local SEO efforts
• Inability to grow the business as they may wish to due to being overloaded with work
• A need to balance the time spent carrying out services for clients against dealing with enquiries and finding new business

Many challenges, including those above, often interlink and can have consequences for an SEO agency or a freelancer.  Efficiency is important in any size agency, but for an SEO it can be even more vital, especially when you are looking to demonstrate the work you have done to your client base.  You might need to create monthly or weekly reports on the back of a promise to ‘dramatically improve ROI,’ all while doing the job clients pay for.

You probably use a wide range of tools to help SEO and other technical aspects of the business, but have perhaps not thought of how to streamline your operation itself and make it easier to grow your agency, manage employees, and much more.

Helpdesk software could be a solution worth exploring.

How discovering helpdesk can help you

Using helpdesk software can be a solution for SEO agencies and consultants that are looking to streamline communications with both staff members and clients.  A helpdesk solution does represent an additional cost for an SEO, but the time-savings and efficiency gains from using helpdesk software can combine to make it a cost effective solution.

These are popular with larger businesses, and as such, many smaller companies, including local SEO agencies, do not realize the value they could add to their own business.  Many view helpdesks as a large business service only.  In fact, smaller businesses could definitely benefit from helpdesk software more than larger ones, so long as they understand why they are using it, and know how to make the most of it.

Gain a competitive edge

For an SEO, the greatest competitive edge they can get over similar agencies, freelancers, and larger competitors is often focusing closely on customer service and interaction.  At the same time, focusing on keeping your clients updated and constantly interacting with them takes time out of your day when you want to focus on your job; providing quality SEO services and results.

It is something of a business paradox that looking after customers can make you inefficient, but that is where helpdesk software can come in.

Is it better than email?

Some will have read to this point and will be thinking they have email, and that can do these tasks perfectly well.  There are a number of differences, however, that make helpdesk software stand out above a traditional email solution:

• Give freelancers or virtual PA’s access accounts to the helpdesk software and what is relevant to them
• Easier tracking of conversations with employees and clients, no more trawling through a cluttered inbox looking for that important message
• Track activity of all freelancers via interactive task lists and time stamping
• Ability to involve as many or as few people in a particular stream as possible

You cannot do any of that if you operate via email; you could give access to your email account if you wanted to, but who would realistically take such a risk?  This is why many companies are moving to helpdesk and wiki-based solutions to aid their agency operations.

Who should use helpdesk?

Any agency that wants to improve their customer satisfaction and efficiency would be good candidates for using helpdesk software.  Our focus in on SEO agencies who are looking to grow their business, but do not have the time to so because they are currently doing everything for themselves, including all tasks in relation to client liaison.

As there are so many strands to SEO, you will find many freelancers around the world to whom you can outsource specific tasks.  Customer interaction is one such task you might outsource; by using a helpdesk software solution, you can easily keep an overview of a situation without having to involve yourself.  You could even use people in your company to manage these freelancers, so that you free up even more time to focus on the high-value tasks.

In terms of customers, your freelancer or virtual PA can then deal with any incoming queries from existing customers, pass on enquiries from potential new customers or deal with it themselves, send out reports and regular updates, and any other client-centric tasks that you regularly complete.

Pros and cons of helpdesk software

Before we look at three of the prominent helpdesk solutions available, let us refresh ourselves on the benefits using helpdesk software can bring:

• Ideal for an SEO agency looking to save time, improve efficiency, and grow their business
• Very efficient and cost effective way of managing process in small businesses
• Ability to manage a team of freelancers from one place rather than sending various emails
• Maintain high levels of customer focus and satisfaction from your SEO agency
• Ability to gain a competitive edge in terms of service focus and delivery
• Track conversations with customers and your team at-a-glance
• Respond quickly to customer queries, minimize customer ‘downtime’ and focus on the job
• Use helpdesk software for as few or as many processes and operations as you want, make every aspect of your agency more efficient

In contrast, there are disadvantages you have to deal with:

• Cost associated with using helpdesk software
• Time investment to teach yourself how to use the platform, setting it up, and then training all members of your team

It is probably clear by now just how powerful helpdesk software can be, and the benefits it can bring to an SEO agency or consultant.  You can have confidence that the disadvantages we identified will be offset by long-term time-savings and efficiency gains.  If it is something you have considered before, or have decided you would like to try it out having read this, here are three to look at.

Zendesk brings together customer queries, whether it come via email, SMS message, or their social media streams.  Agencies get a snapshot of what their customers are saying or asking across a variety of categories, meaning that no matter how they are communicating with them, they are able to respond.

You can also pre-load queries and build a knowledge base of FAQs and more so that more of your customers can find answers for themselves, again saving you time.  Zendesk allows for hosting conversation streams and simple overview of these, and anyone dealing with a query can access information from across the business.

At the top level, local SEO business owners can track their service metrics via a wide range of data, such as how long it takes a customer to receive a response from you, average time to solve a problem, how often issues recur, and many more.

