Depending on the savvy-ness of the client in question, they often hide behind a privacy screen, continuing to bill but without delivering. Seeing a snail cover the distance of the london marathon is probably quicker, that seeing a site improve.

Like the last poster mentioned the 10k retainer is probably small change & i’m sure the pitch at the 20page report they give out, usually helps clinch the deal.

- search engines are still a mystery to most brands
- by their internal makeup, they can only really deal with linear stuff like “I spend this on advertising I get that ROI”
- they respond to big SEO companies; ‘theyre like us - so we hire them’
- they typically only let 3rd party companies do consultancy / offer recommendations because they don’t trust anyone with their web property
- so, when youre technially handcuffed, you have to somehow sell the fact you are good value on a $10,000 monthly retainer, so you talk about simple stuff like meta tags, because they are simple enough to comprehend
- don’t forget ‘brands’ are still on 1999 SEO and yes it seems wierd but remember, by reading this blog, youre on the cutting edge of SEO!

The problem is that big companies find the hardcore SEO scene really, really inaccessable. So if you want to make money with them, you have to play a different game.

and of course, BIG companies see a $10k retainer as small change.

Once in the circuit the client finds out that they really can’t do what they say…and the old excuse comes into play…’the search engine’s algo just changed…it will take us weeks to several months to get you back into the mix’ … and this is tied in with their carefully crafted legalize embedded in everything they publish about their services…

Give’s the small guys an edge who can build out personalized “honest” working relationships and work to educate their respective clients regarding ‘expectations’ vs. ‘reality’ where the engines and organic listings are concerned…and what the future may hold…

Seriously though I very much agree with you. I’m also stunned that these companies tend not to work to actually make the site better - more “link worthy” so that it can actually build a few natural links by itself. They tend to just slap on some meta tags, maybe tweak the titles and run rankings reports for MSN. (Yawn)

Classic case scenario is an SEO/SEM firm gets a few big name clients who have PR7/8 and crap rankings then they optimize Titles and Metas, adjust keyword density, and do internal linking and end up with top rankings (that the client should have had anyways if their site was built right).

Now they’ve got great references, they have money to create fancy ass graphs and presentations and spend major money on their site “creative”, hire some big names, and show off all the bells and whistles. Then, when it comes down to performance they fail to meet expectations 80% of the time as 80% of their clients aren’t just suffering from “lack of meta-tag” disease. They need real link development, intelligent content optimization, and something to drive some viral linking/traffic.

I’ve been meaning to write something about this topic for a while, but never really got around to it. Do large SEO firms suck?
Jim Boykin, CEO of WeBuildPages, has ranted before about large SEO firms:
I don’t get it…I just don&#821…

Then a few months later reality cramps set in when the results are being monitored.

It’s very similar at some level to selling gambling systems to help people win as nobody can beat gambling or the search engines all the time, you can do your best and skill helps but luck is always nice too.

“Are you willing to invest at least… $10,000 monthly for extremely competitive markets? This is what we charge for aiming at “natural” rankings (not PPC).”

10K per month or about 120K per year is about what the large companies with dozens of blue chip clients were quoting me.

If my boss saw two companies who both wanted 10K per month and one had dozens of other large, nationally recognized brands and the other one had few if any (I don’t know if this is the case. You don’t list your client names). Even though you would probably do a better job in my opinion, he would never understand the buy rational for the SEO Company with few if any large, nationally recognized brands. He would feel safer going with what he would perceive to be the “SEO Industry leader” (if the cost were about the same.)