Client who is lurking, learning or looking for SEO Consultant
Posted on 11. Dec, 2008 by Jon Edward Santillan in SEO, Website
A few weeks ago,I had a meeting with one of the Real Estate Software Company in Dubai to do freelance SEO for their product which is property management software. Not mentioning the company name, it is one of the leading property management companies in Dubai. The meeting lasted for almost 45 minutes and some of the discussions we tackled were mostly about search engine marketing and web analytics. The questions that were asked were mostly regarding SEO and samples of my work, which were:
- Can you optimize our property management software website?
- How will you optimize our website?
- Give me some sample of your SEO work. / Give me some examples of your SEO work.
- Do you know how to use web analytics especially Google analytics? However if we choose you, can you teach me how to use it?
- What do you think of the new website?
- Can you please let me know the step by step how you will optimize the website?
Okay, so let’s stop it from here. Refer to the list mentioned above, I answered no. 1 to no. 3 and right after that question we moved on to the next with “Can you teach me how to use it”, I suddenly paused for a while and answered: YES! Of course (without hesitation). Then moving on to the 5th question, I answered it too and as far as I could remember, I told them that their website is great with XHTML 1.0 and CSS valid.
Then the 6th question came “Can you please let me know the step by step how you will optimize the website?” I paused and thought about it. Why is he asking me this question? I felt a little doubt on the side. So, I told him I needed to have some research first and ask him some questions just to learn about their products and objectives, he replied back quickly “No No, I just need to know how will you do it.” So, to make him happy, in regardless of the doubts I was having, I still managed to go on with the discussion concerning some of the process of SEO that I will carry out to the Dubai property management website. While going over the process of Research, On-page Optimization and Off-Page Optimization, I can see that he was listening and on the other hand, listing it all to a piece of paper.
After having all the steps listed, he wasn’t satisfied enough and asked me another question: “How will you do the research?” and I said, “I am going to askt some questions in regards to your product, website, your target audience, whether it is regional or international, etc. Things like that.” And he replied, “Okay, okay. How about On-Page and Off-Page Optimization, How will you do it?” then I replied again “On On-page Optimization it is a process by which some of page elements of the website are structured so that the web page can be found by the search engine easily. Some of the elements include Meta’s, keyword density, website structured, navigation, basic redirect using 301 and sitemap”and in Off-Page Optimization“Some samples are website directory submission and article directory submission”. While explaining and discussing about this SEO process to him, he was still listing it all to his piece of paper together with all of the steps that I mentioned previously. After the long question and answer portion, came the final stint. He then told me that I needed to give him a copy of the SEO Proposal for their review purpose and will just contact me back if I got the project or not.
Then I said “Oh ok. But I still need to ask you about the website and some of what I have mentioned earlier so I can do a research, and if you can introduce your product to me… like how it works, some of the features, is it web or desktop application so I can give you a proposal to fit to your business” he replied to me again saying “do your own research about this and get back to me with the proposal.”
In our earlier discussion, I had doubts that they weren’t looking for an SEO expert in Dubai to optimize their real estate software Dubai website, what they actually needed was someone they can use to guide and teach them how SEO works without spending money on how they will do it. I’ve already been in meetings with a lot of clients who were looking for SEO Dubai service and most of them, you can tell that they were really interested and some was just getting the idea and gaining more about the SEO stuffs so they can apply it for themselves.
Now, this question still lies at the back of my mind, are these companies really looking for a SEO Consultant in Dubai? Or just learning and lurking?
After 3 days of doing my own research and working on the proposal I emailed it to the concerned person I was dealing with. Sadly, after 3 weeks from the meeting that we had, he hasn’t replied until now.
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