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Client won’t allow proper SEO work, what should I do?
Posted by on March 26, 2026 at 5:13 pmI have a client who doesn’t allow proper on-page SEO work and also doesn’t agree to quality off-page activities like niche-based guest posting or PR. They don’t want paid article publishing, and I’m limited to only changing meta data. But since the on-page gaps are not fixed, it’s hard to get proper results. How should I handle or deal with this kind of client?
I tried everything with administrative too they're also not taking this as important.
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1 Reply
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I can see why they don’t want you to do anything based on your post here. Why did you sign them up as a client with no actual plan to do good work?
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No es un buen cliente, déjalo!
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Be honest with them.
Losing a client early on is better than losing a client with a bad review given to you.
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As liason between a SEO agency and my current company: I grilled the hell out of the agencies about their plans before going with our current partner. This allows me to both stayed on top of their work as well as manage the expectation of my upper-levels.
Did your client agreed on your course of action before onboarding?
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That’s ridiculous. You should stop working with them.
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Are they blocking changes for compliance, brand control, or just budget? If you’re limited to metadata, you need to reset expectations and show what impact is realistically possible under those constraints versus what requires on-page fixes.
A useful question in that conversation is “what level of change are you actually comfortable approving?” since without that alignment, you’re accountable for outcomes you can’t influence.
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All you can do is start building backlinks with their keywords for anchor text
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I think this is simple. I know exactly what you need to do based on my experience. My advice is, drop the client.
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[removed]
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You’re not doing SEO, you’re doing “handcuffed SEO.”
If they only allow metadata changes and block content + links, results will always be minimal. This isn’t an SEO issue, it’s a buy-in problem.
Set expectations clearly, propose a small test if possible… and if they still won’t move, accept that it won’t perform (or walk away).
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I’ve been here, when I first started. The only solution… You must fire your customer.
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Collect a check and pass go.
If it’s a bad fit, end the engagement.
If they pay well, set expectations, and do whatever they want.
And with that last part in mind… you’ve mentioned a lot they don’t want…. Do you have a sense of what they DO want from you??
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