Talha Need your Suggestions! I single-handedly helped this client in doing big sales ($60k+) and been working with them on their SEO for the past 11 months now… But now they want to cut my services as they already rank for most of the keywords in the top 5 positions and doing good… Please notice that I never did any contracts (won't help anyway as I am a freelancer) and feeling kinda played here 😃 So, what would you do in such a situation?? Thanks already for your precious time!
RaWahe Bye. He can't hire you for lifetime. It's up to him 👍6 Adeel Change meta tags. Remove keywords 😃 let them fall 🤭😢🤯10
Fathy I hope you're not being serious 👍6 Adeel » Fathy obviously not John » Adeel That’s the shit that gives our entire Industry a bad name. Even if you are joking. It hurts all of us in the SEO space. 👍8 Talha ✍️ » Adeel No No, I would never ever do that man… I love what I Do 😃 👍2 Adeel » Talha obviously bro. Just make them believe whatever u did is an ongoing process and sooner or later they will fall down if they dun continue 🙂 👍3
Jonathan Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Talha ✍️ » Jonathan I got many baskets but after that much work, I am kinda concerned 😛 👍1 Jonathan » Talha yeah it’s sucks, but if you’ve done good work they will be back. If not look at someone similar in the market and pitch to them 🤷🏻♂️ 👍3
Hamza Move on Bro, IA You will get more clients 🙂 👍1
Talha ✍️ » Hamza yea definitely but I thought maybe someone can guide better for utilizing it 😉 Hamza » Talha wait for next google update 😛 👍2 Talha ✍️ » Hamza haha lol
Fathy Since you guys didn't agree on anything he's free to do whatever he wants and you can't really blame him. Move on, get more clients and use the results you've achieved with him to promote your services. 👍💟7
Talha ✍️ » Fathy that's exactly right I agree but I thought maybe somebody got a better idea utilizing this specific portfolio for landing new similar opportunity 👍2
John Let them go and when they come crawling back increase your freelance fees. It’s happened to me multiple times at Agencies. 👍💟8
Talha ✍️ » John very well, will keep it in mind 😃 👍1 Bryan » John can you explain please. What do you mean at agencies you work?? John » Bryan I used to work at agencies, not any more. I am In-house now Head of SEO for a rather large national media company. I don’t take clients anymore. Which in my opinion is the best way to do SEO. Client Free. Now I do consider my bosses clients, but you know what I mean.
Wrenn Two things you can do (and may already be doing) within your control are to make sure he understands that maintenance of wins is not a passive process and that the wins you have gotten are not the only wins to go after in his vertical. If he doesn’t understand those things, he likely feels he got what he needed and that there’s no value in keeping you on anymore. If you have already done that and he doesn’t believe you, then it’s a wash. Ask for a testimonial and a referral. Write contracts going forward. If he continues to not give anything as a part of this transition, take your industry knowledge and go the affiliate route on all the keywords he was going after to bump him down in the rankings. Do not subtract work you have already done – he is not going to be so stupid that he can’t put two and two together, and the only worse than walking away with nothing is walking away with a bad reputation 👍2
Talha ✍️ » Wrenn Definitely, I never intend to hurt his business as He's been very good to me But, I will try to use this data for landing new clients in similar niche as others suggested 👍4
Mayo Just let them go and do it with a smile. Let them think you’ve got plenty of other clients and this doesn’t bother you. After about 90 days they should plummet, welp, + or minus depending on what niche and the SEO you’ve done, and whether they keep fresh content coming … then, when they knock on your door again, contract time. In the meantime, make a case study out of this client to be used in your own marketing efforts. Leaving with a smile also may help pursued them to do a video testimonial … 👍💟6
Talha ✍️ » Mayo yea that's better plan 👍1
MiHu Sell them on ranking more keywords
Talha ✍️ » MiHu I don't wanna lie as they pretty much rank for almost everything and just need retaining service ATM but definitely refused it MiHu I mean long tail keywords, there are always more of them
Fadil In your place i will say "ok" but ask him a video testimonial and the permission to create a case history about your work with him, with these two you can get easily even better customers. Don't work just for the money, work to earn video testimonials, case histories and referral from clients, so even if you lose customers you can always earn new clients very very easily 👍💟7 Sahil Contract is just a piece of paper. People don't honor it. So no use. They were paying you for exactly this. Your SEO services by which you were supposed to rank them. Now the task is done so they don't want to continue. Mostly clients don't understand the logic of ongoing SEO. Let them move on. You did your job and got paid for it. They did not cheat. Stop loving the websites and the clients. The max you can do is ask them to continue the maintenance with you. Either ways let them know they'll tank down. By reducing the link velocity or stopping SEO altogether. Don't do any unethical stuff that you'll regret later.. Your wrong deeds kill your peace piece by piece. 👍💟4
Saghani » Sahil wow, well said. He is right and correct too. Follow and move on.
