Client Question: How can we measure success?

[FBM]

Hey guys,

Hope you are all well and killing it?

As the title says, I have a potential SEO client that I am very close to closing but they asked “How can we measure success?” and for some reason I am struggling with the answer. This question also obviously translates to “this is what we expect of you”, of course.

Has anyone had anything similar they could shed some light on? Maybe some measurable things you have/usually advised? For the other clients usually “it can take between 3-6+ months..” works fine! Lmao

Anyways thanks in advance guys

 

[TasDePixels]

What exactly do you provide as a service ?

In any case you can just propose a daily / monthly reporting system that includes detailed data about the progress & KPIs.

 

[FBM]

What exactly do you provide as a service ?

In any case you can just propose a daily / monthly reporting system that includes detailed data about the progress & KPIs.

Wow my bad forgot to say it was for SEO!

I will be definitely providing this already but I mean they have asked for measurable stats like % increase in traffic etc.

 

[Hydius]

Increase in traffic, increase in conversion, increase in revenue (the high level measure here with tons of lower level variables), and of course the most obvious one, search ranking

 

[TasDePixels]

Increase in traffic, increase in conversion, increase in revenue (the high level measure here with tons of lower level variables), and of course the most obvious one, search ranking

You could also provide a comparative analysis about where this traffic increase is coming from. If it's mostly from google search for example, it will justify your efforts.

 

[FBM]

Increase in traffic, increase in conversion, increase in revenue (the high level measure here with tons of lower level variables), and of course the most obvious one, search ranking

Yes definitely but I mean do you advise of specific stats like “We will increase overall traffic by 20%” for example?

 

[Stencil]

Hey guys,

Hope you are all well and killing it?

As the title says, I have a potential client that I am very close to closing but they asked “How can we measure success?” and for some reason I am struggling with the answer. This question also obviously translates to “this is what we expect of you”, of course.

Has anyone had anything similar they could shed some light on? Maybe some measurable things you have/usually advised? For the other clients usually “it can take between 3-6+ months..” works fine! Lmao

Anyways thanks in advance guys

I am guessing this is in reference to SEO.
Assuming that, lets focus on the question here, "How can we measure success?"
I prepare a competitive analysis of his website along with ranking report, share it with him and ask him to have a look at it.
then, I tell him this is where you stand RIGHT NOW before me touching your website.
I assure him, After I am done with it, it will be on 1st page and this will require X months (depending upon the keyword competition/difficulty)


I won't say this works 100% of the time to close a client but hell, there is nothing that can work on everyone and every time!!

 

[Mr Crabs]

As a rule, the deliverable for my clients is the SEO rankings report and I calculate ROI based on how many enquiries/emails/sales they make since working with me.

ie if they made 2k a month consistently, and now their traffic is higher, with a lower bounce, and more sales(ie 3-4k a month consistently)/people landing on the contact page, then that is the return of investment.

I used to just do rankings reports, but clients kept implying that the rankings improvements weren't converting into sales or were blissfully unaware of how successful their campaign was going by looking at rankings alone.

I always find that telling the client something along the lines of "My job is to make you more money " can ease them into a sale.

 

[Hydius]

Yes definitely but I mean do you advise of specific stats like “We will increase overall traffic by 20%” for example?

Oh no, creating your own expectations is only if you're confident in your skills. It sounds however, like its your first time providing predictions on metrics. In which case, I recommend telling them that every case is different depending on the business, but suggest KPIs that you will keep track of and update them on.

 

[FBM]

All very helpful answers thank you guys

@TasDePixels @Stencil @Mr Crabs @Hydius