#SEOPodcast 295 - 10 Indispensable People Skills for Successful Web Marketing

Hi, and welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name is Chris Burris, owner of E-Web Results. I am Charles Lewis, your client results advocate. Welcome back to another fun-filled edition of our podcast. I am actually tethered on my phone, if you're watching, I mean, on my iPad, because I neglected to charge it. So, this is podcast... Seven percent? Seven percent. Yeah, that's after sitting here for five minutes. I know, folks. This is podcast number 295. As always, we have a tip from our previous podcast, and that tip is make sure your marketing strategy complements your sales process. Yeah, anytime you're doing marketing, you want to make sure that your sales process is complementary to that. So, whatever your action is, if it's subscribe, download, or even contact us, then make sure your marketing screams that same message. Boom. That's our tip from podcast number 294. Please remember, we are your friendly local neighborhood top position snatchers, and our mantra is... Don't be a deuce. Hey, if you have some sort of device, and you're in a position to, we would love it if you would tweet, if you would hashtag, if you would add stuff. If you get contact with us, preferably on Twitter, at eWebResults, at BestSEO Podcast. Be sure to use the hashtag SEO Podcast. This is number 295. 295, man. We're five away from 300. We still haven't figured out what we're going to do when we get to 300. I don't know. Cake. You can't go wrong with cake. Yeah, cake's always good. So hit us in it. That way we can follow you back and do all of our social network stuff. Hey, we got a really interesting article today. We're actually going to give you some perspective if you're actually the client of an SEO company, things you should be doing and checking out. What do we got? Man, first off, punch in the face. Huge punch in the face to Stoney G. Man, I like Stoney G. He posts a lot of articles on

various places. This one he posted on Search Engine Journal. 10 people skills for web marketing success. 10 people skills. And it was cool because he kind of talked about what the SEO should do, like the agency. Right, right. And what the client should do. And so stay tuned. This is going to be a great article. It's going to be really good. All right. Let's see. So if this is the first time you've listened to this podcast, howdy. Welcome. Welcome to the most popular SEO podcast. How are you doing? On iTunes. That is because of the rest of y'all. And you're about to make us even more popular. So thank you for that. Appreciate you. If you've listened to this podcast before, we're going to ask you a small favor. You know what it is. We do run a contest, quote unquote contest. If we get more than 10 likes, follows, shares, whatever. Not shares, but likes or follows on any one of our platforms. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or G+. And we get a review. We will skip what we're about to do. We did not get 10 or more. Which is why we're about to do it. We're about to do it. We did get a couple of reviews. We'll talk about those in a second. So we ask you this small favor. If you would, go to our G+, local page. It's actually now Google My Business page. And do a couple of things. We don't call it G+. We just call it G+. And we've made it really easy for you to get to that page. All you need to do is go to ewebresults.com slash Google+. Or slash Google+. Or slash G+. Or slash G+. G+. All of those will take you to our Google+, page. And we ask you to do a couple of things when you get there. First, when you get there, do a couple of things. First off, leave us a review, right? Hopefully that review is five stars. And after you leave that review, put us in

a circle. That way you can share some content with us. We'll share some content with you. And stay connected. Excellent. Next, the next thing we're asking you to do, only has three steps. Go on to iTunes. Create an account. Write a review. If you choose to make that review five stars, we will really appreciate it. We'll probably read it on air. Next, Facebook. We've got a couple of Facebook pages. The one you should go to is Facebook.com slash eWebResults. And there you will find the Reviews tab. There's no confusion about the old app because we've changed Facebook pages. And when you go there, make sure that you follow us. Yeah, follow us. Like us. And then also leave a review. And we ask that you make that. Hold on. Back up. Back up. Back up. I just caught what you were saying. Yeah. Like us. Like us, right? Like us. Yeah, don't follow us on Facebook. You can't really do that. But you can like us. If you figure out how to do that, then you let us know. You can go to Twitter and follow us, but like us on Facebook. Absolutely. And the next place to leave a review. And actually, if you could, if there's any order of preference, start with Stitcher. The easiest way to get to our Stitcher page is go to eWebResults.com. Yep. Click any link. And you will find in our right sidebar a link to our Stitcher page. We've gotten... Some people gave us some flack because we had some distribution issues. It's like giving, I don't know, Run DMC is who comes to my head. Giving him a bad name because Ups delivered the CD late. Like, yeah. It's not his fault. It's not his fault. Although in this case, it was our fault. Yeah. But it was a delivery issue, not a quality of content issue. If you're a PHP genius, a WordPress guru, give us a call. We're probably looking for you. We probably need your help. 713-510-7846. Leave an audio resume. If you

