torched
Junior Member
- Mar 6, 2007
- 154
- 439
I don't think many people here do offline SEO work but I thought I would share this with you guys anyway. I've been using this method for about a few months now and it works like a charm every time, sometimes I'll have more difficulty with one client's site and as always you have to deal with the unpredictable google factors but overall my success rate is in the 90% area.
I think what gives me the most amount of success is that I don't go on a "recruiting spree" and try to take people who have 0 rankings and put them on the first page because that takes a lot of time and effort. Instead I market my services exclusively to people who are already ranking for longtail keywords such as "downtown Atlanta dentist" and help them rank for broader keywords or people who are on the 3rd or 4th page for their main keyword such as "Atlanta dentist" and help them move up in the rankings.
The reason you want to go after those types of clients is because as many of you have experienced it's very easy to move up from position #15 to #10 then it is to move from position #500 to position #50. Think about, they're already ranking but are under-optimized for SEO. A lot of times you'll find that by simply adding some h1 tags and a little internal linking you can bump them up a few spots within a week and then with some social bookmarking or a linkwheel you can bump them up an entire page.
If you were to take on a new client you would have to deal with the fact that the domain is probably new (sandboxed), it has very low or no backlinks, and no trustrank and you would need to spend a lot of time in effort to get them ranking.
So how do you find such clients? Easily, thanks to google. I'll stick with the Atlanta dentist sample. The first thing we do is go to google and search for "atlanta dentist"
http://www.google.com/search?q=atlanta+dentist
What we will want to do is go to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pages and look for people who are already ranking for this term, but with a little bit of optimization could rank higher. For this example I'm going to choose the #12 website which is northatlantasmiles.com
Now if we check their backlinks we can see that they only have 39 (excluding internal links)
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http://www.northatlantasmiles.com/&bwm=i&bwmo=d&bwmf=u
And most of these links aren't even very good, but if you look at the actual page you'll notice something else: no h1 tags! That alone could probably get him into the #9 or #10 spot on the first page. Throw in some social bookmarking and a quality linkwheel and it's almost guaranteed that you could get that site on the 1st page within a month!
Ok, so now that you have found a good website to target it's time for the next step, making the offer! This is where you're going to set yourself apart from every other "offline consultant" or seo expert because you WILL NOT charge them up front. You will have them agree to pay you only IF you get their website on the 1st page of google.
Now normally this would be a bad idea because google is so unpredictable but remember that they are already ranking for this keyword, all you're going to do is improve their rank by adding an h1 tag and doing some very light link building via social bookmarking and linkwheels. The h1 tags will take you maybe 2 minutes and the backlinks can be outsourced here on BHW for less than $30 so you're not risking very much time or money.
I only use 2 methods to contact them: By phone or by email, if you don't get a response from either one of those then chances are you won't get a response from mailing a post card either so I never bothered with it but it can't hurt your chances. Now when you're dealing with local businesses or pracices like northatlantasmiles.com it's usually very easy to contact the owner directly. Either search around their website for their contact email or simply do a whois search on the domain and start firing off those emails/phone calls.
On average I'll get 1 client for every 15 calls/emails sent so if you don't get one on your first few tries don't get discouraged. Remember that you're main selling point is that you're not going to take any money or payment UNTIL they reach the first page of google.
And I already know your biggest concern:
How can I be sure that they will pay me once thier website is on the 1st page?
Very easily, you're going to do what almost every major SEO company does, you're going to build all the backlinks to a website that YOU own and control and then simply do a 301 redirect to their domain so that they get all the link juice. If they don't pay you or pay you late you can simply remove the 301 redirect, their rankings will drop, and before you know it you'll have them calling you and begging you to "fix" their SEO
And if they don't, you already have a proven 301 redirect that you can instantly apply to their competitors and having them ranking in no time.
For the 301 redirects you can use any domain you'd like, I use an old domain that I was going to make into a forex blog but never got around to building. Simply create a new folder such as yourdomain.com/atlanta-dentist/, modify your .htaccess to do a 301 redirect to the domain you're trying to optimize and then build all your links towards that folder.
For those of you who are new to SEO, a 301 redirect tells google that you have moved that page to another domain and that from now on they should give all seo benefits (in thise case the links) to the new domain which in this case would be your client.
If you need further explanation about 301 redirects you can read it here:
http://www.seobuzzbox.com/understanding-the-301-redirect/
Now as for pricing, for clients that are dentists, lawyers, doctors, accountants, jewelry stores etc $1,000 per month is a fair price to be on the 1st page of google. Many are willing to pay that price but if you're targeting other businesses with lower profit margins such as a candle shop or wedding photographer then you'll need to lower your prices.
