One of our sales people asked me recently, “What do I say to clients who don’t trust SEO’s?” For those potential clients who are jaded, who have been scammed by various companies claiming to do search engine optimization, it is difficult to talk to them about ‘improving their rankings’. They have heard that line many times before, often spoken with a thick, foreign accent.

I found that the best way to convince a client that you aren’t just another scam was, obviously, to focus on building credibility instead of going over the details of exactly what you will do for them. You can get into details later. Here are few things that can make you stand out from the competition as an ethical SEO:

1. “We use professional methods of link building.” As opposed to spamming or submitting to thousands of worthless directories, tell your potential clients that you will get valuable and relevant websites to link to their website. Show them examples of bloggers that mention a client’s website and show them credible sources that link to your past clients.
2. “We do SEO in a way that will grow your business.” Tell your potential clients that you spend weeks simply researching the right keywords to target, that you run an AdWords campaign to see how those keywords perform, and that the point of SEO is to help grow their business through search, not just get them on page 1 for a set of 5-word phrases that you scribbled down.
3. “We have proven results.” Show them some of your achievements with websites in the past. Potential SEO clients need to be convinced by seeing page 1 results. Then show them how that helped the client: more qualified visitors, improved sales, more RSS feed subscribers, etc… Line graphs going up and to the right are greatly appreciated.
4. “We provide you with regular progress reports.” Show them a sample SEO report to give an idea of how you keep clients abreast of the progress of their project. If you can, show them responses from clients after seeing reports.
5. “We have top-notch training.” Show them certificates from training programs, your listing in major conventions you have attended, and any other recognitions that would show that you are a knowledgeable SEO, fully-qualified for the job.
6. “We have specialists in different fields of SEO.” Clients like to know that a team will be handling their project as opposed to one man. It is nice to hear that a copywriter specializing in SEO will be re-writing the content on the website, while a professional link builder will be seeking out your competition, analyzing their strategies and out-doing them. It is also good to mention that any on-site modifications will be made by a professional web developer.
7. “We are recognized by our peers.” Show off some of your most popular blog posts, articles, and such. List some of the positive comments that other SEOs have made regarding your work to demonstrate that you have a name within the industry. List some of the speaking appearances you have made.
8. “We give our clients tools.” Although most SEOs disagreed with me on providing tools, showing clients that they can have control over their website’s SEO in the future is also a good selling point. Realistically, once your clients are convinced by the quality of your work they will keep coming back, regardless of the tools you provide.  

What are some of the best ways you close your jaded SEO clients?