want a free website analysis... eWebResults.com. Right there. There's like three featured areas. Click the one on the right. And, yeah, submit your site. Yep. And excellent. We do not have any algo caps. So let's jump right into the news, which my device doesn't seem to be showing me any news. That's interesting. It hasn't updated. It hasn't to do with that 7%. That's interesting. I don't even have the reviews here. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Let's see if I refresh that. You said you had a little bit of news, right? I did have a little bit of news. It wasn't much. So I thought this was interesting. It's some kind of social media news, right? Right. In regards to Pinterest. So some things Pinterest is doing now, you know how people already can pin multiple things like events or restaurants or recipes or pictures or whatever it is you're pinning. You can also pin places, right? And so now what this news is Pinterest wrote out a new feature in sync with Google Maps. And so now when you pin places on Pinterest, that pin place will show up on Google Maps. That's cool. That's really cool. And what that really means is for my internet marketers out there and those who do social media marketing and you have a brick and mortar building, whether you're a retail store or restaurant or whatever it is, you should be participating in Pinterest. So those same pictures that you're Instagramming, those same pictures you're sharing on Facebook, Twitter and things like that, you need to come back around and pin those pictures to some board and that way you can start tagging your place and that place will likely show up on more people's Google Maps if they're also connected with you on Pinterest. Take advantage. Cool. Well, I didn't get any updates, so that's okay. I do remember one piece of news and one of it was, this is pretty cool and you read tech stuff like you're nerdy like me. You know, Tesla has the autopilot feature on their

car. $2,500 if you didn't pay for it up front, the thing will drive itself basically. It'll even change lanes, which is the newest feature that other things, and I don't know, like you put it on your signal and it changes lanes or something. Or if it puts the signal on for you. I mean, so they're saying you got to have your hands on the steering wheel. I almost said keyboard because that's just how I think. You got to have your hands on the steering wheel or to bing at you and complain and whine. But you, man, somebody's going to hack that, right? I mean, so. With some static glove. So it thinks you're actually holding on to the steering wheel. Yeah, I'm just, I'm Skyping on Instagram and I'm not paying attention at all. Yeah. So hopefully they've tested it. And they do say that true autonomous driving will not be available for about three years. And it'll probably take even longer than that to get it through, you know, the red tape. Well, I think it's that, and truthfully, I think that's one of the reasons why Facebook is working on internet planes and Google is rolling out fiber to all these cities is because in order for, you know, hundreds of thousands of vehicles to operate like that and it's likely going to be online, the bandwidth is going to have to be super strong and always available. Yeah. Because you definitely don't want to start buffering in the middle of a lane change. Look, so imagine this, right? How many bad drivers on the road right now? Already. It's just insane. Yeah. So imagine if you give them, I don't know, a six-month break where they don't have to drive and then the bandwidth dies and the things like that. And they have to drive. And they like wake up and like, I don't know how to drive. I was a bad driver before. Yeah. Yeah, my car actually drives better than me. Yeah. A lot better than me. We've all bumped

into those people for sure. I did, so we have reviews. We'll save them for next time. I did have two patiffs. So I had a great conversation with Alex, Dalton's Wadwin. They make woodcutting equipment, right? So planing equipment and saws for major companies who, well, they don't make it. They actually distribute it. And it's for major companies like, say, you want to do paneling and you're a paneling manufacturer. You need those grooves in it. Boom. They sell saws that do it. So I had a great call with him. Actually, I have a follow-up call with him next week. And a punch in the face to Angel right out of Miami. Angel. Oh, Miami is probably Angel. Or Angel. Yeah. Yeah. His website is PC911247. Oh, that's a guy? Yeah. Which is pretty cool, right? PC911247. Oh, PC emergency all day, every day. By the way. I got it. He does get a kick in the shins. And specifically because he didn't know what a kick in the shins was, right? So if you're a long-term listener of the podcast, kick in the shins is... The opposite of a punch in the face. Opposite of the punch in the face, right? And he called. He's from Miami. We're not advertising any kind of traditional advertising or even internet marketing advertising. I'm like, so you listen to our podcast. He was like, oh, you have a podcast? I listen to podcasts all the time. I haven't heard of you guys. He was totally, totally messing with me. He did a good job. He did a really good job. So, Angel, good luck to you and your business there. I sent him some stuff and hopefully he'll be right in the room. Yeah, you get a punch kick. Yeah, a punch kick because thank you for reaching out to us. It is. Come on. And he also, I mean, the fact that he doesn't know what a kick in the shins is, it's kind of indicative that we don't use it enough. So, we're going to add that

