As a SEO, I think you can only make a sound decision once you've had a good long chat with the company/individual whose services you're considering hiring.
The most important thing to look out for are the promises - includes the ones they don't make. This will tell you a lot about the SEO, his experience and whether he really knows what he is talking about.
here are some examples of what you should look out for:
1. "I'll definitely put your website on the top 5 results"
This is misleading and unrealistic to say the least. If you're lucky, there will be a few hundred thousand web-pages competing with yours on any given keyphrase. Any of those *could* beat you to the top. SEO projects are dynamic and depend on many factors, which makes is impossible to predict results.
A good SEO will merely provide a guide as to what the results may be (or are likely to be) since they are beyond his control.
2. "Yahoo, MSN and the others"
If the SEO starts to promise rankings on search engines other than Google, beware! Why? Well...
1. Google holds 70% of the market
2. High rankings on Google almost always mean high rankings elsewhere, and a SEO should know this.
3. Other SEs are extremely easy to climb in comparison to Google.
4. This is an easy way to divert trick you into thinking you're reaching a large share of the market, when in fact, if you're not on Google, you don't have much of a market.
A good SEO will briefly explain the most popular search engines and how they differ. Then he will explain why Google has such a majority and how his work will reflect this.
3. "I'll create another website/domain name"
One ridiculous technique employed by several companies in the UK is to create a website (or a page on another website) that will rank highly for a search term, then use that page to link to, or even worse, redirect visitors to your site. What's wrong with this? Well...
1. It's a common 'black-hat' technique. Say no more.
2. It adds no real SEO value to your website/domain. If you end your contract they pull the plug and you're back to square one (minus a small fortune).
3. One of the most important aspects of SEO is on-site optimization. It's about how your content is delivered to the visitors and how your content is organized and what exactly your content is.
A good SEO will carry out a thorough analysis of your website's code, linking and content then suggest how these can be improved for optimum search engine exposure. External links are a separate topic...
4. If the explanations are vague...
SEO is a huge field and there are millions of variables involved, but in my opinion it all comes down to content delivery. SEO is about getting all the fundamental parts of your website working as smoothly as possible so that your content organized, clearly defined and accessible to visitors and spiders.
If a SEO can't explain in detail what his strategy is, then it's likely to fail. I explain every detail of what I do to my clients, not because I want to bore them with jargon, but because SEO is actually made up of many very simple tasks, all of which can be understood by anybody who's ever used a computer.
A good SEO will be able to explain every task to a lamer (non-technical computer user).
5.a) You'll be #1 in searches for your company's name, or...
5.b) You'll be #1 in searches for "yellow socks delivery in london sw3 on Thursday afternoons by midday"
SEO should enable your clients to find your website before knowing it evens exists. Searching for your company's name doesn't require SEO - the user knows what he/she is looking for. This may sound obvious but I have been offered such a service from a SEO company, apparently approved by Google.
A good SEO will thoroughly research the keywords (and variations) most commonly used by people looking for your content/services. He will come up with a list of 2/3 keyword phrases and explain how he'll target each of those individually.
"blue fishtank delivery in london sw3 on Thursday afternoons by midday" should be "fishtank delivery" or "fishtank delivery london", depending on how fierce the competition is...
6. "We'll see the results in 5 months"
It does not take that long! If SEO is done via the appropriate means, you should be able to analyse results within a couple a weeks. In fact, much of the work to be done by a SEO can be thoroughly tested, tweaked, fine tuned and analysed even before the project begins. This means the SEO should be able to provide reports on many aspects of SEO even before the search engines update their ranking, which allows you to keep track of your projects progress. Being in the dark for months and praying for good positions is a thing of the past.
A good SEO will have a range tools/techniques (although he may not want to share these with you) that will allow him to keep you informed of developments throughout the project.
I hope this helps anyone thinking to hire the services of a SEO expert/company.
If you agree or disagree with me, post your comments below and I'll be glad to discuss it...
Monday, May 07, 2007
What to look for in a SEO
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4 comments:
I gotta comment, I gotta comment.
Okay I agree with some of this, but some is questionable and there is probably a lot more that could be added. I take your points piece by piece.
1) I'll definately put your website on the top 1st Page is more common in a sales pitch. Top 5 is unrealistic, but actually 1st page is much easier and possible. SEO 'cowboys' use that approach more often.
It is of course misleading to say the least.
