Reflecting Back to Help Your SEO Business Grow

It’s pretty amazing that even in the global economic slowdown that most SEO service firms continue to see robust business. In fact, some say that business has never been so good – obviously companies believe in the power of SEO and the benefits it brings their business and their bottom line. It’s because we are remaining so busy that we tend to never look back at completed projects and do a retrospective to see how we could have improved, or assess what we promised the customer versus what we actually delivered.

Most people who are involved with an SEO company are highly creative and very dynamic. This is a good and a bad trait – it’s good because we are constantly finding new and better ways of doing things, which helps us and our clients; it’s bad because we can from time to time promise our clients anything and everything.

So how can you run an SEO company that provides what the customer wants and still be able to deliver consistency to clients big and small? Better yet, how can you make sure you don’t promise the world and only deliver a small island?

It all starts with the sales pitch – make sure that you are selling only what you are good at. You won’t find your local grocery store selling BMW’s because they are good at selling groceries but not so good at selling high-end luxury cars. What is your SEO business good at doing? What SEO services do you excel at? Identify your strengths and then build your sales material around that. When a client asks for the world be clear about what you can deliver. It’s OK to say that you don’t have that skill set and refer them to others. It shows them you are a professional and it may help you score future business with that client when they do need your particular skill set.

Next, be sure to review what you are doing with your entire team. This not only includes projects but also potential clients and any research and development you may be performing. Don’t just tell your team what you are doing, make it a two-way conversation and open it up for discussion and feedback. This is how you improve your offerings. You may find that team members have a fresh approach to something and may see different aspects of the project or problem that you never considered. This is also a good time to discuss new tools and techniques you and your team have found. Share the knowledge so that everyone can benefit!

Finally, review your projects you’ve wrapped up – the good and the bad. It doesn’t need to happen the very next day, and in fact it usually is beneficial to wait a few months after the completion date so that you have had time to identify any problems or homerun hits. Discuss how the project was organized and any feedback from the client. Firms that usually engage in SEO services projects typically need a few months to gauge the results so this is the perfect time to follow-up with the client to get feedback.

SEO companies live and die by the SEO services they perform. Often we may think we can’t stop to reflect back on what we’ve done and where we are going because of the amount of work we have. Yet by not taking the time to “smell the roses” we may find that we are losing clients over time because you don’t have a clear product offering, a clear delivery process and a clear understanding of what the customers are actually asking for.