as part of our blank stare or something. Somebody we can kick in the shins. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of people who deserve to be kicking in the shins. How about all the bad drivers? Oh, man. My leg's tired. I know. My children. So, yeah, I got a story, but we'll say, yeah, children and drivers. My son, as bad as he's been at school, would probably be a really good driver. He's got to make up for it somewhere. I just got introduced to the principal today. So, it's a good day. All right. Really, that's the potatoes for today because we're going to save some reviews until next time. Now, it's time to get into the meat. Yeah. So, again, punch in the face to the man, Stoney G, the guy there over and the good folks over at Search Engine Journal. The full title of his article is 10 Indispensable People Skills, SEOs, and Clients Must Practice Daily for Successful Web Marketing. That's a long title. Yeah. So, his short version is 10 People Skills for Web Marketing Success. That's the one we'll run with. But I will say, man, punch in the face to you, Stoney. I think it's a great article. And one of the main reasons I wanted to present this was because he took the time to give two different perspectives. So, he's going to give us 10 tips for successful web marketing. And then these tips will be broken down for what the SEO company or the agency can do and what the client should do. So, he starts off this article by saying, the best SEOs are those that perform upon a foundation of collaboration. And the most successful businesses are those that make it a priority to collaborate heavily with their web marketers. Let me take this time to punch in the face to Brian Goldsmith and the good folks over at Lone Star School of Music. And a punch in the face to Heidi and the good people at Meat Flow. And a whole bunch of other

clients we have who really take it seriously. They really contact us. They really share content, provide images. They really make our job easy. They share what they're doing from a traditional market perspective. Yeah, all the other marketing things they're doing. Because we have tie-ins to that. Exactly. Give us a lot of influence. They ask for advice. Hey, what should I do with these things so we can make sure the marketing campaign is consistent, that the website is updated with the necessary information. And to be honest, it's kind of difficult to do that when the client don't participate. And so, he's right. Marketing works best, especially when you're in a situation where you're using multiple parties, right? If you are in a client and you're using an agency, I encourage you, I implore you to communicate with that agency. Don't just sit back and wait on reports or wait on information. No, send them information. Ask questions because it's going to help. Hopefully, they're of a mind where they're asking for your input. They're asking for your help. Exactly. You know, we have a monthly call. We get together monthly with our clients and we want them to give us feedback. We come to those and we want transparency and honesty. We did good on this. We did bad on that. Here's how we're going to improve on that. And what do you think? Because, you know, I give the example to prospects all the time. So, we make a pretty website. All your friends and family like it and we drive lots of traffic to it. And, you know, you, I don't know, let's say you... Yeah, it looks good to get in traffic. Let's say you install glass in buildings and we, for whatever reason, are sending you iPhone glass repair traffic. And we're like, look how much traffic you got. And you're like, I got no business. That's an important conversation to have. Exactly. And if you're not communicating that, then you just don't know. Yep. I'm going to give you a real-time

example. Another business owner who pays attention and contributes, punch in the face to Wayne Springer and the good folks over at Atiwa. And so, Atiwa is an IT company and they rent IT equipment. Yep. Like, laptops, printers, and audio, video equipment and things like that. Right? Projectors. Yep. Right? And so, on a phrase match campaign, they were getting clicks for movie projector rentals. Even though my phrase was projector rentals. And if you guys know how phrase match works, then you understand the new change that made with close variants and why he was getting those clicks. Yep. And if it wasn't for our monthly call, then I would have not known that, hey, they don't even rent movie projectors. Projectors, right. And so, they rent digital projectors and things like that. And so, it's that call. It's that feedback loop that allows us, the marketing team, to go in and add those as negatives and make some changes. Absolutely. So, by the way, we just covered everything you need to know about interacting with an SEO company. Yeah. Except for the first 10 points we're about to get to. So, number one, he says, listen to others. Don't just make them listen to you. Great point. So, for the SEO, he says, before an SEO can even begin, there's a good amount of listening that needs to happen. So, part of our process involves a creative call, right? Right. Every new account goes through this 45 to hour long call. Creative results call. Yeah. Where we just literally ask questions. I'm just trying to get a better understanding of you, of your business, of your clients, of your target, of your objectives, what you're trying to accomplish, how you're trying to grow. Because all of that, believe it or not, is important into your SEO, into your site design, into your marketing. What you sell the most and what makes you the most money. Yeah, what you sell the least. Who are your competitors? All of that information is necessary. And so, we must listen. Now,

