You should inform your clients that many things factor into receiving high search engine rankings—things such as an effective Web site design, proper meta-tags, keyword prominence throughout the site, page titles, Alt-tags, and, most important, link popularity. Many of the major search engines are now using link popularity—that is, the amount of incoming links to your site—as one of their ranking criteria. If your clients are unwilling to outsource the development of these to your business, it is essential that you inform them how important they are to receiving high rankings.

Once you submit their URL to the search engines, if your clients don’t receive high rankings, you can again inform them that it was because they didn’t comply with all of the requirements of the search engines’ ranking criteria. This will save the professionalism of your organization and will ultimately result in the sale of your additional search engine optimization services.

Stay in touch with clients to get referrals and recommendations. Make sure to get paid up front for your services, and carefully research the pricing of other professional organizers so you remain competitive and aware of what is expected within your industry. In this business, your time equals money, so plan out the time you spend on each job and make sure you spend more time on the higher-priced services.

• Participate in online chats, message boards, and Web rings that target individuals who are seeking more organization in their lives. This will draw an audience and increase the traffic to your Web site.
• Establish a reciprocal linking program with Web sites frequented by your target market. Some suggestions are online organizational software sites, organizing tips sites, and so on.
• Become a solid part of the online community in your regional area by putting links to your site in the professional directories.
• Design your site to be search engine friendly. Consider participating in pay-per-click sponsored listings programs with the popular search engines.

• Participating in mail lists and discussion groups related to organizational methods and techniques with a cleverly designed signature file would be a great way to generate awareness for your services.