27 questions to ask potential SEO clients

 27  questions to ask potential SEO clients if you wish to add more clients to your SEO client list.

My suggestion to you is to ask enough questions and the right ones.

Most businesses don’t actually understand the true power of SEO and why it’s crucial for their business strategy. Some clients are aware of a few factors but their knowledge is not updated so all changes happening is not known

According to research, less than 40% of businesses had an SEO strategy and at the same time, more than 70% of consumers search online when they are looking for new products or services.

This means around 60% of businesses are failing to harness the powerful means to grow their business for a large number of potential customers. In the discovery, period makes sure to ask all questions so that all information you will get is needed to get expected results.

Explain services being offered and competitive advantage over others. Don’t be afraid to ask questions for fear of ticking the client off before you even had a chance since the  SEO has aligned with business strategy.

Remember, if the business is not aligned then even the most advanced SEO tricks aren’t going to be result-oriented. So ask questions now and avoid uncomfortable discussion in the future.

You can ask questions in virtual meetings ( Zoom and Skype ) or over the phone to avoid being uncomfortable about your metrics and other methods are through Typeform or Google Forms or survey monkey. I prefer Google Forms since the same is always up-to-date in real-time.

In order to keep it simple and as quick for the client, Google Sheets is the preferred option because it’s easy to share with the help of a link, links can be provided for other relevant documents to refer to, multiple users can edit at the same time, updates are saved in real-time and no need to download, save and then open to read.

Following are the list of 27 questions to ask potential SEO clients who have signed on dotted lines:-

1. Can I have access to websites, blogs, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console.
2. What are their important goals and KPI’s?
3. What is your present ROI and expected ROI within a year?
4. Who are your potential customers?
5. Are you looking for a home country or targeting other countries?
6. What are your main Unique Selling Points?
7. Who are your main competitors?
8. For which other verticals have you budgeted for?
9. You had any previous SEO agency?
10. Do you have SEO-related documents? If yes can you share?
11. Has Google penalized you in past?
12. Company’s level of understanding about SEO?
13. Do you also have any more domains or subdomains?
14. Are you managing any SEO-related tasks with the in-house team?
15. Can we get support from the in-house team?
16. Do you have any PR agency for Marketing?
17. Have you updated the site with new pages which has changed URL structure?
18. Your website is built on which CMS platform?
19. Have you changed the Site’s CMS at any time? How many times?
20. Do you wish to redesign your website?
21. How many offices do you have locally and in other countries?
22. Do you have a procedure for approval by the legal department before going live?
23. According to your experience you had any abnormal gains or losses at any time?
24. Is your business seasonal?
25. Have you made guidelines for your brand?
26. Do you have any special writing style or pattern?
27. Can we have access to designs if you have any?

Following are a few important (must) actions for clients discovery:-

1. Check out their social media presence
2. Research their competitors
3. Conduct SEO audit
4. Study their website and go through website pages and blogs if any
5. Read reviews and speak to their customers
6. Talk to their team
7. Investigate their employees on social media
8. Test their sales funnel
9. Subscribe to their newsletter

Study their business well and frame questions accordingly so that you don’t annoy them. Setting goals at the start of the project is the key.

Check what is the goal of a client

1. Increase organic traffic
2. If Ads are published then cut the cost by half preferably
3. Improve keyword visibility around a few selected keywords
4. Setting up expectations at the beginning is necessary
5. Educate client since education is a very important part to succeed

Once goals are known planning can be done after deciding strategy for a client and the same can be explained to the client so that all phases are known so that is client knows that his expectations will be met and target can be achieved for the year for which he has to plan his products and services accordingly.

Above 27  questions to ask potential SEO clients and have complete understanding about their requirements.