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.