An SEO proposal is the first step in the sales process, and it should be designed to show your potential clients why you’re the right choice for them. Whether you are an agency or consultant offering SEO services, creating a compelling SEO proposal is the key to winning more clients.
Businesses tend to contact multiple SEO agencies when searching for the best services. Your SEO proposal needs to stand out from the crowd and showcase why you are the best fit for their needs. Filling your proposal with technical terms and buzzwords is often a turn-off, so you should instead focus on building a connection with your potential clients and convincing them why they should choose your services. Suppose you are an independent agency or consultant who is not part of a larger network. In that case, you can leverage white label SEO services for agencies to boost your offering and make it more attractive.
To set your proposal apart from the competition, you must be clear about the value you offer, explain why your approach is different from others, and demonstrate that you have the skills and experience to deliver great results. Drafting a winning SEO proposal requires careful consideration of the client’s expectations, needs, and goals. But before we dive deeper into the proposal itself, it’s important to understand some basics and get ready to write an effective SEO proposal that will win the client’s business.
What is an SEO Proposal?
Consider an SEO proposal as an interesting sales pitch. It is a document that outlines the details of an SEO project and presents your services, strategy, and timeline to convince the client to hire you. If you are an agency with existing clients, use an SEO proposal to outline the scope of your upcoming project and clearly define the objectives and deliverables.
An effective SEO proposal should be self-sufficient to explain how a business can benefit from implementing these techniques to increase its visibility online, attract more customers, and enhance its overall success. It should include detailed information about the desired outcome of implementing certain methods as well as potential risks or challenges associated with those tasks.
In addition to a well-written proposal, you should also include supporting documents such as case studies that showcase your past success stories and a list of references from former clients who can vouch for your work. By taking advantage of an experienced white label SEO provider when creating your own unique proposals, you will be able to ensure that all opportunities for improvement are maximized without compromising quality or integrity at any point within the project timeline!
What Should Go Into a Winning SEO Proposal?
A good proposal proves your value right away and eliminates your prospective client’s concerns. It should provide a comprehensive overview of the services you offer as well as the timeline and costs associated with the project.
Focus on the following key elements when creating your SEO proposal:
1. Showcase Your Agency as the Best Fit for Their SEO Needs
Keep in mind that your proposal is essentially a sales pitch. It is what will sell your agency and build credibility. Begin by introducing your agency and outlining why you are the best fit for their SEO needs.
Start by showing them what differentiates your agency from the competition. Highlight your services, mission statement, and why they should choose you. Showcase your experience by mentioning past clients and linking to any relevant case studies or testimonials.
Also, introduce the team that will be working on the project and explain why they are qualified to deliver on the SEO strategy. If you have won awards or have certifications, mention those in the proposal as well.
Make sure that the introduction doesn’t take up too much space in the proposal. The introduction should only take up a couple of slides and should give an overview of your agency and its services. Don’t let it take away from the focus of demonstrating your skills and experience.
2. Demonstrate That You Have a Deep Understanding of Their Industry
Show that you understand their industry and the challenges they face by outlining any relevant trends or activities in their niche. This will help demonstrate your expertise and knowledge of the industry.
Keyword Research
Make sure that you include an in-depth keyword research strategy in your proposal. Your keyword research should include both primary and secondary keywords that can be used to increase the website’s visibility on search engines.
You need to understand that your clients may choose to prioritize certain keywords over others. This means that your keyword research should be comprehensive and include potential long-tail and seasonal keywords as well. Make your keyword research stand out by:
- Selecting and grouping keywords according to various categories (e.g., rankings, topics, localized, seasonal).
- Segmenting keywords according to the device used.
- Including search volume for each keyword.
- Avoiding including keywords with very low search volumes or branded/navigational ones.
It should explain how the chosen keywords will be used to improve a website’s visibility online, attract more customers, and enhance its overall success. In addition, describe why investing in certain keywords is important and why it wouldn’t make sense to improve visibility for queries that are navigational keywords and trigger site links.
People usually think that businesses selling similar products or services are the biggest competitors. However, when it comes to online competition analysis, many other factors need to be taken into account. Use your competitor overview to help them identify organic competitors and separate them from perceived ones.
While creating your competitor overview, focus on visibility based on search volume and rankings. This will help you show your clients which competitors are dominating the online space and how your services can help them establish a presence in the same space.
Use this as an opportunity to help them understand which of their competitors are capturing organic traffic and where they are spending their budget on digital marketing. Show your clients how you can help them outrank the competition in organic search engine results.
Site Health Checkup
Run a site health checkup on their website and uncover opportunities for on-site improvements. Explain what these opportunities are and the strategies you are planning to use to improve the website. For example, do they need better meta descriptions or titles? Is their website loading too slowly? Are there any duplicate content issues?
