First Professional SEO Business - Need Help

[Mukul]

Hello,

We are a web design and development company and I have been doing most of the SEO work for in-house websites or for some very old clients only. Hence, I was never required to make any proposals for SEO

Last Day however, we closed a project for prgramming and the client asked me to give a proposal for SEO. I am toally out of my league here as I have no ideas of how to make a proposal for Search Engine Optimization.

I would really appreciate if anyone can provide a link to any template or any existing document. It will help me immensly.

Merry Christmas !

Mukul

[minstrel]

1. Do a search in these forums (see top of page) for "SEO" or "search engine optimization" and you'll find lots of opinions about what and what not to do.

2. Look on the search engine sites themselves - for example, read these suggestions from Google:
- Google's Webmaster Guidelines (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html)
- Google Information for Webmasters (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html)
- Google Information on Search Engine Optimization (http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html)

[awall19]

While I do SEO for a few people I too strugle with this concept sometimes. I few of the better discussions I have been around for stated the most fair price would be based on assumed traffic from optimization * the average price of those clicks on Overture.

Obviously you will probably have to discount that a bit, but it starts as a baseline...

[ronniethedodger]

the most fair price would be based on assumed traffic from optimization * the average price of those clicks on Overture.

Obviously you will probably have to discount that a bit, but it starts as a baseline...

The avg price at Overture is the easy part of your equation.

How would you come up with the "assumed traffic" figure in your opinion?

[awall19]

the assumed traffic... well you can use a tool like wordtracker to find the search terms you will rank for and then make an assumption on how much traffic for those terms you will be able to obtain...if you are selective enough with your keywords it should not be hard to think that you can get top google rankings

the amount of traffic that ranking will draw will be based upon a ton of factors

using wordtracker it will give you an idea how much each specific search engine should pull...then you can probably assume you can get 30% or more of that if you rank in the top couple with a good title

[ronniethedodger]

So this is not like one of those CNN polls with a + or - 1.7% accuracy factors, eh? ;0)

[awall19]

My favorite example to use for showing how disproportunate the clicks can be is the google search for the word hustler.

#1 is the porn mag
#2 is the star gazer from tv

clearly #2 gets verry few clicks for that search...the more relevent your title and snippet sound, the higher the clickthrough rate

[Mukul]

Thanks a lot for your help !

So, I will quote based on estimated traffic for each keyword based on listings from Overture and Word Tracker.

I also need to document a business proposal for them. I do a lot of proposal writing for web development and I would rate myself good on it. However, I am not sure about how to write a business proposal for SEO.

Is there any document I can use as a template ?

Again, Thanks a lot for your help.

Best Regards,
Mukul

[ronniethedodger]

I also need to document a business proposal for them. I do a lot of proposal writing for web development and I would rate myself good on it. However, I am not sure about how to write a business proposal for SEO.

Is there any document I can use as a template ?


Outside of writing "SEO Proposal" in big bold letters on the top of the page, I would not have a clue.

Aaron will be back again, and I am sure will offer you a couple of tips in that area.

In the meantime, you might want to read some of the stuff on his site. He has a link posted a couple of responses back.

[apisdesign]

My advice to you is to avoid "paralysis by analysis".

Instead of trying to perfect the proposal you send out the door, just put one together and get the show on the road. Whether it works or not, be sure to ask the client what they liked and didn't like so that you can work towards that great proposal template in the sky.

If you want to know what sort of services you can offer, I encourage you to check out the 'Things search engines look for (http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=7578)' post in this forum. Lots of good info, lots of crappy info, but lots of stuff to get you going.

-----------------

And I don't mean to be a scrooge and I do believe in the spirit of sharing on this forum, but I don't believe that asking for a template proposal document from a fellow SEO 'expert' is a very reasonable request. People put hard hours into their proposals, and getting your hands on one could be worth hundreds or dollars.

That said, I wish you the best of luck in getting others to give away the keys to the kingdom. Advice is one thing, but business documents are another.

Just my $0.02; that's all.

P.S. But, hey, if anyone does drop a template on this forum, I'm certainly going to snatch it up to compare it to my own... ;-)

[awall19]

I actually have never used a formal proposal...

I tend to like to work for artists, people with unique products, and people who are chasing their dreams. I am good at SEO, but I am not great at running a business. I usually prefer to work with people vice businesses.

I know in the short term that I am ripping myself off, but as long as I make enough to get by and build strong relationships it will pay off in the long term.

My end goal is to learn enough to be a marketing and internet book author and speaker...as much as I am trying to help others right now, what I am really doing is trying to read and write and learn enough to do exactly what I want to :)

I am still rather young, but I have come a long way in my first year on the web!

[ronniethedodger]

I wish you a lot of luck Aaron. From what I seen from you so far, you are well on your way to succeeding too.

I think establishing yourself at Forums like WPW will help you in that endeavor also. And you are doing well in that aspect too, because I look forward to some of your responses quite a bit.

[awall19]

thanks for the shining remarks

no compliments will be refused :)

[ronniethedodger]

You are a Scholar...and a Gentleman !!! ;0)

[sonnie]

Hmm. There is a lot of "Professional SEO Companies" appearing out there. To make a proposal to SEO a site for a customer would be difficult. Since my major in college was not SEO (at the time the web as we know it did not exist (remember arpanet?)), I'm not quite sure where I would start. I've checked into a few companies offering to SEO my sites (spam emails), They are more than happy to tell me "guaranteed top ten" ratings at just $45 to $60 an hour. Of course, if you figure a per-page average time to optimize a single page (completely), including tags, keyword phrases, description matches content, CONTENT (headers, alt-tags and text which to me is basically add-copy for the product) can take anywhere from 30 mins to a couple of hours. If you SEO a site with several hundred product pages, you've made some money! I have optimized a couple of sites with good results. Key search phrases are most important. Matching search phrases with the page content is imperative. I guess try to gauge your time vs the needs of the customer to come up with some kind of presentation. Tell them you will do EVERYTHING and not to worry. Charge them accordingly.

Musings by sonnie