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It's Official - Clients Suck...

SEO Training.
Story Text:
If you haven't spotted Diane and Ralph talking about the Knowing when not to optimize article over at SEOChat, then here ya go..
I've only skimmed it, but essentially it covers when NOT to take on a client, and what to do when you find you have the nightmare client from hell on your hands...
Personally, i just don't have the patience for clients, never have had, in any line of work i've done...

- Y! MyWeb

Aha ...

I loved that article.

Though most here are likely SEOs rather than web designers, the If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers... article is justly famous.

By DianeV at Apr 13 2005 - 01:31

I laughed till I cried

reading that If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers article. The sad thing is it really is so true.

Thanks Diane ;)

By sanity at Apr 13 2005 - 02:36

Well then ...

Well, then, Sophie, on a lighter note, you'll probably enjoy Jeffrey Zeldman's If Filmmakers Were Web Designers II.

Don't worry; I'm running out of these things.

By DianeV at Apr 13 2005 - 02:42

Love it!

Feel free send any more my way - email is fine if we're diluting Nick's thread.

By sanity at Apr 13 2005 - 02:46

Hmmm

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but in that Knowing when not to optimize article, interestingly enough, I have to take exception to this:

Quote:
One of the better things that I've learned from Jill Whalen, one of the SEO pioneers, is that SEO is very much about focus. A site is quite limited in the number of phrases for which it can target and achieve top search engine rankings. Whether you're a strong follower of the Hilltop algorithm approach, believe that the race will be won by the best link campaign, or that content is and will always be king, it doesn't change the fact that a site is still quite limited in the number of search phrases it can realistically target.

This author is a wee bit mixed up with what I say. I'm a firm believe in exactly the opposite, i.e., optimizing every site for TONS of keyword phrases.

I think the author was mixed up because I say that you need focus on EACH page. You can't optimize the home page for 300 phrases, but you certainly can optimize the entire site for 300.

By Jill at Apr 13 2005 - 02:54

Yeah ...

I skipped that part, Jill, since it didn't take into consideration how *large* a site might be.

Pretty good article, though, as are the ones I linked to above.

By DianeV at Apr 13 2005 - 03:00

related

It's simply hard to turn down a SEO project, whether you are servicing a client, optimizing your own site, helping a friend out or what have you.

If you are busy, sometimes you simply have to say no, no matter how attractive that client is. So, of course, for bad clients it is also easier the more busy you are. As you are busy with one client you simply have less time to work with another, so the choice boils down to "who would you rather like to work with?".

In my case it is the clients that i'm already working with, as i don't want to abort a project before time just to take on another, but i could imagine that if a project had gone all wrong somehow, it would be a possibility. Anyway, i guess i'm just trying to say that you should try to spend your time on that which you find most rewarding.

- there's a related thread over at WebmasterWorld: Client from Hell or is it me? Here, a member discusses her experiences with a local municipality.

By claus at Apr 13 2005 - 06:26

One of my favorites...

You know you should fire a client when...

By stuntdubl at Apr 13 2005 - 13:33

-

We had a client 2 weeks ago tell us to take the 800 number down off the site because they were getting too many leads and phone calls from the web. They love you to death until you tell them you'll have to charge for an hours worth of work lol

By seomike at Apr 14 2005 - 04:05