SolveYourProblem
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Series
How to Find a Reputable SEO Company
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 company
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 company,
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:
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:
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.
Many
SEO companies 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 company’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.
