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How to Choose an SEO Provider
from: James Mahony
The best course of action to take sometimes isn't clear until
you've listed and considered your alternatives. The following
paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is
significant.
As the demand for search engine marketing continues to grow, so
does the demand for experts in the area. In recent months, mass
emails seem to be the new 'promise' of top search engine
rankings. How do you choose an SEO provider that will understand
the needs of your website and provide quality service?
Let's breakdown the elements of SEO, to make it easier for you
to recognize a good product. To find a good SEO provider, look
for these things:
They need to be able to check your current site, evaluate it and
set goals for it. They should develop a list of target keywords
relevant to the site, write and insert good meta tags for you,
and check all other tags to make sure that they're alright. They
should also check all your content and make recommendations on
how to improve it to get better search engine rankings.
They should provide link-building programs, including writing
and submitting listings to directories and giving you ideas on
who to ask for links from. Reports tracking search engine
referrals to your site are always good, especially if they
explain what they mean and how they can be improved.
Website maintenance is a very important aspect of any SEO
program. Once their site has been optimized, many people don't
realize that they need to keep up these methods over time. If
you let your site lapse back to the way it was as you add new
content, then you'll need to start all over again.
What kind of price can you put on all this? Well, pricing
structures for SEO vary a lot between companies. Some companies
will charge more because they include a monthly maintenance fee,
while other companies offer customized proposals based on a
websites specific need. In general, good SEO can cost as much as
$150 an hour, so be prepared for that. Keep in mind that the
larger your site is, the more work will be involved. It will
naturally take less time to optimize a smaller, simpler site, so
keep this in mind when you consider the pricing.
After you're more comfortable with what the services offered are
and how they're priced, you'll want to make sure that the
company you're choosing as your SEO provider has the knowledge
and skill to complete the work for you. You should talk to three
or four companies before you choose one. Be sure to ask them
these questions, and back off if you don't feel like you're
getting an honest answer:
1. How long has your company been in business? Can you explain
what your previous experience is and what principles your SEO
works under?
2. What other services do you provide besides SEO? Do you
provide Internet marketing services?
3. What kinds of industries have you serviced previously? Can
you provide me with checkable references?
4. How will you break down the cost of your services?
5. How much will I need to do myself for this SEO project to run
smoothly?
6. How much time do I need to set aside to communicate with you
during the process?
7. How long does it usually take to achieve results? (SEO is a
gradual process, so a reply of anything under 6 months should be
a red flag for you).
8. Is it possible to have someone from your firm teach us how to
maintain your SEO once it's done? (If they tell you that you
wouldn't be able to do it yourself, then that's another red
flag).
When they do send you a proposal on the project, you will want
to make sure that it contains everything you spoke about, and
everything else that should be there. If the answers to any of
these questions are missing, you should walk away:
How can you put a limit on learning more? The next section may
contain that one little bit of wisdom that changes everything.
1. What specific services are included in the contract? Are any
omitted? Make sure that what you discussed and wanted is
included.
2. What is the name or position of the person you will be
working with? Are you dealing with a salesperson, a designer, or
someone else?
3. Are allowances made for communication with you? Are there any
additional fees for contact?
4. How will the company be providing support? By email? On the
phone? Do they stop supporting you after a month or so?
5. Are there extra fees for re-optimization or additional
consulting? Is it really necessary? What maintenance is
provided? If not, what is the additional cost of it? When
maintenance is not included with the plan you need to be
careful, as there are people who will charge you exorbitant
amounts of money to maintain their optimization.
6. What reports are provided and how often will they provide
them?
7. What are the total charges? Are there any additional charges?
By taking steps like this you will guard yourself against bad
practices, you will also have a better understanding of the
service you are getting, and you can easily compare offers to
find the best one. But how can you tell if your provider is
operating ethically? Well, that's is pretty easy. Here's a list
of the sales pitches that bad SEO providers will use on you. If
you hear any of these from a company, use someone else
instead.
1. Guaranteeing top-ranking placements. This is impossible to do
since the algorithms of the search engines change often, and any
good SEO provider will tell you that.
2. Offering a service that includes the development of 'doorway
pages'. These designs often don't take your visitors ease of use
into consideration, and search engines will ban your site if
they catch you using them.
3. Telling you that you need more than one domain name pointing
to your website. You can get banned for domain spamming, so
don't take the risk.
4. Any company that says it will get thousands of inbound links
to your website - they will be using free-for-alls, which are
very bad for your rankings.
5. Companies that offer you search engine submission software.
Good positions always come from hand submission. If they tell
you that submission by hand is not the best way to go, don't
stick around.
Many SEO providers use unethical 'spam' practices because they
are cheap, easy to implement, and do provide very short-term
results. Beware of any provider that uses them.
The best way to tell if the provider's SEO practices are ethical
is to ask: "Do these changes benefit visitors to my site as well
making it more search engine friendly?" A good SEO provider will
always say 'yes', as SEO is as much about the users as it is
about the engines. After all, what's the point of a high ranking
page if it's nothing but unusable rubbish that will have people
rushing for the 'Back' button?
Don't be overwhelmed by these things, but always be on the look
out to make sure that you're getting the best service possible.
Good SEO companies can boost your site's traffic without
resorting to unethical practices, and keep up with changes in
the industry.
Don't limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about SEO.
The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what's
important.
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About the author:
James Mahony is the founder of
Tips - A site dedicated to Search Engine Optimization
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