SERP drops! The client is leaving

Hello, guys & gals. I have been lurking in this great forum for two years because English is not my native tongue. Now I need your help. I have a seo client. All the client's keywords are in top 20. Their website is targeting a very competitive niche where they have to compete with many embassy and consulate websites as well as branded services and networked websites. In some keywords they tries to rank in top 10, there are 8 listings from embassy and consulate websites. In the previous updates, embassy and consulates websites took more top 10 listings. As a result, some of the keywords falls out of top 10, but still in top 20. Now the client may want to dump my service. Do you think their expectation is too high? What do you think I should do? Thanks very much for your help.

 

Absolutely, I dont know you, but top10-20 for these keywords I think are good. I dont know the budgete, but I think it is not so much to fight with these monsters. Maybe it will be better for you to stop working for this client ?
Tomorrow he may got into top5 because of what you did, but I'm sure he know - there is no top ranking guarantee, and if he expect this - leave him go

I have similar situation, my clients wanted to fight 30 competitors, each spending around 10k$ each month in SEO with just 50$ ! Yeah, 50 vs. 10 000! Can you imagine ?
I worked for him exactly 30minutes, then, when I realized what he wanted, I stopped.

My 2 cents

 

Websites don't get any traffic for being outside the top 10 on a search term so there is little point in getting rid of your seo consultant if you rank outside the top few results. Unless of course they are hiring somebody better, in which case a new strategy could help them actually get to the top.

The problem is that SEO is a results driven business and by not getting number 1 results you have failed to meet your clients expectations, even if they were unreasonably high.

You could try targetting more long tail queries to get more focussed traffic.

 

Thanks for your reply. This client pays me a few hundred bucks a month for two websites of similar topic. Acutally I do not want to lose this client. A few hundred buck isn't too much. But it's good money here in China. Is there anyway I can do to keep this clients?

 

Well,they have only threaten to get rid of your services,so try talking to them.

Or,you can find new clients.

 

I have a very prominant client like this and I can not wait for the day they dump me. they regularly bring me in money and my company money but they do nothing but annoy me and my collegues.

They invest thousands of dollars in SEO checks with scam companies and then give us nothing but grief when we try to implement the changes the scammers suggest to them.

I would say if they are too much trouble let them walk

 

Offer them PPC to bridge the gaps, to cover keywords where they dont rank well on

 

Thanks, mad4. I understand. But the client only wants to see top 10 listings in Google, although their rankings are pretty good, usually iop 3, in Yahoo and Msn.

 

The client is investing big money in PPC ads. It seems to me they are only interested in seeing top 10 or 5 rankings in Google which is certainly the largest traffic resource.

 

I'm new to SE optimization. I have a small website with adsense. What are the few basic steps I can take to get it listed in top ...lets say... 20?

 

Never say "no", just tell them what it will cost.

 

Your client wants to rank top 10 in google for a few hundred dollars a month? He needs some education on how seo works. Why should you get him to the top 10 for so little money? You could make your own site and get that to the top 10 and make a killing.

A few hundred dollars doesn't even buy a couple of hours of most seo pro's time let alone a top 10 ranking.

 

Hello, Will. I am very happy to see you have replied my post. I never think their expectation is adsurd, just too high for the payment they offer me. I have to spend more time and resources in their website. But now they are unsatisfied. Will they agree if I tell them it will cost more if they want to rank higher?

 

Hello, Mad4. I am in China. The client's money may not be high to you. But it's good money here in China. That's why I do not want to be dumped. I used to work for a China based travel agency and manage five travel and hotels sites. All of the keyphrases are ranked in NO.1, I got even less, less than my adsense income.

 

royalchina, you actually don't have much choice... let me summarize it for you...

1. customer is not happy and wants to leave
2. you believe it can be done but will cost more

so what's there to think about? just go tell them and let them make a decision... nothing you can do about it...

 

screw that. let them leave...


I have a site with no competition except 2 sites with no meta data and they havent been updated in 2 years. I'm top 3-5 for my main keywords. Shoot me a PM and lets talk. It shouldnt take too much work for you to get past these 2 sites. In google I only have 1 page indexed but its only been in google for 24 hours.

 

PM you already.

 

Just keep doing what you're doing. If you have done anything you can do then don't cry over spilled milk. Move on. The job is not for you.
Just keep upgrading your knowledge base and in the future you will get a much better salary rather sticking to someone which is not really meant for you.
It's hard to start again but if you're really good on your work you will find new jobs and much better rates.

 

Yeah this is the usual problem with some clients. They're dreaming of being on the top but they only invest few bucks against $xxxx ..

 

Thank you guys for the input. I have made up my decision.