We often hear about bad SEO consultants, but there are also bad SEO clients who cause problems to honest consultants. Clients often have some knowledge about SEO and they actively encourage consultants to participate in an unethical campaign. A good SEO campaign will deliver results, but people want to get quick results, especially if they need to immediately reach breakeven point, after investing a large amount of money for the online business. In reality, a bad SEO client will be satisfied only if they have a successful bad SEO campaign.
The worst among them are ethically-challenged clients. Even after consultants explain them about the unethical aspects of their campaign, they are undeterred and want to continue using their methods. These people simply have ethical problems and it is very difficult for consultants to convince them to use proper SEO methods. Judgmentally-challenged clients are easier to handle. They may choose black hat methods, because they think that they are the only effective methods to achieve results. They could be considered as victims of previous bad SEO consultants who teach them mostly about unethical SEO methods. Ethically-challenged people often think that they should get something for nearly nothing. It means that by paying a SEO consultant $1,000; they want to get $10,000 each month quickly.
These judgmentally-challenged souls could be enlightened with information regarding proper SEO methods and how they can be highly effective and deliver long-term results. These people are more easily to let go of their misconceptions and bad judgments. After all, they finally obtain information about white hat alternatives.
Clients should be informed that SEO is a long-term process and if it can be accomplished with so many quick fixes, SEO consultants will create websites themselves and generate huge profit. People who obtain money from advertising platforms, such as Adsense and similar programs, tend to be somewhat more dishonest. Legitimate clients typically sell actual products and services. They want to get long-term, repeat buyers; instead of quick visitors who never come back after browsing their products.
There are other SEO clients that may potentially bring problems to consultants. Starry-eyed clients may have ridiculously high goals and they seem to be lost in their own imagination. They think that search engine is the best way to get huge sales and fame in the Internet, without considering the degree of competition for many keywords.
Other clients don’t really want to know about SEO details. They don’t want to know about legitimate linking strategy, optimized content, anchor text, keyword research and others. These people only want results, such as higher PageRank, much better search engine rankings and huge traffic.
Some clients are so gullible that they single-handedly buying dubious SEO-related offers without consulting the consultant. They could purchase hundreds of low-quality links for $39.95; thinking that it will help the SEO campaign immensely. We may also find highly sceptical client who want to see how SEO fails and they hire consultants just to see this to happen. They could rely on social networking, PPC and other online marketing methods, but not SEO.