If you guys have any questions or need any help with this just let me know and I'll be glad to help
I think what gives me the most amount of success is that I don't go on a "recruiting spree" and try to take people who have 0 rankings and put them on the first page because that takes a lot of time and effort. Instead I market my services exclusively to people who are already ranking for longtail keywords such as "downtown Atlanta dentist" and help them rank for broader keywords or people who are on the 3rd or 4th page for their main keyword such as "Atlanta dentist" and help them move up in the rankings.
The reason you want to go after those types of clients is because as many of you have experienced it's very easy to move up from position #15 to #10 then it is to move from position #500 to position #50. Think about, they're already ranking but are under-optimized for SEO. A lot of times you'll find that by simply adding some h1 tags and a little internal linking you can bump them up a few spots within a week and then with some social bookmarking or a linkwheel you can bump them up an entire page.
If you were to take on a new client you would have to deal with the fact that the domain is probably new (sandboxed), it has very low or no backlinks, and no trustrank and you would need to spend a lot of time in effort to get them ranking.
So how do you find such clients? Easily, thanks to google. I'll stick with the Atlanta dentist sample. The first thing we do is go to google and search for "atlanta dentist"
http://www.google.com/search?q=atlanta+dentist
What we will want to do is go to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pages and look for people who are already ranking for this term, but with a little bit of optimization could rank higher. For this example I'm going to choose the #12 website which is northatlantasmiles.com
Now if we check their backlinks we can see that they only have 39 (excluding internal links)
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http://www.northatlantasmiles.com/&bwm=i&bwmo=d&bwmf=u
And most of these links aren't even very good, but if you look at the actual page you'll notice something else: no h1 tags! That alone could probably get him into the #9 or #10 spot on the first page. Throw in some social bookmarking and a quality linkwheel and it's almost guaranteed that you could get that site on the 1st page within a month!
Ok, so now that you have found a good website to target it's time for the next step, making the offer! This is where you're going to set yourself apart from every other "offline consultant" or seo expert because you WILL NOT charge them up front. You will have them agree to pay you only IF you get their website on the 1st page of google.
Now normally this would be a bad idea because google is so unpredictable but remember that they are already ranking for this keyword, all you're going to do is improve their rank by adding an h1 tag and doing some very light link building via social bookmarking and linkwheels. The h1 tags will take you maybe 2 minutes and the backlinks can be outsourced here on BHW for less than $30 so you're not risking very much time or money.
I only use 2 methods to contact them: By phone or by email, if you don't get a response from either one of those then chances are you won't get a response from mailing a post card either so I never bothered with it but it can't hurt your chances. Now when you're dealing with local businesses or pracices like northatlantasmiles.com it's usually very easy to contact the owner directly. Either search around their website for their contact email or simply do a whois search on the domain and start firing off those emails/phone calls.
On average I'll get 1 client for every 15 calls/emails sent so if you don't get one on your first few tries don't get discouraged. Remember that you're main selling point is that you're not going to take any money or payment UNTIL they reach the first page of google.
And I already know your biggest concern:
How can I be sure that they will pay me once thier website is on the 1st page?
Very easily, you're going to do what almost every major SEO company does, you're going to build all the backlinks to a website that YOU own and control and then simply do a 301 redirect to their domain so that they get all the link juice. If they don't pay you or pay you late you can simply remove the 301 redirect, their rankings will drop, and before you know it you'll have them calling you and begging you to "fix" their SEO
And if they don't, you already have a proven 301 redirect that you can instantly apply to their competitors and having them ranking in no time.
For the 301 redirects you can use any domain you'd like, I use an old domain that I was going to make into a forex blog but never got around to building. Simply create a new folder such as yourdomain.com/atlanta-dentist/, modify your .htaccess to do a 301 redirect to the domain you're trying to optimize and then build all your links towards that folder.
For those of you who are new to SEO, a 301 redirect tells google that you have moved that page to another domain and that from now on they should give all seo benefits (in thise case the links) to the new domain which in this case would be your client.
If you need further explanation about 301 redirects you can read it here:
http://www.seobuzzbox.com/understanding-the-301-redirect/
Now as for pricing, for clients that are dentists, lawyers, doctors, accountants, jewelry stores etc $1,000 per month is a fair price to be on the 1st page of google. Many are willing to pay that price but if you're targeting other businesses with lower profit margins such as a candle shop or wedding photographer then you'll need to lower your prices.
If you guys have any questions or need any help with this just let me know and I'll be glad to help
