Doug W.
President- Website Design and Development Division at Business Breakthroughs International
What do you look for in choosing an SEO company?
For your business, how would you select a SEO company. What is most important and what is least important?
Good Answers (6)
Michael P.
Marketing for the Arts & Small Business. Creative Director, Websites, Social Media, Entrepreneur, Writer & Speaker
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (3), Writing and Editing (1), Web Development (1)
1) Look for a company that can show you results not only in terms of traffic, but also in terms of sales....that is how much of that traffic converts into clients or customers. You could draw a million people and get 10 sales or you can draw 1000 people and get 20 sales...which would you rather have?
You want relevant, targeted traffic, not just random eyeballs.
2) Make sure that they can make recommendations about your site. How should it be structured? What content will draw the desired audience?
3) Do they have a strategy for ongoing ways to drive traffic: viral marketing, PR etc. The more places you show up in the "real" world, the better your rankings.
Michael P. also suggests this expert on this topic:
Dennis D.
eCommerce Front-End Web Developer at United Airlines
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (2)
As I am an aspiring SEO, it might be better for me to point you to some good online resources (see below). Some things not to fall for:
- SEO's that come looking for you.
- SEO's promising top/first page ranking
Links:
Cliff K.
President, Koraska Interactive - Expert in Local/National Online Marketing
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (2), Customer Relationship Management (1)
For my clients, it's proven optimization experience and all about on-going results. Show them what you've done, allow references to speak. And particular, if the job is not working, allow a customer an easy exit from a contract.
In addition, the ability to communicate frequently is very important. Instead of a monthly ranking report, we provide weekly changes with not only rankings, but what their competitors are doing. Competitive intelligence is an important piece of the pie, but it's not the only thing.
With my clients, I'd say the least important is granular reporting. Most clients want like the executive summary reports I put together, but when it gets to granular, they don't have time to read them.
A side note, Doug: your other website, dwassoc.com, consistently ranks well for "small business consulting." So does clearviewpublications.com, my first article-based site started back in 2002. We both stay in the top 5 on Google most of the time - good job!
Take care,
Cliff Koraska
Kent L.
President & Founder of Anvil & Formic Media - SEM & social media marketing agencies
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As a seasoned SEO professional on the agency side, I can tell you what client's have told me is important in evaluating a potential vendor:
-Education and (appropriate) certifications
-Knowledge, skills and (relevant) experience
-Client testimonials and referrals
-Results (case studies)
-Exposure, credibility (articles, speaking, etc.)
-Employee and client retention
To learn more, read my article on the subject below. Good luck.
Links:
- http://www.anvilmediainc.com/value-added-sem-vendor-article.htm
- http://www.semcompare.com
- http://www.sempo.org
Clarification added March 28, 2008:
I forgot to add a few other critical reference sites, sorry.
R. Scott F.
Coach at FastForward Income
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MOST IMPORTANT: client referrences (the right person at the client who can and will give an honest evaluation of the results, the service and their confidence moving forward).
LEAST IMPORTANT: all the pretty features from slick sales materials to fancy websites to exciting, yet unsubstantiated, promises
In my mind, another important thing to consider is the term of your agreement. SEO doesn't work overnight, but given enough time you'll know if the company you have chosen is or isn't delivering on their promise and you should be able to end your relationship easily if they are not performing. As a reference point, when my company, Key Search Marketing, begins an engagement -- to make our clients comfortable and to keep us on our toes -- we position ourselves as an "at will" employee: we contnue to to deliver value, you continue to pay us ... or ... if you don't believe we are delivering value, you fire us (with your only responsibility being what has been spent up to that point).
Scott Frothingham - Scott@KeySearchMarketing.com
Great question, and there are already several solid answers. One factor that's extremely important is finding an agency with a clear understanding of your big picture goals, needs, market and customer base.
High rankings and traffic spikes are one thing. But the ultimate business goal is reaching the right audiences (qualified traffic) through testing and segmenting, and optimizing landing and site pages to improve lead-gen and/or sales results.
Case studies, references, examples, etc., are all a good start, yet they're all pegged to other clients. And if many of those clients aren't in your market, are those results still as relevant? Maybe not.
The best SEOs are those that ask incisive questions and listen to you, rather than focusing on all the amazing results they've achieved for other clients. This quality -- active listening -- will also be extremely useful during the business relationship.
More Answers (5)
Mike S.
Director of Development at DirectEmployers Foundation
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Look for track record and results. Don't fall for anything else. All the hype, blog posts, discussion forum posts, speaking gigs don't mean a thing. The more an SEO firm advertises, the more they are likely to be fly by night.
Richard S.
Arizona Consultant on Life & Health Insurance and Natural Consumer products
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Doug, these are all very good answers. Referrences and a solid track record of success as well as how long they have been in business and the client list are things I would look at. I am biased though because I work at ICrossing, which is considered the Industry Leader. I would suggest going to sempo for an unbiased recommendation of what to look for in an SEO company. After that, I have a few agencies on my blog roll at Here's an Idea! blog, linked on my profile page.
Links:
Jerry E.
STEM Education | Life Insurance | Greeting Cards
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I would type SEO company into Google and find out if they even show up on the first page of the organic results. To be there would be proof they know what they are doing. If they are not there, why would I write them a check??
Proving optimization experience is one thing.Check the knowledge level, previous projects and their success ratio etc. Ask about how they strategize your project and how early they can grasp the knowledge of your business that is the most important thing. And provide enough information to them to understand your business and things like what you want from them.
1. References are good, but what bad are you gonna hear from those people? What possible downsides?
2. SEO companies all do mostly the same things. You want someone thinking outside of the box for you, but not unethical.
3. Read up on SEO and it's major trends before you get into a meeting. All SEO companies should know the recent trends ahev have a plan of action not only for their current clients, but for new ones as well. (think paid linking)
4. You should get as much information from them as you need. Research and Reporting is a huge piece of the pie.
5. If you ask them to do something unethical, they should turn you down. They SHOULD say no, we won't do that -- what about this type of other ethical thing. And then if you were to keep pushing they'd end the deal. You want an agency that is willing to be on your side even if you don't know what is ethical in the space or not.