Zendesk’s account options range from a $20 a year ‘starter’ subscription for new businesses to those ranging from $24 – $119 a month, depending on whether you pay annually or monthly.

Desk is provided by ‘Salesforce,’ which is a larger standalone CRM solution.  For simple customer efficiency and dealing with enquiries, Desk is a helpful small business aid.  Desk allows you to centralize two email accounts, two Twitter accounts, and two Facebook pages, as well as phone and live chat options.

Branded email response templates are available for an additional $19 a month to put a professional and personal slant on all of your outgoing communications.  Service delivery information is available, while admin and agent account options enable business owners to control what freelancers are able to access, it is easy to keep a line between what your in-house employees do, and what freelancers and virtual PA’s see and do, for example.

Should you go for Desk’s knowledge base feature, you can host this encrypted on your site for $69 per month.

For the Desk service itself, there are a number of options.  The first person in your business to register is free, with each additional agent $49 per month (currently $29 for a limited time).  If you are looking for more flexibility from your helpdesk solution, Desk has an option to pay $1 per hour, per agent, which might work for you depending to what extent you are planning to use the software in your business.

Freshdesk offers a large helpdesk suite, allowing you to bring together emails, instant messages, and social media feedback in a similar manner to the products already analyzed.  An added benefit is that you can direct specific things immediately to your email account, or that of someone else in your company, so that you can deal with it urgently.  This is perfect for the local SEO agency owner who is happy to take a step back and only get involved when necessary.  At the same time, you also have the ability to forward emails that you receive to your Freshdesk system, great for when you email a client from your individual email address once, and then seem to receive all support queries direct!

Freshdesk offers the widest range of subscription options, with advanced features bolted on to the higher end packages, rather than available at an additional, standalone cost.

Their basic package starts free for the first three agents, with additional agents added at $15 per month.  From here, a range of options are available up to $49 per month per agent, which can be reduced to $40 should you pay annually.

Freshdesk also allows you to buy a ‘day pass’ should you need to, ideal for if you need a short-term solution to deal with higher than usual demand, for example.

Finding helpdesk software

All of the solutions we have looked at, and many others, provide free trial options so you can get a feel for which helpdesk software will work best for you and your business needs.

It is important to take helpdesk software for what it is – a tool to help streamline your customer interactions and make your business more efficient.  It is not an enterprise level CRM solution, and you should not treat it as such.  Software such as Salesforce and SugerCRM are available if that is more the service you need.

However, for managing selected aspects of your workload and process, managing freelancers, and interacting with customers so you can focus on other areas of your business,  helpdesk software can have a massive positive impact.

Gary Donson

Gary is the Sales and SEO Director of Destiny Group, which specializes in Joomla Website Design, SEO and Social Media marketing. Ongoing research and testing helps keep our clients ahead the curve!

 *All answers are the words of the interviewees and any opinions expressed are those of the interviewee and not BrightLocal.

1. What research & planning do you do before you start active SEO work?

This is critical to the success of any SEO campaign. We will spend 1-2 hours on research and planning prior to starting SEO work. All research always begins with a client meeting to be certain we understand their business model, their goals and what their expectations are.

2. Do you have a checklist or framework that you use to help you plan your research and tasks for each new client?

3. Post ‘Planning’ – How do you prioritize what tasks to do first? 

We will tackle Google+ Local tasks first, then Social Media integration to the website, then On-Page SEO factors. We usually handle Citation building at the beginning of the 2nd month.

4. What time frame do you plan for with a new client and why not longer/shorter? 

We have 3 SEO packages, the size of the package determines how much time we spend on an account. We are very careful with time tracking on every project, and review every two weeks so we can adjust efforts up and down when needed. We start out each project with a targeted number of hours per month. Our intention is to have a client for 12-18 months – when we “attempt” to set expectations with the client we always talk to them using a minimum 12 month time frame, even though we do not require a contract.

5. What KPIs do you track for your clients and what tools do you use to track performance? 

• Domain Authority and Moz Rank
• Indexed Pages
• Incoming Links
• Linking Domains
• Ranking Report
• Google Analytics metrics including Queries & Clicks from Queries
• Inbound Traffic broken down by Organic, Emails, PPC, Social
• Social Media Reach – FB, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest (direct reach only)
• Form fills on the website

6. Do you provide a client with a specific set of targets & timelines? Do clients ever question these targets and how do you handle their expectations?

This has not been something we have done in the past but we are considering adding.

7. How regularly do you meet or talk with a client in the first 3 months?

The first month we will meet 1-2 times and then monthly thereafter – half of our meetings are done face to face and the other half using Join.Me (my fave screenshare)

8. Do you structure your agreements with monthly payments, upfront payments or both?

Monthly payments via Paypal only – with the client paying at the beginning of the month before we begin work. We do not currently require a minimum number of months for SEO packages.

9. What tools do you ask clients to give you access to and are clients ever reluctant or wary about giving you access?

Google Analytics and Webmaster (admin access preferrably) – the only time we have a problem getting access to either is because of a previous webmaster , never the client.