SEO and Offline businesses - how do you do it?

I've come to this dilemma. I have multiple businesses in my area I'm going to propose my SEO services too.

But the thing is, the search terms I generate (through GKWT) had little or no searches a month.

Example; "tanning salon longbeach". Longbeach, being the suburb I live in, and tanning salon being the business.

As you know, local search terms (as in suburb/town) hardly have any search data reported in GKWT.

How do you guys do it? How am I supposed to show to these business owners that people are actually searching for their services if shit all shows up (according to GKWT) search for their terms.

cheers lads

Just tell them the total number of people searching for "tanning salon" throughout the USA, and tell them "Wouldn't you like a piece of that action?"

long beach tanning 28 exact
long beach tanning salon <10
tanning in long beach 22
tanning salon long beach 36

What's wrong with these ones? They are great, they all have low-med competition. These are only 4 keywords and they total 100 monthly searches give or take. So if the number one position gets 42% of all the clicks and only 10% of those convert into sales, then the client is getting around 4 new customers a month and they might bring and friend or two also you would need to stress to the client the lifetime value of each customer. So one thing that I explain to my clients is that once we rank well for a group of keywords then we move on to a new group and so on. So if you worked with this client for a year think of how many keywords you could have them ranking for and how much more traffic and customers they would see. You should explain that same thing to them. SEO is a long term investment and you should let your clients know that.

WebOracle said:

long beach tanning 28 exact
long beach tanning salon <10
tanning in long beach 22
tanning salon long beach 36

What's wrong with these ones? They are great, they all have low-med competition. These are only 4 keywords and they total 100 monthly searches give or take. So if the number one position gets 42% of all the clicks and only 10% of those convert into sales, then the client is getting around 4 new customers a month and they might bring and friend or two also you would need to stress to the client the lifetime value of each customer. So one thing that I explain to my clients is that once we rank well for a group of keywords then we move on to a new group and so on. So if you worked with this client for a year think of how many keywords you could have them ranking for and how much more traffic and customers they would see. You should explain that same thing to them. SEO is a long term investment and you should let your clients know that.

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Thanks for the reply.

The keywords were an example, then ones in my area actually don't get any searches.

So it's hard to find something that people actually search for (as proof) for the client. Although I am sure many people are searching for his particular business, i just have no proof to back it up.

But I see what you are saying, ranking a bunch of keywords as a pose to one.

I use sms marketing as OFFLINE marketing

diam0nd said:

I use sms marketing as OFFLINE marketing

Click to expand...

Congratulations.

It all depends on how much your client knows about SEO.
You should start with a few easy long tail keywords and show your client that it is working and you are getting rankings while at the same time work on some larger keywords that will drive more traffic and conversions.

Use your common sense though start with companies that you are likely to be able to get better ROI for the client with as they will be more impressed with your work and likely give you a glowing testimonial which is worth a lot in potential customers eyes.

Some search terms might be extremely low BUT they are ultra targeted. Things like Tanning Salon In Longbeach is only searched for serious potential customers. Anyone putting that in is looking for a local business and not general information on Tanning Salon's so they will have a much higher conversion rate for the client.

richv100 said:

It all depends on how much your client knows about SEO.
You should start with a few easy long tail keywords and show your client that it is working and you are getting rankings while at the same time work on some larger keywords that will drive more traffic and conversions.

Use your common sense though start with companies that you are likely to be able to get better ROI for the client with as they will be more impressed with your work and likely give you a glowing testimonial which is worth a lot in potential customers eyes.

Some search terms might be extremely low BUT they are ultra targeted. Things like Tanning Salon In Longbeach is only searched for serious potential customers. Anyone putting that in is looking for a local business and not general information on Tanning Salon's so they will have a much higher conversion rate for the client.

Click to expand...

No shit! Thanks man, i never actually took that into consideration (how targeted the searches would actually be)

cheers

I've had a lot of trouble rationalizing this, too.

I live in an area where a lot of different markets don't show data in google keyword tool. I am in the process of setting up my offline business focusing on GP and ORM with a dash of social marketing.

One trick I am looking at using is to take a nearby city that does show data and do a population percentage look at the totals. So....

City A population - 200,000
Search "Dentist" city A - 100

City B population - 100,000
Search "Dentist" city B - blank <10

B is 50% less than A so I take that same result and apply it to the B searches which would be 50.

Now I plan on telling the customer that since they will be able to look and see the blank instead of 50. I am more leaning towards estimating these stats for areas not populated in google yet. More and more data is coming to light but I think it will be a while before we see good stats for smaller areas. (Again if you show the customer the estimated then you better tell them how you came up with the numbers.)

Just the other month I looked up an industry in a small city and there was no data. Went back and saw google had data... So it is a work in progress.

Hope that helps you out with your question.

Even a few clients a month for alot of businesses end up paying for the package alone.

For instance: doctors, lawyers, car dealers, jewelers, etc. I always stress to my local clients that if I bring in even 1 extra a month then that paid for my SEO services and then some.

You might be suprised, I end up getting alot of my clients ranked for long tails without even knowing about them, that drive alot of traffic to the site as well. So for instance if I was targeting "area + dentist" I end up getting searches like "best dentist in ____" without even trying.

You might also look into doing a cheap adwords campaigns for the terms you are unsure about to assess whether or not its worth your time. Maybe run it for a week or two to get some data depending upon you budget.

I'm not sure how you plan on charging the business, but paying per call is a growing trend among many different verticals and it PAYS VERY WELL TOO.

alot of this- offline marketing is picking the right customer- if you have the mentality that we pick them then your winning..
- some things i've learned

- pick a client that will greatly benefit with 10 extra customers a month.

- ex. chiropractor charging $450 month for local seo/offline no problem

- local private grocery store (not safeway) what does 10 extra customers do a month- some but not very good- more like 100. so chargings 1500 a month plus not a problem.

- plumbing companies- super competive however i used to work in that arena so not a problem. these guys used to spend 10k month on yellow page advertising- some of these guys are hip on current marketing some are not.

- pick the right client
- be honest
- charge accordingly
-establish your base hourly rate

I am doing it very very well! I am only one in my City who doing SEO, and there is just one more person in all Country how work with SEO, and ofc we doing it together
i don't call clients anymore they call me!

I've been having some success in this niche in my own local area. I don't pitch them a number of extra customers each month, etc. I pitch them potential. You show your clients that 100 people are searching for X service in Y area, that's "100 people that are going to see your site" (and currently aren't). That's "100 extra chances for your website to make an impression" (or a sale).

Business owners like to think that their website is awesome, that it's something they can take pride in, that SURELY once the customer sees their rates and what they have to offer, they'll convert. So don't tell them 20% conversion rate or 20 new customers, let their imagination tell them 100 new customers. That will get the dollar signs in their eyes and if they should be begging for your service at this point. If not, then either A.) they should not be running a business, or B.) you messed up your pitch.

P.S. For extra tips, read through my offline SEO journey thread: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/421733-my-journey-1k-mo.html