Your post was very well said. I definitely understand where you are coming from! What comes to mind is that I don't blame the average client for feeling like we are the enemy. To begin with, they usually have no idea what we are doing on the backend or even how to find out what we have done. I have been amazed to see what professionals have done and not done for clients and charged ridiculous fees on top of it… and then many either disappear off the face of the earth or hold the client hostage with the website. I have seen web developers that put their own company name in the Meta tags, Meta description, etc! There are so many individuals and companies that have been taken advantage of by web designers/SEO consultants and like any other professionals, it gives us all a bad name.

What I see as the most important things to do in order to earn the client’s trust and respect is to:

#1 - Clearly identify client’s goals up front

#2 - Communicate any information that may add a realistic element to their goals. From there, the goals may need to be adjusted. (i.e. we want to be #1 on Google within 30 days may be an unrealistic goal so the client needs to know the facts up front.)

#3 - Report to the client on a regular basis the progress toward the goals. (i.e. weekly, monthly, during and after campaigns.)

There are some great tools out there that help us do a better job, add value for the client and help us earn our client’s trust. [Removed link drop - Jill.]