Nawaz Rankings arent forever, they will eventually comeback to you if the ranking drops, then charge 2x for the same you did earlier.. Try NOT to do any negative SEO now after they cut you off 👍🤭3
Zeb » Nawaz this thing 🔥
Reiner Work with me instead 🙂 👍🤯2
Talha ✍️ » Reiner I can try 😅😬
Carl I think they have rights to terminate you regardless of the contract. Unless you had a deal before you get started that you will be getting cut/commission for every sales coming from SEO. Atif Find a new client and start work again. Don't be feel stress, Allah is with you 👍💟2
Jain It's alright buddy. It happens and you should be ready for this. You not need to worry. If they feel u did a great job, they definitely will hire you again. All the very best. Kashif Working without Contract is not viable and Client SEO retention rate is usually lasting 6 Months on Average. 👍1 Dean If you don't mind me asking what was their niche and were they drop shipping or what exactly? And how much were your fees for all that 😁 👍1
Talha ✍️ » Dean CONFIDENTIAL
Uday But the client has to understand, either because of competition or google algorithms roll outs they could drop rankings at any point in time, definitely they need to call you for help once they start seeing a downtrend of revenue numbers. Gedela Let me know the industry, i will build the website and you do the SEO part, we both will share the income 50% – 50%..🙂
Talha ✍️ » Gedela No Thank You
Hester I don’t understand the problem here. I assume you got paid for the work you did? If so you got paid, you did the work and the client got the results. The down side for them is that SEO does not stand still and they will begin to lose their rankings over time and, I am sure as you have do e a good job you will get taken in again. Maybe you should explain that to them and, when it happens they will be better understand that they need to retain your services as an ongoing investment in their website. 👍6 George Well that is the point of freelancing. He paid you for your work already. Unless you did a royalties deal that's it. In product design projects you dont even get a chance to showcase the results to potential other clients as they are not yours when you sell them. 😁 👍1 Ali We have a problem just like yours, but the difference is in the scale. Our team handles more than 10 sites and the boss can fire us any time. But let it go You've leaned in this project a lot and it will help you in future. 👍1 Rao You sold your services and they paid you for that, what else do you want? A builder do not own the house he builds.. 👍1
Talha ✍️ » Rao I agree with ya But the example is bad because it's not a Builder and a house… It's more like the primary chef and restaurant Rao » Talha alright neglect the example but, may be they realize later that SEO needs constant work
Nipun Good work, but it's part of game, isn't it? If they fall any trouble in future they will contact you for sure. So, you should aware them about the future consequences, and let them know you will be there for them. For now happily leave, there should be some ethics. 💟1 Luiso Upsell them some other services, or identify more keyword opportunities to keep them excited about growing their SEO. If you want I can send a case study of a client who did exactly this and then watched their traffic drop off over a few months until we started again with them! 👍💟2 Gopal Don't Worry without regular SEO, their keywords will come down after sometime.. They will be back to you again. Alex » Talha what you should do… Please make sure you collect your year or year month over month data… Broken out by sessions, users, engagement conversions and conversion rate metrics… And create a case study using that customers data. From their use that data to get new clients… The purpose should never Be spiteful that they are not going to retain you forever… The real question is if you need to keep them as a client and you’ve been working for them for 11 months maybe you’re not charging enough for your services and maybe you’re not valuing your services at the proper price point. So don’t sabotage time because that will make you look bad and make everybody else in the SEO field look bad… As you already know a lot of small business owners here the idea of SEOs because they don’t understand what we do. To hear suggestions from other people about sabotaging your own work is very very sad! I hope you never listen to that feedback even if it’s a joke… Most jokes are rooted in truth… So don’t be spiteful he’s smart and intuitive. From one SEO to another, congratulations on all the success you achieved for that website. Make sure you create a case study for yourself to market yourself especially when you were about to command a higher asking point per hour per objective.