2) Yahoo, MSN and Other..., I have yet to hear a SEO Company pitch me on anything other than Google, Google dominates... but I have to say I would listern to some who mentioned the other search engines, it works both ways, if you do well on MSN, Yahoo etc, they you'll do well on Google, it is often forgotten that it is easier to rise up the ranks on other search engines.
3) I'll create another domain name, cloaking, whatever you call it avoid it...
4) I was shown a website that did well for about 3 key search terms, their page (i.e. content delivery) was terrible, so how did they do it???, content delivery is part of the whole... more on this in a sec.
5) I cannot fault this point, to vague or too precise, a good SEO will focus on up (not more) to 10 key search terms and work with those only.
It should also be noted Google released some stats on key search terms and around 60% used three individual words. Avoid an SEO that talks about keywords, key search terms is a better description.
6) We see the results... yes I don't know about this, 3 weeks is a little short, I'd be happy to see results within 2 months, but a rise canbe faster, whatever the result a good SEO with be in this for the long haul and that makes pricing complicated... very complicated.
Now it is my turn...
7) Reciprocal Linking... this is so cruical is an SEO glosses over it you can avoid them...
To many SEO's concentrate on what they think their secret is... the bottomline is they are probably mostly right. but it is all the individual bits that need to be done...
So reciprocal linking needs to be mentioned in there somewhere when you are talking to the SEO.
8) Pricing - just how do you compare one service to another when they price thing is such a variety of ways:
a) The annual fee - many SEO propose £500 for an annual fee, be very aware, they take your money play with your meta tags then you'll never be able to contact then again.
b) The monthly fee usually about £30-40, again this is too little to fuss about if it goes wrong, yet not enough to do any real work... avoid them.
c) Paid on results, you would thik this would work, but again you have to be really carefull, what consitutues and result. A 1st page listing for that vague term three a year look up.
My comparision is always with Google Adwords. You need to translate any potential charges into Google Adwords, for example, if you are spending £100 a month on Google and the average cost per click is £0.20 then you are getting 500 visitors.
If your SEO wants to charge £500 then you need to ask him or yourself if what they do will really get you 2500 visitors. That might not seem many visitors over a year, but actually getting that many visitors from Natural search listing is much more difficult.
Equally, if the SEO is only going to concetrate on up to 10 keywords for the £500, it is going to taken even longer to get that 2500 visitors.
The final comparision is simple, if your SEO cannot match or better Google Adwords you are better off spending the money on Google Adwords, you'll be guranteed the visitors for your key search terms, adverts in your geographic area at a time you specify. Google Adwords are tough to beat, but the comparision is worth it.
9) I leave you with a question. Google 'search optimisation consultant' click the first natural listing you get to and ask your self how did they get there. I know the answer... but do you?
Hi Guy,
Thanks for your reply mate, I knew you'd have something to say about this.
I agree with your comments on the points I made, and I have this to say about yours...
4) The content delivery was terrible, how did they do it?
Well, the essence of search engines and optimization is still content. If your content matches the search and matches it well, your page will rank highly. And let's not forget links. One link from an 'authority' domain can throw any page straight to the top...
7) Reciprocal linking
Scrap that, one-way linking is the way. There's nothing wrong with link sharing, sometimes an outgoing link is the price we have to pay for a quality link of our own. However, the benefits of one-way linking outweigh all the time and effort spent in link sharing. The best strategy, of course, is article submission.
8) Pricing
I agree, this is a complicated topic and you've made some good points.
9) #1 site on Google search for 'search optimisation consultant'
Well, the obvious reasons for their ranking are:
- Spotless semantic code
- High content/code ratio
- Forums - visitor generated unique content
- Blog - more fresh unique content, keep the spiders coming
- Around 200 quality external links
- Thousands of links to forums threads in that domain
- Perfect URLs - Keyword rich, high keyword density
seoconsultants.com has great content and great content delivery. Other than the above, I don't know what else...
Enlighten me!
I got the key search phase wrong, search for seach engine consultants... then comment on that one...
They put this text
"site promotion by FirstFound - Search Engine Consultants"
...at the footer of all their client's websites.
Hundreds of one way links using the link text 'Search Engine Consultants' from quality websites is bound to get any site on top for that term, regardless of their on-site optimization.
Quite annoying really, that's one of the things you can't compete against. Such a strong hold only comes with time, and a long client-list who are so unaware of everything web-related that they allow their website to be used as a dummy for their SEO company's campaign.
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