It’s a difficult decision to make. Should you outsource your search engine optimization to an outside firm or consultant? Many businesses find that they don’t have the time or resources within their company to dedicate to a good SEO strategy. The problem is figuring out which outside firms are reliable and will do the job well.
There are plenty of firms who will boast of their search engine optimization skills and SEO “secrets,” but the extent of their knowledge is debatable at best. Your goal is to find yourself in the first page search engine results for all major search engines. If you outsource your search engine optimization plans to an incompetent firm, you might end up getting banned from search engine results altogether.
We’re going to have a two-part blog post to go over 10 important questions you should ask prospective SEO consultants and firms.
Here are the first five:
1. Do you provide ranking guarantees?
The answer should be “no.” Nobody owns the search engines, except the search companies themselves. Rankings change every day, so they shouldn’t be making promises they can’t keep. If you mention that you know page one rankings can’t be guaranteed, a knowledgeable search engine optimization firm will tell you that while ranking is important, there are other factors to consider. Keyword research and relevant, steadily increasing traffic that turns into sales are more important than holding that number one spot in search engine results.
2. Will you be making changes to my website?
In order to get the most out of SEO, you need changes to the content and structure within your site. In order to gauge the firm’s knowledge, visit some of the sites they have optimized to see what strategies they have utilized. You don’t want a website that is graphics and flash heavy. You also want to avoid navigation with pull-down menus and hierarchical trees because spiders can’t follow these. You should also conduct your own search engine optimization keyword research to select popular keywords to incorporate into your site.
3. How do you approach Linking?
Long-term success with search engine optimization is connected to link programs. You can utilize a number of link programs to measure your sites importance by seeing how many links point towards you (link counts) and what the links say about you and your keywords (link reputation).
A good search engine optimization company will show you each step to their approach, including weekly update lists for links. You should be given a detailed link analysis to see where you and your competition stand and help devise a strategy to determine how they will get links from relevant sites, directories, and social networks. While the exact number of links needed is undeterminable, the prospective firm should provide competitive link research and analysis.
4. What type of communications and reporting can I expect?
Professional search engine optimization firms will be in constant contact with you regarding changes, when they are applied and why they were applied. With this, you should be given ranking and analytics reporting weekly, monthly, and quarterly. Most importantly, the SEO firm or consultant should help you understand the reports they give you and the strategy they are using. Know that SEO will not generate instant results and constantly needs to be revised for best results.
5. What am I getting for the price I paid for and what other services do you offer?
It should be clear what deliverables you’ll receive and the pricing for them. Less reputable firms will be evasive about what you’ll receive, as well as the pricing model. Don’t fall into this trap. Know what you’re paying for and exactly what you’ll receive in return.
Some firms only provide search engine optimization services, while others will provide PPC, e-mail marketing, social media optimization, linking, web design and more. The firms that offer more marketing services stand to save you money, since you’ll only have to go to one company for all your needs.
Stay tuned for the other five points in our blog post tomorrow.
Edit: Part 2 HERE.
Written by Daisy K.