You are an expert SEO agency that knows how to rank websites, perform link building, and fix technical issues, but none of this matters if you don’t know how to get SEO clients. You can confirm this reality if your outreach emails or calls are getting unanswered, proposals are stalled, and referrals are drying up.

That means even if you have studied the SEO algorithms, mastered the tools, and know in and out of how search engine optimization works, you still need to work on the skills that help you find SEO clients.

Quick Summary

This blog reveals some proven outreach strategies that don’t feel salesy. These can help you how to find SEO clients while creating a sense of customer trust and positioning yourself as a credible SEO service provider in the market.

Who are SEO Clients?

SEO clients are organizations or individuals that require specialized services to enhance the visibility of their websites in search engines. These customers usually approach SEO service providers or SEO agencies that can help them rank their websites and online content at higher positions on the top search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Many of the SEO clients provide specific keywords of interest to their industry or niche for which they want positioning on the SERPs. If not, they might also leave it to the SEO agency to use several techniques or strategies, such as keyword optimization, content development, link building, and technical website audits, etc., to boost their organic traffic, user engagement, and, consequently, more conversions and sales. 

Types of SEO Clients

Knowing the various categories of SEO clients may assist you in crafting your approach and services in accordance with their needs. The following are some of the main types of SEO customers that you might come across:

• Small Businesses: These customers usually have small budgets but are willing to enhance their online presence. They appreciate individual service and definite measurable outcomes.
• eCommerce Sites: These clients are interested in generating online sales, and they require aggressive SEO services to enhance product presence and boost conversions.
• Local Ventures: These clients seek to appeal to customers in a specific geographical location. Their success depends on local SEO, such as optimizing business listings and local citations.
• Startups: Startups are interested in fast growth and may require aggressive on-page and off-page SEO tactics to take hold of the market. They appreciate new ideas and rapid outcomes.
• Large Corporations: These customers are big-budget businesses and need complex SEO strategies that support their overall marketing objectives. They usually require extensive reporting and frequent updates.
• Agencies: Other marketing or digital agencies might outsource their search engine optimization requirements. These clients are sensitive to expertise and reliability and may need white-label services.

By identifying the individual requirements of these various kinds of SEO clients, you can efficiently respond to their needs in the best way while also establishing strong and enduring relationships.

Effective Ways to Find SEO Clients

Getting SEO clients involves more than just having in-depth knowledge of search engine optimization; it requires strategic effort, networking, and targeted outreach. 

You can make use of the following steps at each stage of ‘how to get SEO clients’. These can help you to build and expand your SEO client base in 2026 effectively:

1. Get New Clients Using Targeted and Personalized Cold Emailing

• Best for: Startups, agencies, or businesses that are looking to acquire new clients.
• Client intent: High-quality, high-paying clients looking for long-term associations.

If you want to take control of getting a consistent flow of clients, cold email outreach is one of the most effective strategies. But sending cold emails to vague customers or emails that do not define a purpose for them can be neglected. 

So, let’s break down how to use cold emailing to get SEO clients in 5 easy steps. 

Step 1. Identify Your Idea Customer Profile

A cold email begins with understanding your ideal customer’s profile (ICP). For example, you can target industries that need search visibility, like eCommerce, SaaS, or real estate.

Step 2. Build a List of Prospects

Once you know your ideal customer, start making a list of businesses that match your ICP persona. If you have a small list, consider using the manual method and saving it in a Google or Excel sheet. But if you deal with huge volumes, investing in a CRM tool would simplify this process.

Step 3. Find Their Contact Details 

Next, you’ll need their email addresses. Finding email addresses online can be done from multiple sources, like their website and LinkedIn profiles. If you’re planning to reach out to a large number of prospects, you can use a lead database or email finder tools to speed things up.

Step 4. Write a Personalized Cold Email

A generic cold email does not create an impression that you are actually interested in offering solutions to the clients’ challenges.  What you need to send is a personalized outreach or cold email to the client that highlights specific problems that the customer might be facing related to SEO on their website. 

