Working with clients is a normal part of running a web development agency - but every once in a while you encounter a client who refuses to budge, even when their approach is actively hurting their own project.
In this edition of the Web News, Matt Lawrence and Mike Karan discuss one of the most frustrating realities of agency life: stubborn clients who become convinced they’ve already diagnosed the problem. Whether it’s a client insisting their website traffic issues are caused by technical SEO instead of weak content, or pushing for changes that won’t actually improve results, these situations can quickly derail projects.
Matt and Mike break down why these situations happen, how developers can redirect the conversation without damaging the client relationship, and practical strategies for dealing with clients who won’t listen.
If you work with clients - whether as a freelancer, agency owner, or developer inside a company - you’ve likely run into this scenario before.
As web dev agency owners part of our job is to deal directly with clients and their projects. This is typically a pretty smooth interaction - they need tech help, we provide that help… but unfortunately, there are little more than a handful of people that disrupt this balance. These individuals are typically stuck on their opinions and refuse to move off of them, even if what they’re asking for hurts their project. For example, a client may say that better technical SEO will improve their site’s traffic, when in reality it’s their content that’s dragging things down. Try as you might, it seems impossible to get them off of the technical SEO angle.