from the client perspective, he says, dictating the course of web marketing campaign will only tie the SEO's hands. And ultimately, keep them from doing what truly needs to be done. That's happened. He's right. It's happened. We've experienced it. Yeah. We've had clients where we wanted to position a form above the fold next to a slider, for example. And the client, push back, push back. No, I don't want it there. I want it below. I want it below. I want it below. I want it below. I want to see the image or whatever it was that they wanted. Yeah. I want to see. I need all five fields. And we're like, no, we really need to put it higher. And we only need three fields. And they push back, push back, push back until they weren't getting any leads. That was like four months, right? They push back. And their leads just constantly declined. And so, then one day, we just did it. Yeah. Anyway, it's like, okay, we have to make a change. And before the client recognized that that was done, their leads shot back up. Yeah. Get a call. Hey, what'd you guys do? What you told us not to do. And so, look. And she was like, thank you. Leave it there. I should have listened to you in the first place. I think you have an email. I should have listened to you from the beginning. I do. And so, I think the message here is, look, if you're paying an agency, whether it's even an internal person you've hired, right? It's us or whoever it is. If you're paying them, let them do their job. It's a reason you hired them. It's a reason you probably signed an agreement. It's a reason they're in the position they're in. And so, if they want to make these kind of changes, you should probably let them do it. Two. Two. He says, ask the right questions. From an SEO perspective, he says, SEO needs to have a good understanding of the business

audience, values, high points, and objections. We were just talking about the earlier. I'm going to add sales process. Exactly. That's what I wrote on the sales funnel. Yeah. Not only do we have a monthly client results call, we try to have weekly clients. We call, where we can kind of just touch bases on how things are performing, any new ideas came out, how did these leads close, right? We need that kind of feedback. Hey, I just got a call from a company in Chicago. Why? Exactly. Let's figure that out and fix it. Yeah. Or great. Or understand it. Maybe you want that. Well, where did they come from? How can we get more of those? You know, that sort of deal. And so, you always have to ask the right questions. And so, if you're a company right now, you're dealing with an agency, they should be asking you questions like, how did that lead convert? Did it close? Did you, if I'm looking at reports and I see tons of traffic from other states and they're spending all kind of time on the site, then you should be getting questions like, did you talk to somebody from this state? What did they say? How did they find you? Can you expand to that state? Exactly. Can you find a partner and deliver leads to that state? Yeah, is it worth us creating content and targeting those areas, right? If you're not having that feedback loop and asking those questions, then you really prevent yourself from growth. So, for the client, he says, is there, if there is anything you don't understand about the process, like a particular strategy or when they expect certain results, then you need to be asking more questions. Yeah. And he's right. Like, if you're paying, ask questions, ask questions, ask questions. I had some clients, they say, oh, I just didn't want to bug you. I'm like, no, please ask. We want to tend your relationship with you. If you just let things lie, that's probably not going to

happen. And don't ask questions. Exactly. So, communicate. Communicate. If you're a client, communicate with your agency. If you're an agency, communicate with your clients. Number three. Three. He says, accept thoughts and ideas that are not your own. Accept thoughts and ideas that you didn't create. Right? So, for the SEO person, he says, give me two sites built on the same platform in the same industry and I'll show you a hundred differences between them that impact their marketing. And he's right. Yeah. No two sites are the same. No two companies are the same. Even if they do the same exact service in the same exact area. There's different people. There's just different people. There's how your business may have been established longer. Your domain name may be longer. You may have a bigger staff. You may do, you know, there's differences. Right. And all of those differences affect how your campaign, how your SEO is going to do. For example. Yeah. Maybe you're an older domain name. You have a lot of content and more experience. Then it's likely going to be easier to get you to the first page than somebody who's, let's say, a brand new site. Right. It just happens that way. You don't have enough brand authority. You don't have enough domain rank. You don't have enough trust. You don't have enough reviews to compete with somebody in your same target area using the same exact service who's been established longer. But you can get there. You can get there. Yeah. It's just going to take some time. Yeah. For the client, he says, don't get so married to your site that you're unwilling to accept some tough love from your web marketing team. He says, I don't care how much your site costs you or how successful you've been so far. Your SEO team is tasked with helping you overcome your challenges. Yep. Ding. Ding, ding, ding, ding. He's right again. You know, a lot of people spend a lot of money on sites. Yeah. I mean, frankly, our sites aren't