For example: Point out a problem with their website or SEO (like slow speed, missing keywords, or poor rankings) and explain how you can help. 

Tip: Go through cold email example templates and understand how to write cold emails. If you still struggle with writing personalized emails when finding SEO clients, you can take help from AI email writers that can assist you in writing quick, engaging, and professional emails for your prospective SEO customers. 

Step 5. Follow up Strategically

Most people won’t reply to the first email, and that’s normal. They might be busy or might have missed it. You can send up to 3 - 5 follow-up emails, spaced 3 - 5 days apart. Each follow-up should add a bit of extra value - like a quick tip, a resource, or a better solution. 

If you forgot taking up follow-ups, then you can use an email platform, like Neo Mail, that has a follow-up reminder feature, which gives you reminder to take a follow-up. 

2. Turn Your Network into Clients with Simple Referral Strategies

• Best for: Small or mid-size SEO teams with a clear niche and a medium budget. Ideal for finding local clients.
• Client intent: Businesses ready to buy, easy to convince, and willing to invest in long-term SEO.

Referral marketing is for businesses that already have a network or clients with whom they have a good experience. Here’s how to get SEO leads with referral marketing:

Step 1. Make a Referral Plan

Determine the reward and any conditions you wish to set for claiming the referral amount. Here are a few reward options. 

• Cash rewards. A small or a fixed percentage of the deal. 
• Vouchers/Gift cards.  
• Free upgrades on their current plans. 

Step 2. Ask The Right People

Asking the right people is important. Referral works when the person recommending you has trust in you, and also the person they are recommending trusts them. Here are a few places from where you can start running the referral program. 

• Old/current clients with good results. 
• Friends/family that might need SEO services. 
• Businesses that you have networked with or local companies that might know you.

Step 3. Give Clear Instructions

Provide a short message or email they can forward. Here’s an example text that your referrals can send:

“Hey [First Name], just wanted to recommend [Company Name/Agency] if you need SEO help. They helped me get great results. Check them out: [Website/Contact].”

Step 4. Track Referrals

Running a referral program requires tracking. You can use a simple Excel or CRM tool to track the details, which referrals have actually brought leads or SEO clients, or which are not effective.

Tip: Want to take it to the next level?  Pair lead magnets (such as an ebook, a checklist, or any industry report, etc) with referral offers to attract more clients. 

3. Use Social Selling to Land High-Value Clients

• Best for: Freelancers or small agencies looking to establish their online presence.
• Client intent: Businesses posting SEO/marketing needs, open to outsourcing, willing to try new providers.

Social selling is the long game - building trust, credibility, and relationships with potential clients through social networks like LinkedIn, X, Slack, and more. It’s positioning yourself as the obvious choice when they’re ready to buy.

• Share proof and value: Post SEO wins, mini case studies, and practical tips your audience can use immediately.
• Engage with intent: Reply to posts from business owners, marketing managers, and industry peers with insights or solutions - not just likes.
• Stay consistent: The goal is steady visibility so they remember your name when a need arises.
• Warm before you pitch: Use public interactions to create familiarity, then reach out with a personalized note or email that starts professionally and includes content considering the recipient's position, experience, and requirements.

Pro Tip: To double the chances of connecting with the lead, use LinkedIn Chrome extensions to pull verified emails from target profiles, then follow up directly in their inbox.

4. Optimize Your Website to Capture More SEO Clients

• Best for: Businesses with well-built websites. With enough testimonials and reviews to demonstrate a strong reputation.
• Client intent: High - they are searching for solutions themselves and are capable of paying high for result-driven SEO services.

A well- optimized website works like an expert salesperson. It also improves touchless conversions. Here are a few things you can add to your website to optimize and increase touchless conversions. 

• Position yourself as an expert like this: “We help brands show up whether your customers search on Google, AI tools, or voice assistants.”
• Add reputation signals, such as customer reviews, success stories, and certificates from trusted companies like SEMrush or Hubspot, to demonstrate your credibility in SEO.
• Create pillar content, such as blogs and FAQ pages, to build domain authority.
• Transform your website into a high-performing lead generation website by adding contact forms or other lead magnets. If you want, you can take help from online tools that can help you build a lead generation website, like Neo Sites.
• Create a comparison price page and explain why your service offers greater value than your competitors.

