If you’re a professional search engine optimizer, the field
is wide open for you as far as clients are concerned. But how on earth do you
find them?
Let’s face it: virtually every single business Web site is
a potential client. But if you send out bulk e-mail, you risk getting tar and
feathered by the E-Mail Spam Police.
So, how can you get started in this industry if you have little
to no advertising budget, and how can you build a clientele?
1. Consider starting on a local level where you have some
personal connections. Join your area’s Chamber of Commerce, and make it a
point to meet and get to know as many of the members as you can. Once you find
out that they have an online business, ask them about their business and their
traffic. How pleased are they with the results they’re getting from their
Web site? That’s a perfect opportunity for you to casually explain your
services and how you can help them.
2. Form relationships with area Web design firms, hosting
companies, and Internet Service Providers. Offer them a referral fee for any
SEO clients they send you. Then, turn around and send them business as well.
3. Look into other local clubs and organizations that you might
consider joining. Examples might be the Kiwanis Club, the Lion’s Club, or
the Rotary Club. Even if you don’t join, let it be known that you’d
enjoy speaking to the group about search engine marketing, which is certainly a
topic of interest to anyone with a Web site.
4. Consider purchasing a small ad to run in your local newspaper
advertising your services. Your ad doesn’t have to be long or expensive.
What about:
Do you have a Web site that is struggling for traffic? Do
you know that Web sites don’t attract traffic by themselves?
http://www.yourwebsite.com
5. Try to get on a local radio or TV station to talk about
search engine marketing.
6. Is there a Board of Realtors in your area? A legal
association? A convention and tourism office? What other industry is known for
having Web sites? Any of those would be excellent places to recruit new
clients. Again, work out a relationship that will benefit all parties. Offer a
discount to anyone who is a member of the tourism bureau, for example. Offer to
speak at one of their meetings. Offer multi-site discounts for any clients with
more than one site.
7. Work hard for all of your clients, going much further than
giving them 100% in the beginning until you can prove to them that you know
what you’re doing and can bring results. Those clients will begin
recommending your services to other clients, and your business will continue to
grow, eventually outside of your local area.
8. If you’re going after many clients in a local market,
consider purchasing a couple of local domains yourself, using your locale in
the name of the domains. In other words, set up a directory of Web sites for
your location. This will help you build link popularity for your clients. Plus,
you can allow other local businesses to submit their sites, which are now
prospective clients for you as well. Offer services like enhanced listings,
positioning services, directory submissions, affiliate offerings, and so
forth.
9. Set up a domain to advertise your services, and then get it
listed in all of your area’s online yellow pages and business directories
as well as the major search engines and directories. Believe it or not, I know
many professional SEO’s who don’t even have their own Web sites!
10. Write articles, both for your local newspapers, as valuable
content for your site, and to submit to related online resources to
“prove” that you’re knowledgeable in search engine marketing.
Always list your name, company name, and URL at the bottom of your articles in
your byline. Then, spend some time promoting your articles online. You’ll
be building name recognition, credibility, and link popularity at the same
time.
Let me give you a final bonus . . . #11.
11. The Academy
of Web Specialists and Search Engine Workshops, in a
joint effort, are in the process of having a job data bank set up to where
companies who are looking for full- or part-time SEO's can search through the
database for trained optimizers. Optimizers will be able to enter their data,
and companies can search through a variety of variables, including location,
experience level, training, full or part time, etc.
Students who have taken a class under me in the past, through
the Academy, or through Search Engine Workshops are eligible to enter their
information in the database. We're hoping that the job data bank will be open
for business within the next month or two. This will be a wonderful resource
for both trained search engine optimizers looking for work and companies who
are looking to hire optimizers.
In Conclusion
Search engine optimization as a full- or part-time career choice
is wide open with possibilities. If you’ll start with your local market
first, you’ll rapidly gain clients and prove yourself in the industry.
From there, only the “Web” is the limit!
Robin Nobles teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe (SearchEngineWorkshops.com) as well as online SEO training courses (OnlineWebTraining.com). They have recently launched localized SEO training centers through SearchEngineAcademy.com, and they have expanded their workshops to Europe with Search Engine Workshops UK. They have also opened the first networking community for SEOs, the Workshop Resource Center (WRC).
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