When approaching prospective web design and SEO clients

What type of list do you start with? What kind of questions etc....

As many know, we bought a place. By our place is the little, very nice, computer shop with great prices. So, I checked them out and see that I can get comparable prices as those if I have to drive into Vancouver to pick up parts. Anyways, in talking with the owner we got onto websites. The owner asks me "this NewComputer.ca came out of no where and just took over search terms that we always wanted.... (hehe to me).

Anyways, I asked them the url of their website. I gasped when I heard "we don't have one"... I said how do you expect to out rank NC if you don't have a website? They said they were just researching. I then divulged that I am NC and that I would be more than happy to help them get a site up and running.

Now, I know how to build my own, but this building for others is new. I remember reading an article on here about where to start (I believe it was by Will Spencer). I need to not make an ass of myself when I sit down to go over the strategy, but I want to have the right plan in place.

 

I think the first step has to be, find out exactly what the client is looking for.

He might come back and say things like: a bit of animation on the front page of the site, flashing images to catch the eye, scrolling text... etc...
Just make a note of everything that the client wants, then make a list of positives and negatives for each of the items he is asking for.

Once you get that far, you have to make sure that you tell the customer what will be best for their site. If they contest the issues, just let them know that whatever yu decide to produce for the site, is with their best interests in mind.

Oh, and wear a suit for meetings

 

Agreed - allow the client to spill the lot then, very nicely, suggest what, with good reason, could/should be canned. You're there to advise, so make that clear, though the choice is ultimately theirs. Often, they will pay you to do a project, see that is doesn't work even though you advised them (you did get it written down in the proposal, right?) and be happy to revise the 2nd stage... thus an ongoing project and trust develops

Depends, really. I saw a pitch once where the gig was lost because three stuffed shirts in a Ford Mundano turned up to do a site for an adventure travel company. The winning bidder was a teenager in a baseball cap, T-shirt and 3/4 length shorts who parked his mountain bike outside.

It was a well-paying project too, and I suspect the "projected success" of the suits also meant "projected expense" so it can have negative as well as positive affects... Just because a chimp wears a 2-piece, tie and smart shoes doesn't mean he can successfully run a business/country does it...

 

Thanks guys,

Considering what they were quickly requesting and the budget they had in mind it will be difficult to deliver. They want something similar to this www.ncix.com and they don't want to pay too much. I explained the complexities involved in both building and maintaining that level of a site. We'll see what happens.

Thanks again. Great start...