Here’s a tip: Use a local ranking tool to find out who is ranking locally on particular keywords in your demos. Then, tell your prospect how they can outperform their competitors and find more clients.

5. Showcase Expertise on Forums Like Reddit and Quora

• Best for: Businesses with strong niche expertise and a clear understanding of customer pain points.
• Client intent: Medium to high intent. These leads come from personal validation, typically paying a good amount for SEO optimization of their websites.

Answering the right questions on public forums like Reddit and Quora positions you as an expert in the niche. And with time, this helps you naturally get high-quality clients. Here’s how to find SEO clients from these forums:

• Find relevant discussions by searching trending questions that your ideal clients are asking related to SEO.
• Offer real solutions by sharing actionable, detailed answers that directly address the problem.
• Build trust first and avoid hard selling or dropping your business link on Reddit - content with self-promotion often gets removed there.
• Leverage Quora’s visibility as Quora allows you to mention your services when it fits naturally. You can even add a link to your website.
• Track high-performing threads by following discussions that keep getting new activity so you can jump back in and engage with fresh readers.

6. List Your Services on Business Directories

• Best for: New businesses without a strong online presence that lack clients, reviews, or testimonials.
• Client intent: Medium-high intent. 

You can use directories in 2 ways. 

1. List your SEO Business on Directories

Listing your services on niche business directories can put your agency in front of clients actively looking for help. Here’s why listing in these directories helps.

• Clients can easily find and compare your services.
• Make it simple for them to reach you by including live links, updated pricing, and special offers.
• Highlight your local expertise, since many people search directories to find services in their area.

2. Find Businesses That Need SEO Services

Here’s how to use online directories to find SEO clients. 

Step 1: Look for directories in your niche or industry. Focus on medium and small businesses. Find out those who can benefit from SEO improvements. 

Step 2: Many directories provide company websites and emails. Collect that information for outreach.

Step 3: Analyze their websites to identify basic SEO issues and potential quick wins.

Step 4: Prepare your outreach by crafting a short, personalized message offering insights, fixes, or audits. 

Here’s a quick example of a direct message that you can use. 

“Hi [First Name], I was reviewing [Their Company Name]’s site and noticed a few quick SEO wins - for example, several key pages don’t have meta descriptions, which can hurt click-through rates.

Want me to send you a short list of fixes that could boost traffic?”

7. Run Paid Ads to Target Your Ideal Audience

• Best for: Businesses with medium to high budgets for ads.
• Client intent: High intent. Approachafter seeing the ad.

If you have a reasonable budget to invest, paid ads can bring high-paying SEO clients straight to you. It’s simple to execute as well. Just spend smart, target right, and watch qualified leads roll in. Here are the popular types of ads you can start with. 

• Search Ads: Appear on Google when someone actively searches for SEO services. 
• Display Ads: Reach clients who search on Google for SEO services.
• Facebook Ads: Target your ideal clients where they look for solutions on social media.
• LinkedIn Ads: Connect with potential clients who spend time on professional networking platforms.

Things to remember before running ads

• Ads can be expensive, so invest time in finding highly niche, high-intent keywords.
• Look for LSI keywords with low competition to bid on.
• Bid on your brand and niche-specific keywords, and monitor competitors offering similar services.
• Make sure your offer stands out and clearly communicates your value.

8. Attend and Speak at Marketing Events

• Best for: New businesses looking to network in the industry, on a limited budget, or trying to increase brand awareness.
• Client intent: Low to medium. Take trials or explore other options. Might require free trials/demos.

Attending marketing events is a great way to meet potential clients face-to-face and understand their needs. Here’s how to make events work for you:

When You’re New:

• Attend local meetups, conferences, or workshops. 
• Strike up conversations, ask about their pain points, and listen more than sell. 
• Notice the patterns in problems - these can inform your offers or content.

