One of the common challenges you can face with clients as a consultant is implementation. I am curious how you deal with this.
I have had numerous instances in which I hand off optimizations to clients, many with step-by-step instructions including screen shots....and we reviewed them on Zoom/Teams calls...and they just sit in purgatory. Even with follow ups checking on the status, there's little movement.
Then, at the end of the year, you have wrapup calls with the decision makers who start questioning what the value of SEO is. At that point, you are faced with throwing your main contacts there under the bus for not implementing your recommendations.
There was a great podcast about this recently on SERPs Up that had a lot of great ideas. I also wrote an article about SEO implementation challenges as well in which I suggest highlighting the impact of delays on the business.
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I am really curious...how do you work through these challenges?
Ah yes. That's a pain in the back. That's why I rather do one time online presence audits or online consultations once and leave it to the client to implement.
If you combine it with a retainer you are f***d. Then you rather need access to servers or devs yourself so you can do what you want or tell them exactly what to do.
Of course people are welcome to come back and to get another consultation or audit later on so that potential progress (or lack of it) can be assessed.
I can't take responsibility for something I have no impact on though. Also as an outsider I'm usually the lowest in the hierarchy viewed from within so that nobody listens haha.
Ad spend on Google Ads rarely gets questioned. Organic SEO gets usually very close looks and you have to justify everything due to lack of trust and the bad rep of the SEO trade.
No wonder with word combinations like "negative SEO", "parasite SEO"etc. being popularized by most people unconsciously.
Implementing SEO strategies for a client, especially in the competitive arena of academic services like PhD assignment help UK. I have used their service which offers balancing keyword optimization with quality content, navigating Google's ever-changing algorithms, and ensuring ethical practices are adhered to can be daunting.
Completely agree with everything Aleyda has said!
I'd also add -
Explain the impact of what could be achieved if the changes were made, to highlight their priorities rather than keeping it broad with 'it'll help your SEO'. Explain how it will actually impact business bottom line as that's ultimately what the stakeholder cares about most.
Before even conducting an audit or before you start any work and hand over things for implementation, get an idea about existing dev work that they have queued and what is seen as a priority. This will help you to understand how much time devs can allocate to your work plus can allow you to better prioritize what tasks you're giving them.
Make sure your dev tickets also explain the purpose of the execution, not just the task itself. This will allow devs to get a broader understanding of what the task is and why it is important to the site, allowing them to better prioritize their own workloads. What you're asking them to do could even help assist them with another task they have queued up or clean up something they've wanted to themselves for a long time.
Where you can, try and get a direct access point to devs to ensure everyone is on the same page right at the start of the campaign, rather than relying on a chain of people to relay your messages. Everyone is busy, things can get forgotten about.
Hi Rich, this is a great question and one of the main issues a lot of SEOs have!
I believe it's fundamental to: 1. Over-communicate with the actual decision makers soon and frequently: I'm talking about sharing the status and challenges of the SEO process too to those who have brought you to consult for the company/client, with the one paying you, the one who you will need to report at the end of X months or the year.
Because although you might be communicating every week in calls with other stakeholders, whether devs or copywriters, even the head/directors of teams in charge of implementation -who will tend to be aware of the roadblocks to the evolution of the process- it won't matter if it's not the actual decision maker. So if you see that things are not advancing as they should, don't wait for months or the end of the year to inform decision makers that goals haven't been achieved this Q or year due to <a variety of execution challenges> the area X or Y have.
You should have already informed about this right from the start, once you saw that the first weeks passed and things were not evolving as expected, and get in touch again after the first couple of months with issues, honestly saying: "look, if things continue to not move as they haven't... goals won't be achieved and the reasons are X or Y, I need your support/influence for them. If not, then SEO might not be a fit".
2. Explain trade-offs to decision makers: When communicating how SEO tasks are not evolving as expected, it's fundamental to clearly show what's the trade-off of the delays/inaction - not achieving the goals X or Y that you had set for the SEO process after 6 months or 12 months. Clearly show how much this same traffic would cost to bring through PPC. Show how much your competitors are bringing while ranking for the same queries you're aiming to with the proposed SEO action plan. It should be clear to decision makers what will be the cost for the company in terms of traffic/revenue of the inaction shown by areas that should be executing recommendations. This will incentivize further that they influence other areas to support you as they should.
3. SEO execution should be a % of the stakeholders goals: Many times the reason why other areas are so quick to leave SEO tasks "pending" is that even despite they're aware of their importance overall, these activities are simply not part of their own areas performance goals, the ones that they will be assessed with... so it's a no brainer to not prioritize them while giving priority to other tasks that are actually critical for the performance of the content/dev/product/etc. team. This is why is fundamental that early in the process, SEO tasks execution becomes part of the performance goals of the areas involved, so they actually become something important for them to implement, and they don't feel these are tasks to only "help out" another department/area.
Happy to hear others ideas :) I hope these help! Aleyda