cheap, and so, you know, I get it. That's some of the worst news that we have to give to clients or prospects is like, how long ago did you finish your website? Ooh. Last week, you just got it? Yeah. That's the worst. Even six months ago is rough. He's like, I got some bad news for you. We got to redo it. We got to redo this. Then I go, oh my God, why? Well, first off, is that responsive? Is CTA's in the wrong spot? Your color scheme is wrong? Is not mobile friendly? Your coding is bad, and so on. And so, we need to redesign. And if you just spent $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 on the site, or worse, you probably dealt with some other company, so you didn't spend that much, but it just took too long, and so you finally got it, which we've been seeing. People finally got their site, and that site's bad. Yeah. And so, if it is what it is, it is what it is. For the client, he says, be willing to accept the new information and allow that information to challenge your previously held thoughts and your opinions. Yeah. That kind of goes back to the other point. Look, if you're paying for that service, and they're suggesting that it needs to get done, and they're providing you factual evidence on why it needs to get done, then let it get done. Yeah. You know, don't handicap them. I'll say this, be open. Yeah. Be open to suggestions, right? Sometimes, you may not quite understand what they're doing, but- Or even like the aesthetic impact it may have. But be open to it, because it's the reason why you're contacting them. Yeah. Number four. The SEO companies are doing what they know works. Exactly. And so, you should let them do that, and then if it doesn't work, then you start taking control, and then potentially fire them. Well, exactly, and that's kind of what this one goes in. Number four, he says, allow new information to influence

your opinion. Yeah. Right? So, for the SEO, he says, this new information can and should influence any opinions the SEO has. What new information is he talking about? He's talking about that information that comes from constant client communication. So, for example, you're a client of ours. Maybe you're opening up, I don't know, a new location across town, and if we're not communicating, then I don't have that new information. If you haven't emailed it to me, or I haven't noticed it on your Facebook page or something, then I don't know about your new location. And with regard to new location, we could give you advice on where you should be, because a central location to your demographic that you're going after is significantly more valuable than something on the outskirts of that demographic. And more importantly, if we're your marketing agency and we're handling your local listings, then it's imperative for us to update your local profile with your new location. And if you haven't shared that information, then your profile's not updated. I think that happened to us. I've never said that, oh, we moved. Like, you got moved? I didn't mention that to you? No, you didn't mention that to us. So, keep constant communication with your web marketing team. Number five. Number five. He says, think and observe before making knee-jerk reactions. Oh, my God. Number four, the SEOs. He says, make sure every web marketing action you take considers what is best for the visitor instead of before looking at what's best for the search engine. Right. He's right. You know, I mean, search has already transitioned to more of a conversational type deal. It's all about, you know, interactive content and things like that. And so, yeah, when you make those changes, think about the visitor first. You know, for example, you may not want to just quickly remove dollar signs from your shopping cart. Yes, that happened. You know. We didn't. Yeah, that happened. Yeah, that's a knee-jerk reaction. You know, and ironically, we immediately got a call saying, hey,

I can't find the price. Right? So, again, like the previous example, without the customer's approval, we put the dollar signs back on and then let them know. Yeah, because we have to act, you're paying us to act on behalf of the client and make, do what we believe is best for you. Right. He says, for the client. And this is what we know is best for you. Exactly. He says, don't force your SEO to make changes based on limited data. Doing so will only harm your long-term results. Yeah, we've experienced that. Yeah. Yeah. Like, if you have some preconceived notion of what you think SEO should be and how it should work, try it yourself. And realize that what you think you know, you really don't. And then come to the agency. Worst thing you can do is come pay us somewhere between $1,500 and $5,000 a month to tell us what to do. Yeah. Right. At the end of the day, we'll push back and give you our recommendations and then you are paying us and we will do what you ask us to do. Yep. And then unfortunately, it may not work out right all the time. Yep. Number six. Six. He says, be willing to do things differently. From the SEO perspective, he says, because every website has its own unique challenges, sometimes a new approach is necessary. He's right. Every now and then, our kind of strategy, you know, build a great site, make sure it's mobile, make sure it has great content, it's optimized well. Now, okay, we shift gears, we begin building links and posting content and being social. And before you know it, three months, four months, hey, first page ranking. Right. Usually works for us. Yeah. Every now and then, it doesn't. Right. Right? And then you have to switch. You have to do something different. So don't be scared to figure out what that something different is. Don't be scared to try it. Even if you haven't tried it before, it may be necessary. If you're

