Potential new clients - any tips to enter well armed?

[Gordon_Hall]

Hi,

What are the steps people follow when arranging a meeting with a new client?

I've got two meetings next week, and want to arm myself. All previous SEO work I've had so far has just landed on my desk with no need to pitch for it.

Whilst I'm no stranger to selling, what steps do other people go through when visiting a potential client?

I'd hate to go in after some other SEO company has really pitched well and find myself looking stupid?

I obviously have a subscription here, but are there other tools people would recommend?

Whilst this may be good for discussion, I'd appreciate any tips.

Thanks in advance,

[josh-riley]

Exciting opportunity - good for you! I, personally, do an audit. I don't usually spend hours and hours on it,  but I look at both content and technical to get an idea of what I'd be getting myself into. It's also a chance to bring up things that the client may not even realize.

So, then you look smart. Better, though, you showed you pay attention to them and their needs. Don't overlook the power of asking questions: What might their content be missing you'd suggest? What changes might you make on what they have now? Why did they layout their site the way they did?

I'd also do a Screaming Frog or Xenu crawl to check the health of the site and see if there's a lot of broken links or missing page titles, content, etc. Also, maybe do a page load test, too, which is really easy and there's a ton of sites that do those. Check backlinks (SEOMoz tool) to get at least an idea of how spammy or legit those are.

[Vanessa12]

Great response from Andrea, she covered a lot of bases and tools to use. You definitely must know what you would be getting yourself into with a mini-audit of the website. Don't forget to ask questions and guage how much your potential client knows about SEO. (Obviously, they know a bit about it to contact you.) But find out if they use analytics, and if so, do they monitor it at all? Do they know how much traffic they get? Are they currently tracking conversions? What goals do they want with the site: six months from now, one year from now? Do they understand the importance of quality content, video, or even PPC?

It's important that clients understand that SEO is not defined as magic dust. Asking questions can sometimes reveal unrealistic expectations (or it can show that a client did their homework, too) and this helps you be prepared for your future potential client.

[josh-riley]

Great points!

[Gordon_Hall]

Thanks for the hints and tips. The meetings were brought forward to today, and I managed to nail them both.
I can't put it all down to my charm, so it must have been the coaching!

[josh-riley]

Ha! Glad to hear it went well