By running this site health checkup, you will be able to identify potential weak spots and update the website to help it rank better in organic search results. Include a high-level overview of the issues your agency has identified and their plans to fix them. Doing this right can make all the difference in gaining a client’s trust and attention.
3. Focus on the Importance of True Organic Traffic
You need to highlight the importance of true organic traffic by emphasizing the difference between organic and paid search engine results. Show your clients that organic traffic is more valuable because it is more targeted and often leads to more conversions.
Explain how investing in true organic traffic can help them attract the right audience, increase their website visibility, and build a strong brand presence online. Show them the potential benefits of investing in true organic traffic over paid search engine results by highlighting case studies and examples of successful campaigns.
You should also emphasize the importance of tracking organic website traffic and its performance to understand which channels are driving the most traffic. This will help them measure the success of their SEO campaigns and make informed decisions about future investments.
Finally, you should explain the importance of developing a long-term SEO strategy instead of focusing on short-term quick fixes. Show them why investing in organic search engine optimization is a long-term investment and the potential return on investment they can expect.
4. Include a Realistic SEO Forecast With Milestones
In today’s competitive online landscape, where artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming more prevalent, businesses need to plan for the future. This means that you need to provide them with a realistic SEO forecast and set measurable goals and milestones.
Explain the potential traffic and conversions that can be achieved by following a certain SEO strategy. Outline which activities will help them reach their desired goals and explain why certain strategies will be more effective than others. Talk about the potential ROI they can expect from investing in SEO activities and how it can help them build an engaging and successful brand.
Compare the estimated results with their current performance and explain how they can increase their online visibility in the long run by investing in SEO. Businesses are always looking for ways to increase their ROI, so providing them with a realistic forecast will make it easier for you to gain their trust and win their business.
By taking the time to explain the potential impact of SEO on their business in terms of clicks and conversions rather than rankings alone, you can help them understand why investing in SEO is the right move for their business.
In addition, detail the maintenance activities that you will be carrying out to sustain their success and the analytics tools you will use to measure progress. Make sure that your plans are realistic and achievable to set expectations and build trust with your clients.
Compare SEO Budget to the Equivalent PPC
Prove the value of SEO by comparing the budget of organic search to the equivalent of PPC. Show your clients how much it would cost them to reach X number of people through organic search and paid search. By doing this, you can demonstrate to them the real value of investing in SEO activities and help them understand why it can be more cost-effective than other digital marketing channels.
5. Add Performance Tracking and Reporting KPIs
In addition to providing a realistic SEO forecast and milestones, you should also include performance tracking and reporting in your proposals. Reporting and analysis help business owners understand the success of their campaigns, measure progress and make informed decisions about future investments.
Outline the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will use to track your clients’ SEO campaigns, such as organic website traffic, number of conversions, sales or leads generated from organic search, etc. Provide a detailed explanation of how the reporting and analysis will run in relation to the campaign goals, what goes into the metrics that describe their visibility, how frequent the reports will be, who is in charge of their account, what happens when the targets are missed and other important details.
By providing a comprehensive reporting system and outlining the KPIs that you will use to measure performance, you can show your potential clients that they can trust your agency to deliver the results they are looking for. This will also provide a good benchmark to track progress, make adjustments and ensure that your clients’ campaigns are running as efficiently and effectively as possible.
6. Include a Comprehensive Investment Section
Once you’ve detailed the SEO strategies and activities that you’ll be undertaking on behalf of your clients, it’s time to talk money. Make sure to include a comprehensive investment section in your proposal that includes all of the pricing for your services.
It can be helpful to think of these fees as an “investment” in the client’s business rather than a cost. Remind them of the potential ROI they can expect from investing in SEO activities and how it can help them build an engaging and successful brand.
Give your clients several pricing options to choose from, and make sure that you provide a breakdown of each component, so they understand exactly what they are paying for. Make sure that the pricing is realistic and achievable, and explain any discounts or special offers you may have.
7. Add a Strong Call to Action (CTA)
End your proposal with a strong call to action that lets the clients know the next steps to get started. Include your contact information and the next steps in the process. Invite them to reach out to you with any questions or concerns they may have, and provide them with a timeline of when they can expect to start seeing results.
Although there are no guarantees in SEO, a well-crafted proposal can help potential clients feel confident in your ability to deliver results. Show them that you understand their needs, outline the activities you will undertake, and demonstrate the value that SEO can bring to their business.
In addition to the content outlined above, make sure that you personalize your proposals for each client and add in any additional information or requirements you feel are necessary. Take time to research each client and their industry so you can tailor the proposal to their specific needs.
Writing an effective SEO proposal requires time, effort, and thought – but it’s worth it in the end. A well-crafted proposal will not only help you win more clients but also keep them engaged and interested in your services.
If you are not sure how to write an SEO proposal or need help getting started, you can always enlist the help of white label SEO providers. They can help you craft a custom-tailored SEO proposal that is guaranteed to get results.