an SEO agency, you want to keep that client. From a client perspective, he says, some things the SEO recommends may make you uncomfortable, whether it's an idea for social media or content. Yeah. He's right. Look, if this SEO person knows how this content needs to be written in order to get conversions, in order to rank well, but it's not necessarily in the way you want it written, write your own post. Yeah. You know, allow them to write the content that they're doing so they can get you the results that you paid them for. And then if you want to change some of that, then that's when that communication comes in. Yeah. Even if you just make some slight adjustments, like, hey, at least say this or say that. You know, he started off the article talking about a collaborative effort. Right. And that's what that is. We're not looking to just overtake and run it. We're looking to get feedback from you, make sure we have a better understanding of your company, then run it. Imagine if you had a marketing department in your company, right? If you're the owner, you're going to be meeting with them on a regular basis. Like, what's your plan? What are we doing? Hey, I had these ideas. And that's what you should be doing with your SEO company. With your SEO company. For sure. And, you know, from time to time, go check out the competitors. Kind of do a landscape because an SEO is probably not on a monthly basis checking out your competitors. They're working on your placement and working on your conversions. And then if you kind of look at a competitor and say, look, all of a sudden this happened to us. Well, we did it. The client didn't. But we started looking at the competitors who three months ago had horrible websites. And all of a sudden were- They're all modern, right? And so we're going to start making changes to that website. We have to, you know, it is what it is.

Matter of fact, I like this one. And on that same point, he says, you know, they may make you uncomfortable. I'll say this. Look for effort and progress, right? Because SEO is so different. You may be with an agency who is struggling, frankly. You could be in an extremely competitive industry in a really large city, centrally located. Yeah, it's going to be a tough thing to rank you there. And if you're in one of them situations, as long as that agency is making some kind of progress, you're seeing effort. They're keeping the lines of communication open. And they're actually trying. And they have a record. Like, so you can look at other places where they've done well. Exactly. You look at other competition, other things that they've done and seen that they really know what they're doing. Then I would advise you to stay the course and let them figure it out. You may even want to talk to them about some sort of arrangements or whatever. I got an idea. Or get a free website analysis from us. Exactly. And we can tell you how they're doing. Exactly. We'll tell you, hey, they're doing everything right. Hey, this is going to take some time. I will tell you, hey, so, yeah. And we won't just say they're doing a bad job. In fact, we'll tell you where they are doing a good job and where they may be doing a bad job if they are. I mean, we've had, we visited an emergency room center, right? One of those emergency room centers. And we kind of pulled up their account and we had this meeting. We're like, so why are we here? Because they're doing a great job. Everything's good. You guys rank well. The site's decent. Yeah. It probably converts. It's like, why are we here? So we would be that honest with any website analysis as well. Number seven. Seven. He says, be willing to have your ignorance exposed. Yeah, I get it. From the SEO perspective, he says, it's better to

admit that you don't have an answer than to find it and then find it rather than provide the wrong answer out of pride. He's right. And look, I'll be the first to say, I'm quick to tell you, you know what? I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I will find out though. I don't know. I'll tell you what I think. I think this, but I really don't know. And then I'll go find out. And then return back to you with some answers. Now that kind of, I ain't going to say it always happens. It rarely happens because I tend to do know, but occasionally I don't. Yeah. For the client, he says that regardless of how much time you spend keeping up on SEO, you need to realize that you likely don't know as much as the SEO person you're paying. Hopefully you don't. That's why you're paying them. If you do, then. You need a job. Exactly. Exactly. My question I wrote down, well, why are you paying them? Yeah. And so I think it's great for clients to read up on algorithms and try to be up to date on what's going on. And ironically, our monthly calls we have for each client is also an education moment for them. Right. Because they learn more about the changes we've made and why we've made them and the impact it'll have. And so if you're a client and you're thinking about doing some SEO or maybe you're dealing with an agency, I encourage you. Read up on it. Get familiar with it. Learn some of the lingo. Learn some of the terms. But just because you read it, don't mean that you need to go force it to be implemented. Right. Because I'm pretty sure there's a reason for it not being implemented or it may already be done and you just don't know. Right. But either way, educate yourself. And ask questions, right? Ask questions. Don't force it, but ask questions. Hey, have you guys, what's the reason we're not doing this if

we're not? Exactly. Number eight. Eight. He says, be willing to listen to hard truths without getting defensive. Yep. Yeah, that's a tough one. For the SEO perspective, he says an SEO can try to explain everything away or you can listen for the nuggets of truth. And, you know, we've made it a habit to be open. Yeah. Right. Client calls and they want to talk about, you know, whatever it is, then we're going to sit back and listen. Even if it's about our performance or about the content or whatever it is, we're not going to argue. We're not going to get defensive. Now, we may educate on why these things were done. But, you know, at the end of the day, yeah, we're here to listen. We're here to make sure it's right. And I encourage you, other SEOs or agencies out there, look, we can't force our methodology. Methodology. Yeah. We can't force that down clients' throats. We have to listen. You have to listen and make adjustments. And from the client perspective, he says if you're not willing to listen, then you're likely to repeat the same mistakes time and time again. Yeah. How many clients do we know who've had horrible results with multiple agencies? Man, I had a prospect the other day who was like, I just spent five years paying a company for SEO. I looked, literally, I looked at their website. Some SEO had been done. For the most part, it was pretty bad. And then he chose to go with somebody else, similar price point. I'm like, you're just going to end up with the same situation. It happens all the time. Especially if he's not following steps number six and seven and allowing SEO company to do what they need to do. So if you're, you know, finding some kind of company and then railroading them with your thoughts and your ideas and how it should be done, yeah, it's probably not going to work for you. So, yeah, be willing to listen and that way you don't

