How to choose the right SEO company
Four essential tips you need
to know in order to choose an expert SEO company that really will
drive swarms of targeted traffic to your site!
Editorial:
Four "must-know" tips to help you choose the right SEO firm
By
Derek Gehl
One
of my readers, Richard, recently wrote to ask me for some advice on
choosing a company to take over his search engine optimization efforts.
Now, search engine optimization is something you
can easily do yourself -- and when you're first starting out and don't
have a lot of extra money to spend on your business, I strongly recommend
you do oversee your own search marketing campaigns.
Not only will you save a ton of money -- knowing
what keywords to use when promoting your business (as well as how
and where to use them) is an essential skill for any serious online
marketer to have.
But as your business and profits grow, you should
be on the lookout for ways to free up your time by outsourcing time-consuming
tasks.
(Remember... You've got to work ON your business
-- not in your business! It's absolutely key to growing your
success.)
And -- honestly -- when it comes to time-consuming
tasks, search engine marketing is close to the top of the list. Taking
full advantage of the massive traffic potential of the search engines
is no overnight job. It can suck up many hours a week.
So as soon as you can afford to do so, you should
seriously consider outsourcing your search engine marketing to a dedicated
SEO company.
However, choosing that company can be difficult!
There are lots of businesses out there that capitalize on people's
ignorance about SEO and make all sorts of outrageous promises they
can never fulfill.
So in order to help you make this important decision
-- and to help you steer clear of all the scammers out there -- here
are four essential tips you need to know in order to choose an expert
SEO company that really will drive swarms of targeted
traffic to your site!
Tip #1: Don't believe companies that "guarantee
a #1 ranking"
There is no SEO company in the world that can guarantee
a #1 ranking for high-traffic keywords in Google or Yahoo. If you
come across a company that advertises such a guarantee, approach them
with caution. They're promising the impossible.
I regularly have students ask me about companies
that "guarantee a #1 ranking with the major search engines." But when
I look at the fine print, it always includes conditions that
make the guarantee worthless.
(For example: the company will get you a #1 ranking
for a search term that gets absolutely NO traffic!)
The only guarantee I would consider legitimate
is one that states, "We get you [enter specific results here] in [enter
specific time frame here] or you get [enter percentage here] of your
money back."
Try make sure those specific results have to do
with the amount of qualified traffic you get -- not your
listing's position in the search results.
Remember, it's not your ranking that's ultimately
most important -- it's the quantity and quality of traffic
your SEO efforts deliver.
After all, who cares about a top ranking that doesn't
send you tons of visitors who actually want to buy your product?
Which brings me to my next point...
Tips #2: Look for companies that define
SEO success as sales -- not just random traffic.
A successfully optimized site speaks to human visitors
as well as search engine spiders. Don't sacrifice the former
for the latter!
Yes, you have to insert your top-performing keywords
in strategic locations all over your site, including your copy. But
you have to balance that with the need for your site to appeal to
your visitors and convert them into buying customers.
A good SEO company understands that. A bad SEO
company will argue that more traffic is all you need.
But what use is traffic that costs you money --
but doesn't pay the bills?
So when you are interviewing potential SEO companies,
make sure their optimization practices really focus on driving quality
traffic to your site -- and converting those visitors into sales.
Designing a web page that gets a high ranking in
Google really isn't all that difficult. Designing a web page that
gets top ranking and has a good conversion rate is an art
form -- and it's the reason why good SEO firms get paid well.
Tips #3: Are they focused on one "miracle
strategy"?
Whenever I interview an SEO firm, I always make
sure they have a well-rounded campaign strategy. Many SEO firms focus
on a "miracle strategy" and then put all of their efforts
into that one strategy.
But if you want to make sure you keep your high
ranking -- and don't get booted out of the search engine results the
minute Google updates its algorithm -- you can't put all your eggs
in one bucket.
Your SEO campaign needs to contain a mix of strategies
(such as on-site optimization, article sharing, and viral link-building)
in order to deliver consistent results for years to come.
It's the only way to guarantee that your hard-won
ranking doesn't disappear overnight.
