A recent experience with a client is a reminder that a little Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) knowledge can be worse than none at all.

The SEO pitch that wasn’t

I heard back that the client loved my SEO stuff and had adopted all my “recommendations”. I found this interesting because I didn’t recall making too many recommendations.

I was invited by an agency to pitch for a significant bit of new business and put in several days work analysing the SEO of their existing site and the opportunity in their sector. The prognosis was quite exciting. Unfortunately, after sitting through a couple of hours of presentations by the Strategy and Creative guys, when it came time for my bit, they said, “Sorry, no, we don’t need to hear that.” Great.

They loved my SEO and had adopted all my “recommendations”

However, my presentation was included in the pitch document, and a few days later I heard back that the client loved my SEO stuff and had adopted all my “recommendations”. I found this interesting because I didn’t recall making too many recommendations. I’d suggested that they buy a couple of domain names – so I assumed they must have been talking about this. But I thought I’d just check out their site. In the immortal words of Britney Spears, “OMIGOD!”.

SEO is not a trowel

Their site was a total SEO abomination. I had identified the five most popular keywords in the category but had gone on to say that there was no point trying to optimise for these terms because they were too broad and too popular. They had put these 5 essentially useless SEO keywords EVERYWHERE – in meta page titles, alt tags, keywords and descriptions tags. It was total SEO Spamsville. Horrified, I called the client.

Couldn’t I just give her the SEO over the phone?

I told her that she had misinterpreted my “recommendations” and that she was at grave risk of dropping dramatically in Google’s search rankings. Now, strangely, I expected at this point that I might be commissioned to complete the job that I had started. But, no. She didn’t want to pay for any SEO – couldn’t I just tell her over the phone? This is a client that was spending $200k for a website. I told her that no, that wouldn’t be possible.

Skimping on SEO is a distortion of priorities

This client was selling product on line. It was an e-commerce site. Now, strategy is important. And design is important. But for a few thousand dollars, she could have optimised the site and actually generated some free web traffic. It’s a great shame. Because with just a little professional SEO help, some people might actually have got to see her $200k site.