make the same mistakes. Number nine, he says, be willing to accept directions, which is a good one. From the SEO perspective, he says, the client may jump in and suggest a new change in the strategy. So be willing to explain your plan, but also be willing to allow the campaign to go the direction the client wants. Now, change is necessary. Change is good. Change is the only constant. And so we appreciate change. We embrace change. I encourage other SEO agencies and SEOers to embrace change as well, especially if it comes from a client who's collaborating, who's participating, who's joining. Because at the end of the day, it's their business. And so the change probably comes from a good set of data. For that client, he says, as you seek to make your campaign more aggressive, you may be told that the best way forward is to increase your budget. Sometimes it is. And don't do it unless they prove to you why. Exactly. Don't just say, yeah, you're going to need to pay more money. You need to understand what does paid more money mean. Right. You know, for us, it can mean several things. We're going to increase your pay-per-click spend, or we're going to triple up on your content, or we're going to double up on your social media posts, or whatever our strategy entails for us to get the results we feel like you need and can get. It may require more resources. Here's an example. Prospect, just this week, actually, spoke to the wife. Great conversation. And they own a plumbing business. Punch in the face to... Mercy. Mercy. Yeah, mercy. Like, have mercy on me. Don't charge me too much. It's a great marketing campaign. So, mercy plumbing here in Houston. Punch in the face. So, I speak with John, who's the owner, the husband and the owner, and he's like, look, all I want to do is just decrease my cost per click. Yeah. And I was like, John, I don't think that's what you really want. I think

what you really want is to have the information so that you can know that you need to double what you spend. Exactly. Right? Because if it is giving a positive ROI, you should double that. Well, maybe not double, but you should increase it to the point that it makes the most sense. So, yeah. That's our approach. Yeah, he was suffering from a lack of data. Yep. And so, with that lack of data, he was like, he's focusing on the numbers. Just reduce the cost. Yeah, because the business owner, they focus on numbers. Yeah. But what he really was, was the data. Because if he could quantify that, hey, with the money we did spend, generated this portion of ourselves, then his whole dynamic would have likely been different. Yeah. But he didn't have that data. Yeah. Which is not on here, but the SEO company should be giving you data. Yes. About your performance. Number 10. 10. He says, be willing to admit when you're wrong. Yeah. You just had to do that. From the SEO perspective, he says, the best thing you can do is to own up to your mistakes and quickly find a way to correct them. The next step is to put in systems that will ensure the same mistake doesn't happen again. You got to be honest. Yeah. You know, at the end of the day, everyone's human. Mistakes will happen. It's just the nature of the game, the nature of life. But how you react to those mistakes. Do you cover it up? Or do you, you know, rush it, address it, fix it? Run to the fire. Exactly. And so, and that's one of the things we try to practice. We, you know, try not to make mistakes. Yeah. But every now and then, you know, stuff happens. And you just got to address it and move forward. Part of our process is a welcome to eWeb results process. Mm-hmm. And one of the slides in that process is, we are not perfect. When, slash, if we make

a mistake, let us know so we can fix it. Yeah, exactly. From the client perspective, he says, web marketing cannot account for everything. And remember, the point was be willing to admit when you're wrong. So, sometimes it is not your SEO company, right? Maybe you, maybe they are sending great traffic and it had been for a whole 12-month, you know, time span, a whole duration of your contract. They've been sending great traffic. You've been getting great social activity. You've been getting qualified leads come through. And then halfway throughout the agreement, your leads start decreasing. Right. But your traffic was increasing and everything else is going up and your ranking's getting better. Then it may not be the fault of your SEO company. Right. That your business is not growing. It could be, I don't know, your sales process maybe. Right. It could be some negative experience someone had and now they posted a bad review. And so, your four and a half stars dropped down to three. And now, you didn't get as many clicks as you used to get. Or the people who did click aren't converting as fast as they used to. Right. Those are things that the SEO company can't control. Only thing we can do is get you more reviews and kind of get your stars back up. And maybe even offer you some business coaching to help with the sales process. But that's not the fault. Which we do. Which we do, ironically, because we're focused on results. Right. Right. And so, if it means, hey, we're doing some call tracking. Right. Listen to this sale. Then you guys need to implement a script. Here's a sample script. You know, we'll do that. Try this. Because, you know, something needs to change. So, yeah, be willing to admit when you're wrong. So, man, punch in the face to Stoney G. Man, 10 indispensable people skills, SEOs, and clients must practice daily for successful web marketing. Dude, great article. Extremely long title. But I get it. And that's what's up. So,

