Lots of businesses both small and large are turning to search engine optimisation (SEO) as a way to increase traffic to their website and ultimately conversions (sales/enquiries/etc…). Recently online marking (of which SEO is one aspect) overtook TV advertising in terms of spend. With so many organisations looking and so many online marketing companies out there I thought it would be useful to write a few tips on how to choose an SEO company.
How to find an SEO company
- Search for “SEO + Your Town/City” (for example “SEO Manchester“) and look at the highest ranking SEO companies. Ignore the paid advertising along the top and right-hand side of the page and also ignore any Google Local Listing/Google News items that appear.
- Get a recommendation from other business owners. If you know someone who has worked with a search marketing company ask them about their experience using that particular agency.
Questions to ask a potential SEO company
- “Can I be number one on the Google for some competitive term? By some unrealistic period of time” – if the answer is yes steer clear of them. Many cowboy agencies claim they can get you to number one for X terms but they will actually mean through pay-per-click advertising.
- “How much will you charge?” – if the answer is less than a few hundred pounds per month avoid them.
- “How do you go about building links to my website?” – if the answer mentions any of the following avoid them; buying links, link farms, content networks, bulk directory submissions, link exchanges.
Choosing an SEO company is hard and you may not get it right the first time so make sure you ask the above questions, keep asking what you’re getting for your money each month and monitor the results closely.
