Starting an SEO Writing Company? A Newbie Asks, “How Do You Decide Which Services to Offer and/or Not Offer?”

I love it when I receive questions like the one below, for it proves to me a couple of things: (i) newbies are putting a lot of thought into the type of SEO writing company they want to start; and (ii) SEO writing is a rapidly growing niche in freelance writing.

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Questions from a New SEO Copywriter

A few days ago, a newbie sent me the following email. She wrote:

Dear Yuwanda,

Having read several of your exhaustive and incredibly helpful e-books on SEO writing, most of my questions have been answered, for which I am very thankful. However, I am left with one question that I was hoping you could answer for me. I’ve noticed that, though your company offers many SEO services, there are a few that it does not offer, the most significant of which is link building. My question is this;

What are your reasons for not offering certain SEO services and what do you tell your clients when they ask you if your company can provide them with these services? Do you refer them to someone else? Also, has your company lost any potential clients due to the fact that you don’t offer certain services? 

The reason I am asking you this is because, like your company, there are a few important SEO services that I do not offer and do not plan on offering in the future (unless I can effectively outsource them) and I am not sure if it would be wiser to stick with offering a limited amount of specialized services or to start offering a complete SEO solution. It’s a typical niche versus total services dilemma. Have you noticed any trends that favor either side of the coin?

I would greatly appreciate any input you might have on this matter.

Thank you in advance and kind regards,

JK

My Answer

Let me take her questions one by one:

RE “What are your reasons for not offering certain SEO services and what do you tell your clients when they ask you if your company can provide them with these services?”

When I first started out as an SEO writer, I only offered one service – SEO article writing. I didn’t do blog posts, press releases, article submission, etc. I just offered this one service because it was all I knew how to do; it was all I saw job ads posted for; and it was all I saw others offering.

Now, when I first started back in 2007, SEO content writing wasn’t as popular as it is now. And believe me, even though the niche has grown, still only a tiny fraction of freelance writers even know what it is. And, companies are just starting to invest heavily in search engine optimized content.

So the field will be growing for years. I can’t underscore to you how important this is when deciding which services to offer, because it’ll help you decide when to offer a service, how much to charge for it, whether or not to outsource it, etc.  

So, to sum up my answer to the above question, the reason I only offered one service when I first started out as an SEO writer is because: (i) I was new; (ii) it was the service I saw others offering; and (iii) I reasoned that I could start landing jobs right away by offering this one popular service.

RE: “Do you refer them to someone else? (when they want a service you don’t offer).

This depends on the service offering. For example, when I first started I worked with a lot of full-service internet marketing (IM) firms. Many of them offered everything from website analysis, to pay per click, to link building, to SEO content writing.

So when clients asked for a service I didn’t provide, if I knew of a reputable firm that offered these services, I’d refer them. Ironically, the more I worked with IM companies, the more my list of referees grew, so I was able to heartily recommend a few companies.

As an aside, I only recommended firms that I’d work with and knew they were highly reputable (usually because they outsourced their SEO content needs to me).

FYI, this is how I started to grow my SEO writing company. Clients started asking for things I didn’t provide – but knew that I could – eg, blog posts, press releases, article distribution, etc.

So, if it was in my power to provide the service – I simply added it. If not, then I wouldn’t.

Become a Full-Fledged SEO Company, or Remain a Solo Freelance Article Writer?

This is where you as a business owner will have to make a lot of decisions. I could have just stuck with SEO article writing, but decided to turn my company into a full-fledged SEO writing firm by expanding its service offerings, not just remain a solo freelance SEO article writer.

I started using outsourcers on a regular basis then, not just to help out when I got overwhelmed. The more services you offer, the busier you can get – quickly.

That’s why I advise to only offer what you can handle in the beginning. You can always add on later. By growing slowly like this, you get to learn your business; iron out the kinks (there will always be kinks); and find solutions that work so that when things do get hairy/tough/busy, you will have some idea of how to proceed.

RE “Also, has your company lost any potential clients due to the fact that you don’t offer certain services?”

I’m sure it has. But that’s not a bad thing because you don’t want to offer what you can’t afford to do well. You’re going to lose clients for all types of reasons. That’s just business, so don’t let this bother you.

How to Land Jobs as an SEO Writing Company – Even When You Don’t Offer Lots of Services

One way my SEO writing company manages to snag clients – even if my firm doesn’t seem to be a good fit at first – is by focusing them on what we do offer, and explaining the difference between a “writing company” and a “full-fledged internet marketing firm.”

You see, many clients don’t understand the difference between a full-fledged IM firm and an SEO content writing company.

Internet marketing firms charge thousands of dollars for the services they offer – especially stuff like web analysis and devising an SEO content strategy. And the reason is, they have to analyze the “big picture,” then figure out which parts need to be tweaked, revised, added, deleted to get a website’s rank to improve. This includes delving deeply into a site – analyzing everything from its navigational structure, to its content offerings, to its products and services.

My firm can fulfill the SEO content needs of this “big picture” analysis. And, that’s the reason that when IM firms come to us, they already know what keywords they want us to write on, how many articles a site needs, how often, etc.

Once I explain this to prospects who contact my firm directly, many of them are like, “Oh, I see.”

Many small businesses who contact my firm can’t afford the services of a full-fledged IM firm, but they can afford to beef up their content.” And, that’s when they usually say something like, “Well, we’d like to order some ongoing blog posts, or some web articles, etc.”

RE “Have you noticed any trends that favor either side of the coin?” Your customers will guide you in this area, then it’s up to you if you want to provide that service.

For example, once I noticed that my customers and prospects I contacted were requesting SEO’d blog posts, I started offering that because after all, a blog post is just shorter article.

However, I continued to hold off on offering social media until I understood it more. I wasn’t comfortable in many of the mediums (eg, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Once I got comfortable on Twitter though, I added that to my firm’s list of services (I outsource it)).

See what I mean?

Conclusion

The bottom line is — only offer services you’re comfortable with in the beginning of your SEO writing career. Then, add on (and hire help (ie, outsource)) when you feel more comfortable.

Share Your Thoughts? Any additional insight you can share with this new SEO writer? Or, if you’re new, have questions? Share in the comments section below please, and enjoy the rest of the week (it’s “hump day” — yes!).

Yuwanda
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