“Hello, I’m not sure if you’re they guys I need to talk to but I have a problem…”

Somebody has an emergency. Their business is in trouble and they know they need help. Since they are calling us with a big problem this is likely the first point of contact our agency has had with the caller. They almost certainly should have called sooner…

“My website was getting lots of traffic and making sales but in the past couple of weeks, all that has dried up. What should I do?”

Search engine optimization and marketing firms get this type of phone call every day. Somebody has invested a lot of money (relatively speaking, of course) and probably a lot of time into his or her online business and now they have an issue. Most of the time, the caller didn’t know who to speak with about their problem until it hit a critical point. Often, they didn’t even know they had a problem until their disaster struck. When it did, they would have turned to a friend or business associate that then referred them to us. Such is the extended marketing cycle for a well known search marketing shop.

Getting the caller to describe the nature of their problem while checking out the website gives our staff a few minutes to perform basic SEO/SEM triage, a process that often reveals a few minor errors that obviously carry major implications. During the basic triage, we’ll ask questions like:

- “How long has your website existed at this domain?”
- “Have you ever had another search engine marketing firm work on this site? If so, when?”
- “When was it last updated? What was changed and why?”
- “Have you ever been involved in a link-building campaign? If so, when and how much (if anything) did it cost you?”
- “Do you have a marketing budget?” (This is an important though often uncomfortable question. It has to be asked. One’s time literally is their company’s money.)

The series of questions is partially designed to simply get the caller to open up to us. He or she is asking us to make comment on one of their most valuable assets, their online business. We need to know more about the business, its goals and the people behind it before feeling comfortable making swift pronouncements. That, and we’re stalling for time. We need a few minutes to think through whatever problem is put before us. SEOs tend to be highly analytic problem solvers. Their answers are nevertheless important as they serve to inform the SEO about who they are dealing with and what that person really wants accomplished.

SEO is about combining the technical skills of a very good webmaster with the persuasive language and design skills of a very good marketer. The set of skills found in most search marketing agencies resemble those found in a sampling of 15 university students gathered at random on any liberal-arts campus. Some excel in language, history or psychology, while others excel in math, science, engineering and architecture. Curious, philosophic and almost always over-educated, the collective brain(s) of a modern search marketing shop tend to span a wide array of intellectual disciplines. It’s not rocket science though by the same measure, neither is auto-repair. SEO is however far more challenging than the rebuild of a old Slant-6 or the rehabilitation of a carburetor.

The metaphor between SEO and auto-repair is useful for the needs of a typical emergency caller. Their problem is often a technical glitch that needs to be found and fixed. There is one essential difference between the two that makes all the difference in the world.

The difference between emergency auto-repair and the emergency SEO call is that automotive repair requires hands-on work. Emergency SEO triage does not. A good SEO can often spot a problem and verbally instruct someone through the solution. Their problem is, they can’t do that and be responsible at the same time.

In a perfect world, we could often clear up their problem during that initial emergency phone call, offering basic webmaster advise for free in the hopes the caller will remember us fondly when they launch another web-based business. Unfortunately, the world is far more litigious than perfect. Before offering any free advice, we need the protection of a contract to prevent being held accountable for what would otherwise be viewed as an act of goodwill by the vast majority of reasonable persons. Since we’re not the ones doing the hands-on work (in this scenario), we can’t guarantee it was done correctly. Search engine marketing firms are thus put in a position where the caller has to become a client before we are able to offer our assistance.

In most ways, this is disappointing for techies of goodwill. The vast majority would be happy to help under other circumstances but when a professional opinion is solicited, professionals need to act, well…, professionally.

In the long run the situation could prove to be of greater benefit to the newly minted client. Having somehow found their way into a problem a clever SEO shop can solve for them, chances are there are several other services available that will propel their business further along towards their goals.

We’re going to get another emergency SEO call. For all I know, one of the staff is fielding one right now. Each gets the respect and attention it deserves but each will be handled professionally. It’s an important rule every SEO shop should follow.