8 replies to this topic

[lenwood]

I'd like some feedback on working with awful websites. My smallest client has a website with numerous broken links, CSS errors, canonicalization issues, and more. The site is a first class mess. They're on contract, and they are VERY concerned about an increase in traffic. My concern is that if I focus only on SEO, all the traffic that comes in will bounce and they'll cancel me for not producing leads for their sales team. I'm glad to spend the time fixing these errors, but that gets into web dev, which is not what they're paying me for.

I'm curious to know if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation, and how you handled it.

Thanks,
Chris

[SEOreports]

Chris,

I am unsure how they can possibly be getting any type of leads now, if it is such a mess. Broken Links and everything you mentioned effects SEO greatly. If search engines can't index the site, they simply would put you in the index. Which should be the first goal of SEM!


If you are under contract, just fix the issues. You could try and sit down with them and explain everything and attempt to get more money to fix the issues. however, you probably wont get far.

I also think that you should have looked at those issues before signing a contract. This way you would have been prepared and included this work in your contract.


Steve

[Pamela]

i guess it would depend on what they are expecting/what results you are supposed to be achieving as a part of the contract. if you are supposed to be increasing conversions/leads then i imagine the best thing would be to tackle those on site issues. if you're only supposed to increase traffic, then maybe you could manage to make other improvements or just do the minimum to their site (fix broken links etc) without giving their site an overhaul (um assuming it gets indexed as is). but i feel for you either way, i always cringe when working on a site that i KNOW could get so much better results if the owner would focus on improving the site itself (design, code, intuitiveness, professionalism) but fixing those (seemingly obvious!) issues is beyond the scope of the project from my end.

i agree with seoreports, if it's worth it to fix the issues, it may mean the client stays with you beyond the contract and you make more $$ if they are truly satisfied.. but if you do, make sure they understand what a cluster*** you are having to deal with so they see the value!

good luck and let us know how it goes.

-Pam

[Jill]

I also have to agree with Seoreports. Weren't these issues mentioned before you signed your contract? Seems to me your contract should have said something like, "our work will begin once the website has been fixed by doing, blah blah and blah." Or something like that.

A bit piece of SEO has to do with the site architecture and other back end issues and this should have been accounted for one way or another in your initial assessment of the website, I would think.

[ezwoodz]

yep I agree to all, first make a site analysis and marketing plan to their site before accepting. Men I hate to receive complaint emails so hurtful lol

[zephyr]

Great question---I also have a number of clients in such a state.
Just a sad fact of life-
All are right that maybe you should have looked before leaping, but now that you're in it...

Here in CT, often a house is sold, then torn down, and a new one built.
It's cheaper and faster in the long run than trying to fix it up....
If that is not an option you can convince them of, perhaps try to work out a plan
with them to fix at least the most egregious problems.
Ask them for a fix-up budget, then do what you can with that.

[donp]

Poor conversions due to bad websites will most likely have an adverse effect on your customer's perception of your performance of SEO efforts. It's the perception, not neccessarily the reality. Our customers ultimately expect results - either increased sales and/or leads or other goals - and with a bad website, more visitors doesn't mean more sales - just more disappointed visitors.

If you have a client that doesn't understand the concept - look for trouble down the line. Even if you show improvement in traffic, it does not neccessarily follow that sales will improve correspondingly, and that's the bottom line for many clients.

[rolf]

I agree with the general comments above but would like to add that (from experience) even if you followed all the advice above you may still end up with a client that doesn't want you to fix anything, but does expect spectacular results and never quite gets it when you try to explain why there are barriers to that happening.

In such circumstances I eventually take the position that they are paying me to do what we've agreed and it's not my problem/responsibility to solve anything else for them. If I've tried my best to give them all the information and have completed the tasks I've been hired to do then I have lived up to my responsibilities and the rest is up to them.

[thetraveler]

I was in this position in the current business I am with. When I arrived the business was about to go under and the site was horrible. It not only had zero seo but even if people found it, the conversion was terrible. She was insistent that the site was perfect. I turned it around by making her realize she could trust me in incremental steps. Soon, very soon actually, she let me have full control of the site and freed up over $1000 to hire a site designer. We have had record months ever since (not a testament to my skill, but rather to how bad the old site was). She loves me now and would trust me with anything.

She said she learned to trust me because I guided her along slowly and explained in simple terms what I was doing and why I was doing it. I backed up everything I said with statistical information. Building trust was the absolute key factor. Because they are in a world (the internet) they don't understand, they have to know you have their best interests at heart and they can trust you. Then, everything is a piece of cake.

Although these can be some of the most difficult cases they often end up as your best clients if you can bring them along. To this day she shows her site to everyone she speaks to and has tried to get me countless seo gigs even though I am not interested.