How to Get SEO Clients for Your Agency: 6 Proven Ways to Grow Your Client Base

Ever feel like your SEO agency is getting lost in the crowd?

With so many businesses now realizing the importance of ranking high in search results, the demand for SEO services is through the roof. That’s obviously great news for SEO agencies – except it means you’re up against a lot of competition. It’s not enough to just be good at SEO anymore; you’ve got to know how to attract and keep your clients.

The numbers speak for themselves: the global market for SEO services was worth about $43.3 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $170 billion in 2028. That’s some serious growth!

As the market expands, so does the need for SEO agencies to differentiate themselves and implement strategies to both attract and retain clients.

How to Land SEO Clients: A Step-by-Step Guide

Yes, you should be providing great service to secure new clients for your SEO agency; however, you should also know where and how to get SEO clients by reaching the right audience.

You might be just starting out or looking to expand, but the key to both is strategically positioning your agency in front of businesses actively seeking SEO services. The following list breaks down the most effective steps to help you both find SEO clients and turn them into long-term partners.

1. Finding the Right Marketplaces: Where to Be Seen

If you’re serious about attracting clients, you need to be where they are searching for your services. To get clients for SEO business, one of the effective ways is to have a strong profile on related platforms. While also a hub for businesses looking for SEO services, marketplaces also provide a field for agencies of all sizes to introduce their agency and expertise, whether if it’s an SEO agency in London or located elsewhere.

However, simply having a presence on marketplaces might not be enough. You need to be strategic about how you present your agency on these platforms.

Choose the Right Platforms: Not all marketplaces are created equal. We recommend focusing on those that cater specifically to your businesses looking for SEO services. Evaluate which marketplace aligns best with your target clients. If you have a specific industry that you specialize in, perhaps you can try to find a platform that also caters to an audience in that specific niche.

For example, if you’re an expert on healthcare SEO, you might want to consider having a profile in a platform where they focus on the healthcare industry as well.

Optimize Your Agency Profile: Your profile should do more than just list your services. In fact, you should be able to use it as a mini-website that highlights your unique value proposition. This can include niche expertise, your successful case studies with results for different clients, and maybe even client testimonials. Thus, finding a platform that can offer you to have a strong profile might be the go-to option. Engage Actively: Don’t just set up your profile and leave it, though. It’s equally important to update it with new case studies and content. Also, if the platform offers community engagement activities, participate in those! These actions are the ones that can set you apart from other agencies, including the top SEO companies in your field. Reviews and Ratings: Most of these platforms display agency reviews and ratings. Obviously, the first step you should take is to choose one that does provide ratings for your agency. But more importantly, you must encourage your clients to leave detailed reviews on your marketplace profiles or Google reviews. High ratings and positive feedback increase your credibility and can lead to higher visibility within the platform’s search results.

2. Offering Free SEO Audits: The Key to Opening Conversations

You already probably know that offering free SEO audits can be meaningful to connect with SEO clients. But to make free SEO audits effective, you need to go beyond the basics. Thus, we recommend that instead of delivering a standard analysis, focus on what really matters to each client. Is their site speed dragging down their performance? Are they missing out on key opportunities to rank? 

When you provide insights that lead to quick wins, like improving on-page SEO or optimizing keywords, you’re doing more than just giving them a report, instead you show them what’s possible with your help. 

3. Partnering with Web Development Agencies: A Strategic Collaboration

Growing your client base is never easy, but partnering with web development agencies is a smart way to expand your reach. Since they often work with companies or brands that need help building or updating their websites, web development agencies are a good fit for agencies like yours. By working together, you can create opportunities for both of you.

Instead of just trading referrals, perhaps you can think about offering combined services. You could team up to create packages that include both web development and SEO, or you could work on case studies together that show how well your partnership works.

4. Networking in Industry-Specific Events: Building Relationships That Matter

Connecting with potential clients online is important, but sometimes, meeting face-to-face at industry-specific events can make a bigger impact. SEO or digital marketing-related conferences are great opportunities to build relationships and network with people.

Though, your goal to attend these events shouldn’t just be about promoting your services. Instead, we recommend you focus on engaging in genuine conversations and sharing useful insights. Your aim should be to position your agency as a reliable and knowledgeable resource in the SEO field when participating in a panel or mingling during a networking session.

5. Identifying Your Ideal Client: The Foundation of Success

Before you start attracting clients, the first thing you need to do is to clearly identify who your ideal client is. Why? Because knowing exactly who you’re targeting – it could be a small business, eCommerce companies etc. – helps you to craft messaging, strategies, and services that directly resonate with their specific needs.

When you know your ideal client, you can speak their language and address their challenges. If you understand their pain points, goals, and motivations, you create detailed buyer personas more easily. For example, if you’re focusing on eCommerce businesses, you can highlight your approach and ability to boost their online sales through advanced SEO strategies.

6. Hosting Educational Webinars: Positioning Yourself as an Industry Expert

Another effective way to attract clients can be hosting educational webinars. With these events you can share your expertise, yes. But you can also have the opportunity to solve real problems for your audience and prove to them exactly how you can help. 

You might wonder why this matters. Trust is an important element of SEO because, to many, it can seem like an abstract concept. While we know SEO is grounded in real results, your potential clients might not see it that way. A webinar is your opportunity to both educate and prove your value in a concrete, understandable way. Webinars also give you a chance to directly interact with the audience. Sometimes, real-time engagement is way better than dull emails or blog posts. 

Conclusion: A Roadmap to Success

Running an SEO agency today isn’t easy with so many other competitors. But the thing is it’s more important to have meaningful conversations rather than having the loudest voice. When you think about it you’ll realize that SEO clients are looking for more than just another service provider – they’re looking for a partner who can understand their challenges and guide them through the complexities of SEO with confidence. 

Take these insights you gathered above and put them into action. Don’t be afraid to tweak and refine as you go. 

And here’s an actionable step: don’t let this be just another article you read. Pick one strategy, implement it this week, and see the difference it makes. Whether it’s planning to host a webinar to address client pain points or joining a platform to build an agency profile, take that step! 

Your future clients are waiting for the expertise only you can provide. So, go out there, and show them what sets your SEO agency apart.