Today, we had a long term client drive over from his house near Six Flags and drop in to talk to us because he'd gotten "bombarded" by several companies all telling him his business site wasn't visible in the search engine results. I could tell he was a bit flustered as I offered him a seat so we could take a good look at how things were going with our current SEO efforts. 

 

I pulled up his most recent ranking report and showed him a few things before I said, "Ok, now pick a keyword phrase you'd like to look at". He picked one, and I pasted it in the search box. 

 

He was in the number one spot in the search engine results. 

 

I went back to his report and asked him to pick another. He did. He was in the number one AND the number two spot. 

 

We repeated this pattern until we were both having fun with it. There were even a couple of keywords where his site took up all ten spots on page one of Google. He couldn't believe what I showed him. 

 

"Is that really page one of Google?", he asked. He couldn't believe the amazing results he was seeing. 

 

"Yep", and I showed him how to tell. 

 

"Why would they tell me they couldn't find me on Google?"

 

I just paused to let him arrive at his own conclusion. It didn't take long. 

 

"To sell me, huh?"

 

I just nodded. 

 

When our client heard he couldn't be found on Google, he didn't think to ask, "For what keyword?" It's true, you'd hardly ever find a pest control company in results for the search phrase "pink ballet shoes". But, then again, the nice sales people don't stop and explain that to you, now do they?

 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of business owners out there that don't see the results of their SEO dollars (or time) at work. It's a trust issue. Transparency and communication are essential, but what it really comes down to is having a good relationship with the client...and getting results! This client has called me with questions before, but for some reason, this time, instead of calling me or checking results himself, he needed the reassurance of sitting down with someone. He summed up the meeting nicely at the end. 

 

"I am REALLY glad I came out here! I LOVE working with you guys". 

 

We feel exactly the same way.