The first conversation with a prospective client is always a challenging one when you don’t have key information at hand which defines whether this prospective client is a good one or a poor one. Majestic’s Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox extension allows you to discover key backlink information about a prospective client, whether that’s an interesting backlink they have received from a global brand or if their website is gaining links from unrelated and possibly inappropriate websites. Dixon Jones explains to Ken McGaffin how our Chrome and Firefox extensions work and how they can be of important use to anyone.
Transcript
Ken: So, Dixon screening for clients is of course a really important thing. We want to pick good clients that approach us. And if there are problems there we want to be able to avoid them. Majestic is a great tool for helping us do that. Explain how it works.
Dixon: It is if you’ve got yourself set up properly. Because what happens is that that client will phone you up or contact you, and you’ll find yourself in a conversation with the client, and you know nothing at this stage about the client whatsoever. But if you’ve installed the Chrome extension, which is a free extension, or there’s also one for Mozilla Firefox as well into your browser, then whilst you’re having a conversation with the client, you can have this extrasensory perception on what happens, because you’re going to be looking at the client’s website.
And the great thing about the extension is that it’s always on. Majestic is always on there. And as you’re looking at the client’s website, you can start getting information about who’s linking to them, how powerful they are. And that’s really important for screening, because I think there’s a lot of people out there and you don’t want all those clients. I don’t care who you are, that client is either too big for you, too small for you, too irrelevant, or too much work. And you need to have some kind of information about that, otherwise, you’re going to just say yes to every client and find yourself swimming against the tide very, very quickly.
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Ken: Of course, and that’s one thing that we’re all taught at boarding school, don’t accept every client that comes your way. But one of the things about this is, not only does it give you instant information on which to judge, but it also helps build rapport with the client.
Dixon: Yeah, it does. Because you’ve got some information that the client doesn’t have. It immediately puts you in a position of authority. And more than that you’re giving the client, even at that initial stage, information they didn’t have before and information they couldn’t possibly have without having this extra index of the internet and, you know, this backlink information at your fingertips.
Ken: And for instance, would you pick out a backlink that the extension shows you and then you talk about that?
Dixon: Yeah, you could. It depends on what comes up. But certainly having a look at the topicality for example within the browser would just give you an idea of… You’re looking at their website and their website is about, you know, gastronomic cheeses, but if all their backlink profile is suggesting that they’re getting links from, you know, the adult industry or something inappropriate, then there is some kind of disconnect that you can see that you haven’t got the details all of that, but clearly there’s an investigation to be had and a reason for the customer to engage in your services.
And yes, you might pull out a particular link to show that you immediately have information that they didn’t know. So if you’ve got a link from IBM that you see there, you might bring that up in the conversation. So it’s, “You know, tell me about your relationship with IBM. I see you’ve got a link from them.” “Have I?” “Yeah, you know, I can bring that up later but, you know, you seem to have one good link there which is a good foundation to build on.”
Ken: And it is amazing sometimes how clients don’t know the links that they have. Just last week I had exactly that situation where a website had got fantastic reviews and great testimonials, and they didn’t know about them.
Dixon: Well, I suppose why would you unless you’ve got some kind of technology to get that information to your fingertips? I mean, if you’re spending all day, you know, looking at yourself on the internet, then perhaps you might have that information. But if you’re getting on with your day job, then it’s not going to be there. And you’re not going to know that you’ve got these reviews, citations, people saying, hopefully good things, but possibly bad things, about you.
And you can only do that if you’re using a technology that actually does crawl the whole of the internet as Majestic does. You can’t get it just by looking at your own website. Your own website will not tell you what other people are saying about you.
Ken: Okay. Now, you don’t need to open Majestic when you’re reviewing a client?
Dixon: No, absolutely not. If you’ve got the Chrome extension installed, then it’s always on, that’s the great thing. And then it becomes your decision as to whether to take a client. It’s your decision. You know the prospect phones up, and they’ve already vetted you, you know, they’ve already seen your website. They obviously picked up the phone or sent you an email or whatever it may be. They’ve already done some vetting.
To you it may be literally seconds that you’ve got to try and make some initial evaluations about the client. And, you know, it should be your decision as to how you move forward from there, not entirely in the client’s hands on the prospect’s hands.
Ken: So, in other words, you really know what you’re getting into when you have a quick look at the extension?
Dixon: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Ken: Saves a lot of time.
Dixon: Well, it does and it puts you in the driver’s seat.
Ken: All right, okay. And I’m going to ask one more question. And then, so the next steps, after you’ve had this initial conversation, after you’ve had a quick look, then we decide the pitch or not?
Dixon: Yeah, it frames your own thinking. So you decide how to pitch and really gives you an idea of whether you’re pitching a small amount of money or a large amount of money, because you’ve got some idea of the work that’s ahead of you.
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Ken: Okay, so tell me some of the things that are available in the browser extension.
Dixon: So, the browser extension will give you the backlink counts and the referring domain counts, so some of the summary data about the website you’re looking at. So it runs in the background all the time. I say it runs in the background. It doesn’t run until you press a button on it. We don’t start storing information about how you’re traveling around the internet or anything.
But once you’re on a web page and you want to know about that web page, you just click on the extension and it will bring up the top-line information about trust flow, citation flow, referring to links. But it’ll also show you the top links so you can press on the top backlinks button and topics button, and it’ll give you some idea about who’s talking about your…
Ken: Potential client.
Dixon: …the website that you’re looking at, and in what kind of context as well. So it gives you the top-line information. And if you want to go straight into Majestic, it’s just a click away and it will take you straight into the site explorer for that particular website or that particular web page. So it’s a good tool.
You want to just be a little bit careful that you’re looking at the canonical version of the URL, or the homepage of a website. It can be that you’ve got to a website through some kind of ad or some kind of a click, and it’s got all sorts of parameters on there. And of course there are no websites that link to the URL with all the parameters. So you may want to go back to the homepage and start again.
Ken: And just do a little bit of a strip back there.
Dixon: Yeah, yeah. Otherwise, you might get a false interpretation of what the website’s about, and it may be a lot stronger than you think.
Ken: Okay, so our picture is favorable, we say, “Yes, this is the sort of client we would want.” And let’s move on then to looking at the pitch and how Majestic helps in the pitch.
Dixon: Well, okay, let’s do that then.
Integrate Majestic with Chrome and Firefox using our Backlink Analyzer plugin.
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Here you have two of my most valued friends from my circle of those who I consider to be the trusted voices of our industry. Loved the video guys – as always lots of useful hints and tips for us to bang the drum about up here in Scotland.
April 11, 2019 at 2:32 pmAnd I want one of those chairs!!
That’s very kind of you, Brian! (The chairs are IKEA…)
April 12, 2019 at 7:57 pm