Comments on: Five signs your new SEO client may suck

By: Deepak Khanna

Deepak Khanna — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:28:39 +0000

Apart from those mentioned above, I find two types of clients from whom you should just run:

1)One who always brag about half-cooked seo knowledge and argue with you over each and every aspect even keyword research

and
2)Those who want guaranteed rankings which as we all know seo profession can never guarantee.

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:28:32 +0000

How about, not getting paid on time? That’s a big warning sign and a pain in the side!
.-= Susan recently posted: Seo Toaster CMS Product =-.

By: Dean G

Dean G — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:05:35 +0000

All these apply to seo…but actually a lot of them apply to any kind of freelance work. I’ve experienced most of them. Number 3 is my favourite – both you and can get sucked in by the client’s enthusiasm for their project and never take the time to sit down and think ‘this is not going to work because it is a dreadful business that no one is going to use’.

I’ve also worked for the number 5’s and find it uncomfortable to promote products or services that are veering on being a scam.

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 02:49:55 +0000

Thanks everyone for chiming in. Definitely a lot of worthwhile additions here. I’m pretty sure we could make a top 10 list now!

By: Eve Demange

Eve Demange — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:44:10 +0000

Here, I am a web copywriter and I totally agree with your sign #1. I add that very often, you can tell from the 1st words of the 1st conversation by phone :
“This project is SOOOO URGENT. We neeeeed you to work on this right now. It’s ONLY A FEW THINGS and it woooon’t take long at all, you’ll see.”

Well, it ALWAYS takes some time when you start a project if you want to understand and do it well. What you’ll see is that if you take this client, within a week you will be overwhelmed by little-projects-few-things that will suck all energy out of you and bring very-few-money-too. And your company will finish like an old rotten and wrinkled apple…

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:43:37 +0000

James, I agree with all your points.

George, your #6 should be added as well. You’re so busy making out reports that you don’t have any time to spend on the actual SEO work.

Thanks for the interesting post!
.-= Steve recently posted: Google Comparison Ads – My Opinion =-.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:39:43 +0000

One that wants you to work for commission based on increased sales. And insists that their product/service/business model is better than anyone else and you should take their word for it…. right?

And I’m with everyone else – people whose son/daughter/nephew/random family member knows a bit about this stuff……

By: George S. Mc Quade III

George S. Mc Quade III — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:12:12 +0000

#6 When the client becomes paper intensive, weekly reports, monthly reports, and worse backgrounders on everything in writing. By the time you get done do your term papers there is no time to pick up the phone and call anyone for anything except to order more paper and cartridges for your printer.

By: Brian H.

Brian H. — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:09:50 +0000

This is a really good article. However, I noticed that “conscience” is spelled “conscious” in the fifth paragraph. 🙂

I have another type to discuss here: the one that E-Mails you more than 20 E-Mails in an hour full of questions about SEO, corrections for SEO already performed on the site, and their own recommendations for implementing SEO when such recommendations are at least 5 years old and are in no way current. And they still end up stopping the service. And I do mean all of that in one…single…client. XO

By: Alan Bleiweiss

Alan Bleiweiss — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:35:38 +0000

In reply to Zac.

@Zac

OMG yes! As soon as I hear that, I lose all my sanity 🙂
.-= Alan Bleiweiss recently posted: Blueglass Florida 2AM Pizza – Plus Save 15 Percent =-.