Comments on: 3 Industries SEO Should Learn From

By: Fraser Hannah

Fraser Hannah — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:28:10 +0000

I think one of the biggest issues is that clients still view SEO as an add-on, every web designer I know offers SEO, as part of the service of course. I work with my business partner who does all the design work while I do the SEO. Getting clients to pay for the design work is easy, SEO is next to impossible, they see it as a just part of the service.

With design, they can see the work more or less instantly, with SEO it takes time, sometimes a lot of time for the results to be visible and I have never met a client who is happy to wait.

By: Steve Hill

Steve Hill — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:22:46 +0000

I completely agree with everything you said and I think that much of it could be applied to other facets of the internet marketing industry. I envision social media consultants making many of the same mistakes that the SEOs in your article made. To a certain extent paid search and web development firms are susceptible to it too. Needless to say, everything you said is great food for thought.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:00:07 +0000

Great Post Sarah! – I would say what sets SEO apart from law is the factor of need plus the potential risk/reward.

Can you write your own depositions and navigate the court bureaucracy? Maybe – but you’re highly unlikely to take that risk.

There are very few e-books floating around about “how to be your own lawyer,” while SEO presents a zillion learn on your own options – ebooks, SaaS tools, video tutorials etc. so there is much more price erosion.

Loss Aversion Theory at work:
Getting sued, divorced, = a high risk, high loss situation
Increasing traffic & conversions thru SEO = an iffy/fuzzy gain situation

By: Paul Tyler

Paul Tyler — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:38:10 +0000

Excellent post. I especially associate with not charging enough/anything for time. We are often guilty of looking far too long term in financial terms. I think often the fact that much of what we do goes unseen to a client (time spent looking for link acquisitions, analysing trends in GA etc) makes it more difficult (even though it shouldn’t) to charge existing clients enough for such work.

By: SEOs can learn from lawyers?

SEOs can learn from lawyers? — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:32:34 +0000

[...] thinking about this, I actually came across a great article by the SEO Chicks, entitled, “3 Industries SEO should learn from“. In this article, Sarah talks about 3 industries that do specific things, which she feels [...]

By: Mark Hall

Mark Hall — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:17:39 +0000

Great post. This is the same problem for the creative industry, you have to give a little to get a pitch, however give to much and they do it themselves or go somewhere cheaper and you can spend your week with ease simply giving away ideas. It doesn’t help that we as an industry allow it to happen, if only we all said no, no more tenders, no more in-depth pitches etc. Or better yet there was a governing regulated body for our industry.

By: jimboot

jimboot — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:08:14 +0000

This is one of the better SEO articles I’ve read in a while, including my own! It will be discussed in the office today at beeroclock. I would add maybe business analysts or consultants? How many times do we have to help a client focus on the the key phrases that relate to the products and services they need to sell more of to achieve their goals.
A great read thanks. RT now