RFP! RFP! RFP! Then RFP

If you've been getting more and more requests for SEO proposals that mysteriously keep getting denied, you may be falling victim to a relatively new dirty little SEO secret (or you're just not great at writing proposals but let's assume that you are).

We all know Google has been moving towards leveraging user signals over webmaster signals for some time now. We also know that Eric Schmidt is focused on brands as a solution for removing the cesspool-ish attributes of their SERPs. So let me ask you, what's the first thing you do when you get an SEO RFP? If you're like many of the seasoned SEOs out there then you probably do something like this. But what's the very first thing you do? Is it a search for the prospective client's core keywords? Is it a search for their company name? Either way you probably end up doing both and then what's the next thing you do when you're staring at the results for those searches? Don't you usually click on your prospect's result?

I wonder what sending out hundreds of requests for proposals would do for your brand popularity from Google's algorithmic perspective. Looks like the small guys still have a chance!