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SEO for small clients? Is it even worth it, when you are yourself an individual targeting smaller clients
I think we all know that SEO is (can be?) massive amount of work. When you get into it, pretty much everything can be SEO.
I once heard a phrase that said: If your client only has 500 EUR/USD per month available for SEO, it’s better to invest those 6k into a nice vacation
So I am asking myself, does it even make sense to offer SEO for smaller clients?
I feel the businesses that are able to invest the money, won’t go to individual SEO specialists but would higher a bigger agency that is doing more than just SEO. Why would a bigger business trust an individual, it’s a risk.
And the smaller clients who would go with an individual SEO specialist, don’t have the money for it I assume.
So I wonder if it even makes sense for smaller clients to invest in SEO
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1 Reply
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With small businesses, On-page SEO is useful in the long-term development of a website, so it’s cost-effective there. Beyond that however, investing in direct marketing strategies that target local customers is better than off-page SEO.
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Outsource it, don’t take the headache. Get 5-6 500 euro clients and outsource it for like 1200 euro/ 200 each.
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$500 or € 500 is just a start for any business.
Small clients always ask for results even you have just started.
They are inpatient sometimes and mostly feels scammed whenever you will ask for more it invest even without commission.
So, small clients are good for those who were starting his career. Focus on clients who can focus on bigger plans.
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Free money if you realize how simple most local seo
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The real question is what of any use or value can be done for $500 a month. The problem with a $500 retainer is your hours bleed and your value drops. How many hours of content clean up, code review/clean up, analytics, structured data, competitive research, search console review, Ahrefs/semrush/tool de jour, backlinking, reporting, client communications, planning, tasking, management, 3rd party communications, etc. can you do for $500 a month and what is your hour actually worth when you do that for $500 an hour?
The answer is either you are not doing what the job requires to rank at $500 a month. Or you are bleeding yourself down to $15 to $25 an hour most months to do the job right.
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If you have small clients that you do not want to work with, happy to help out and pay a referral fee. We have had great luck offering plans that outline exactly what they can expect each month, detailing how much communication they’ll receive, what reports they’ll get, etc. that way they don’t go into it expecting to be responded to immediately like a 20k a month client would.
So far, it has worked well and they see the growth they expect, just slower than other campaigns because there is less time to spend on the campaign. -
1. Yes, but it’s circumstantial. Some small businesses aren’t searched for locally. You can offer a free analysis and if SEO isn’t a fit, you can suggest direct marketing or paid ads.
2. Local SEO can be very effective because many small businesses don’t optimize their websites.
If you check the top rankings for a specific niche, like “roofers in [area]”, you’ll often find subpar websites, and in some cases they’ve had basic SEO work that’s easy to replicate and improve upon.
3. Just on-page wont be very effective. Youll make changes and they wont see the results they need unless the market is super uncompetitive.
I’d say Off-page is the most effective locally because a lot of smaller businesses don’t build links. Especially good ones.
If you build 5 high-quality links, you’ll be on the first page in your market.
4. GMB can be very effective. You need a more complete strategy that ticks all the boxes for local SEO.
5. You have to believe in what you’re doing. Systematize your approach to save time and become more efficient.
You mention there is too much that goes into SEO, but a job as an SEO is to prioritize whats most effective.
Priotize the important stuff, create a roadmap and outsource the tasks. Focus on content, on-page SEO, GMB setup, then move to link building and Citation building in the following months.
6. We now have Generative AI which really helps boost efficiency for individuals, so id say Local SEO is more effective now for solo, than in the past.
Regardless of your opinion on the quality and accuracy of responses from GPT, it does help with content ideation and structure, keyword analysis, outreach, and automation.
As an independent contractor, you have more freedom to use these tools than an agency or company might because of liability or whatever.
Lastly don’t forget that larger agencies or companies can be spread more thinly. They focus on more clients and offer more ‘robust’ services that cost more but maybe spread strategic focus. If you’re just focused on SEO, you can provide high-quality work with a more personal touch.
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Haven’t read the entire thread, but I think what might add value is a “coaching approach”, i.e. spend a few hours on analysis initially, then talk to the owner (for small businesses chances are he might want to be involved), tell him what needs to be done and only do what he can’t (i.e. he might be better at writing blogs about his niche, but you may know how to optimize his site for speed). Then let him do as much of the work himself and just check in regularly.
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Yes, couldn’t agree more with that. To me, as long as you are not a fairly large business, it’s also a management responsibility, i.e. we have a very long way to go until I’ll hand this over to someone else (be it internally or externally). However, as mentioned, I still think there might be room for a sparring partner/coaching offering, where you can just bounce off ideas (“do you think I should restructure my url-structure to xyz? What would I have to be careful for?” You get a list with their questions ahead, take 1-2 hrs to prepare, take an hour to discuss, and you have 6hrs a month (if that happens bi-weekly), which might work for a USD 500 budget. But yeah I’m not telling you how to run your business though, this is just the only thing that would be helpful to me.
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Most of “SEO tasks” are not actually SEO but digital marketing.
Who does digital marketing for 500$ a month ?
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