It's Not Me, It's You
And what this really means…
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Why your SEO or agency
(probably) hates you
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I hate this
$%!ing client
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No content
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01 Identify thing
02 Examples
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03 Rate AB
CD
EF
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04 Why annoying?
05 What do?
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Expecting
impossible
things
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● Demands not based in reality
● “I want to rank #1 for ‘insuranceʼ yesterdayˮ
● “I want to 10x-100x-1000x organic trafficˮ
● “I want to rank consistently for all of the thingsˮ
Examples
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No content
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Annoying why?
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01 Start at the beginning
Solution
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01 Start at the beginning
02 Case studies and historic data
Solution
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No content
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01 Start at the beginning
02 Case studies and historic data
03 Explainers and graphics
Solution
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Typical timeline
and hierarchy
for KPIs
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Typical timeline
for SEO growth
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01 Start at the beginning
02 Case studies & historic data
03 Explainers and graphics
04 Forecast (if you have to)
Solution
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Work done
quick – NOW
– this instant
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● Impatience for delivery. Fast unscoped projects.
● “Canʼt I have [task] today? Itʼs urgent.ˮ
● “Does [task] really need X hours to complete?ˮ
● “Weʼre deploying a new navigation tomorrow.
Can you help?ˮ
Examples
● Nothing to show for actions/recommendations.
● “Been too busyˮ, “Our team had other prioritiesˮ
● “[dev/writer] has other things in the pipelineˮ
● “Thought youʼd be doing all that yourselfˮ
● “Needs sign-off from 10 people… and Bob from
compliance is on holiday right nowˮ
Examples
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No content
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Annoying why?
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01 Start at the beginning (again)
02 Roadmaps & documentation
Solution
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01 Start at the beginning (again)
02 Roadmaps & documentation
03 Tough love + competitor data
Solution
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01 Start at the beginning (again)
02 Roadmaps & documentation
03 Tough love + competitor data
04 Know when to walk
Solution
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Sudden
unforeseen
site changes
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● Unannounced changes, fixes, deployments.
● “We just did a casual replatform, no big dealˮ
● “We changed subfolders – for the lolsˮ
● “We completely rewrote this landing pageˮ
Examples
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No content
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Annoying why?
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01 Life-changing toolage
Solution
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01 Life-changing toolage
02 From the start: documentation
Solution
● SEO = long-term engagement
● SEO = relationships, communication, shared
knowledge
● Arm yourself & clients with knowledge
● Thereʼs always room to improve
● Hate is good, actually?
Takeaways
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Summary
Issue Solutions
Expecting impossible Set expectations early.
Work done instantly Roadmaps. Meetings. Highlight risks.
Not doing anything
Documentation. Tough conversation.
Competitor benchmarking.
Site changes Provide a list. Get monitoring.
Difficult to work with Try boundaries. Walk away.