we kind of spun that article a particular way. And it doesn't really match. But I wanted to add this one. Which is, never set it and forget it. Oh, never set it. That's a good one. That's actually the overriding principle of this. And for both people. For the SEO agency and the client. Because if you set it and forget it, then you don't need people's skills. So, listen to the underlying message of this article. Which is, don't set it and forget it. Be on top of it. Meet with your SEO company. If you're an SEO company, meet with your clients. Communicate. And make some great communication. That's the only way to really have a successful campaign. We gave a lot of eWebResult examples in that. But at the end of the day, whether you're a client of ours or any other client or any other agency. The more, like Chris was saying, it's to communicate. Agencies and clients, they must communicate in order for the success of that business. Because if they don't, then it's just not going to work. Yep. Cool. All right. Do we have any what or blank stare? I do have some what news. I do have some what news. What? So, this what, it hurts to say this what. And first off, you know, this goes to my Astros. Yeah. This is going to the Astros. First off, great season, guys. No one expected you to get here. You know, four years ago, the last four seasons, they had the worst record in the league. And then all of a sudden, we almost made the World Series. Yeah. So, congrats on that. But, like, come on. Like, we should have never been in game five. We should have won game four and been chilling. Yeah. Dog cake. You know how many people in Houston thought we had won? Including you. I thought we won. It was like six, two, top of the six. I'm like, oh, we good. This is good. And then one of our team members, Javier, went

to the game. He came back after the game. He came back sad. We was like, uh-oh. And I knew Charles was like, no, they won. What are you talking about? Yeah. So, yeah. Come on, Strolls. Great season. But, like, come on. Like, come on. Really. We was that close. Cool. All right. Hey, if you're looking to grow your business with the largest, simplest marketing tool on the planet, call eWebResults for increased revenue in your business. Our phone number is 713-592-6724. And, hey, we have a special for the month of November. All right. So, we're going to offer you, if you sign up on one of our internet marketing packages, we're going to give you free social, right? Mm-hmm. Free social media package. That's awesome. Free social media package. Real quick. That comes with posts every day of the week. That comes with custom social media graphics. That comes with customized hashtags and everything. Yeah. It's well worth it. Absolutely. It's a $250 value. Some of our packages include it. So, you get a $250 discount on that package. So, kind of reach out to us. If you guys have been thinking about reaching out to us, now's the time. We do have a referral program. So, if you've got somebody or some client that is interested in internet marketing, you send them to us. They pay us. We pay you. That's pretty straightforward. Yeah, pretty easy. Remember, we were filmed live at 5999 West 30... Oh, I do have to say this. We had a great broadcast. Go check out... 294? No, go check out upsociallive.com. Yeah, the Ferrari's the vibe. We got to broadcast from the Ferrari in the woodlands, which is a suburb of Houston, north of Houston. And so, I was in a car, car on, in the thing with like 180 people and interviewing one of the guys who works there and talking about the Ferrari experience. So, go check out Up Social Live. That was a pretty cool event. Now, remember, we are filmed live at 5999 West 34th Street,

Suite 106 here in Houston, Texas. This is H-Town. Yeah, Houston, Texas. Yeah, Houston, Texas. 770-892. 770-892. The transcript and video of this podcast are available on our website. So, you can find them there. Let me do this. Special request for people who watch live and who tune in. Man, look, if you watch 295 or 294, hit me up. Yeah. At eWebResults on Twitter, let us know the quality of the podcast. The last two, we've used Google Hangouts live stream through YouTube and everything from 293 before was using you stream. Right. With a direct upload to YouTube. So, the quality should be different. The dimensions should be a little different. The clarity should be a little different. Should be better, frankly. Give us some feedback. Yeah, please. Cool. Well, that's it. Thank you guys for making us the most popular internet marketing podcast on iTunes. That is because of all you all. You. Until the next podcast, my name is Chris Burris. Charles Lewis. Bye-bye for now. All right. Balance check. Balance check. One, two, three, four. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. It's the old podcast, 295. Time to start, man. About to broadcast live. So, what you do win. It's time to tune in. Implement what we say and then you win. Hold up. Oh, yeah. Plus all results. Pay attention, man. Then you can get your... All right. That's it for today. Technical problems. 295. It's just a brain fart. That's what that really was.