When you have created a strong online/offline presence:

• Apply to speak or join a panel. 
• Share case studies, results, or tips. Offer attendees a free mini audit or short consultation after your talk.
• Use the stage to position yourself as an expert and let leads come to you. 

Pro Tip: Follow up within 48 hours. Reference the conversation or presentation you gave - people are more likely to respond when the event is fresh in their minds.

9. Expand Your Client Base Through Collaborative Marketing

• Best for: New business owners, freelancers, side hustlers, and smaller agencies looking to get their first few clients.
• Client intent: Medium intent. Build long-term customer relationships. 

Collaborative marketing is how you grow your client base without chasing cold leads. We’ll look at how working with complementary businesses and larger agencies can help secure a steady stream of high-quality SEO clients.

1. Partner with Complementary Businesses

Partner with businesses that offer services complementary to yours but don’t compete with you. Examples that are relevant for SEO business include: 

• Digital marketing agencies 
• Web design studios 
• Video production companies 
• Branding or content agencies 

These companies already have clients that need SEO; by partnering with them, they can refer those clients to you and create an ongoing stream of leads.

2. Collaborate with Bigger Agencies

Connect with bigger agencies that have extra work. They might have clients who need SEO but can’t do it themselves. If you offer your work as a trusted partner, this way, you can get good leads and form long-term relationships while they take care of getting clients.

How Neo Mail Helps in Getting SEO Clients?

Neo Mail is a powerful platform that offers free domain name and website with business email plans. 

For SEO agencies and SEO service provides, Neo Sites can be an ideal solution to build a quick landing page or a simple complete website that showcases their SEO services and offerings (if they don’t already have a website). 

Neo Mail can be used to create professional email addresses with custom domains to send out cold emails, run email campaigns to get new SEO clients, and email management features to manage inboxes when they start getting SEO clients.

How to Use Neo Sites to Build a Landing Page to Get SEO Leads?

Building a website with Neo Sites is just a matter of clicks. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Visit the Neo Sites, and then click ‘Try it yourself for free’.

2. Select from the drop-down list and select the relevant category. In this case, let’s select ‘SEO’. Then click on ‘Continue’.

3. Next, describe your idea of a website or landing page, and then click on ‘Generate Site’.

4. Neo Sites will create multiple website options for your SEO business. Select the one you like, and click on ‘Edit this design’.

5. Before editing, you will be asked to create a customer account. Enter all the necessary requirements, and click on ‘Continue’. Once this is done, you will be able to register your domain name for free, and then, you can edit the website in terms of fonts, colors, layout, themes, etc. 

You can even use the domain name to create a branded email address for your SEO agency, team members, and teams as well. 

The Bottom Line

When it comes to knowing how to attract your first SEO client, the quickest solution is to keep smart strategies together. Cold emailing should be integral to any strategy. It allows you to access numerous prospects within a short time, customize your pitch, and begin closing clients. 

However, you need the right tools to get started with attracting leads. For example, Neo Mail is one such complete digital branding platform. Like, you can register your domain name for free when you purchase a Neo Mail plan, and then you can use Neo Sites (the AI website builder) to create and publish a website or landing page. 

Together, the right tools combined with a precise strategy can help you look credible from day one and turn cold outreach into real SEO clients faster.

FAQs

1. How do I get my first SEO client?

There are many ways to find the first SEO client. The most popular are cold emailing, networking at events, running highly targeted ads, and more. 

2. How to find a local SEO client?

Finding local SEO clients can be really helpful as it gives you an edge over other far-sitting agencies. You can find them using tools and filtering based on location. For example, if you use cold emailing to find clients, you can make use of different online tools that allow you to segment your email list based on location. 

3. How to convince an SEO client?

Convincing SEO clients is highly based on showing them the results. SEO is a highly technical skill; not every business uses it correctly. So, by showing your results, you can convince your clients easily. If you don’t have results, try creating high-quality content and building brand authority to showcase your expertise to close clients. 

4. How does SEO attract customers?

SEO attracts customers by constantly getting their attention. If your business ranks on SERP, potential prospects will check your website, and by doing this, you can attract more customers.

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