How to Select the Right SEO Company for Your Business

8/11/2019 How to Select the Right SEO Company for Your Business

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Nov 07, 2012

How to Select the Right SEO Company for Your Business

Search engine opmizaon (SEO) is the process of structuring websites, landingpages and other online content so that people can nd it and search engines can

index it and list it in search results. Why do you need SEO? Because billions of

consumers use search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, to nd local busi-

nesses, research products and services and make purchases. If you want people

to nd your business and if you want to rank above the compeon, you need

SEO. If you dont have the in-house talent, resources and experse to dedicate to

SEO, you need to nd an experienced, reputable and successful SEO company.

Search engines are the top source that people to use today well above online

and printed Yellow Pages, newspapers and other resources. A June 2011 study by

comScoreputs Googles worldwide reach at 1 billion

unique

visitors per

month.According to a New York Times arcle, 34% of Google users click on the #1 link in

search results. So, being at the top of the list can mean big business.

There are many complexies to eecve SEO. To be successful, it is important to remain savvy, strategic and

ethical at all mes. It all starts with knowing which keywords to use and developing website pages that use

keywords that are related to the product, service or topic of the page and, most importantly, match the search

terms that internet users type into search engines. Eecve SEO can place your site at the top of the list in

search results. Sites that pracce ethical or white-hat SEO are ranked favorably by search engines. If your

website uses black-hat or unethical SEO taccs, however, search engines will punish you by burying your site

at the boom of the list or delisng you altogether. Thats why enlisng an experienced and successful SEO

company may be your best approach.

White-hat pracces focus on doing what is best for the visitors to your website such as relevant content, valu-

able resources, sought-aer informaon and easy navigaon. When visitors come to your website via a search

engine query, they see what they want and expect to see and it is a posive experience. Black-hat pracces

include keyword stung, cloaking or hiding keywords, hidden pages and other unethical, spammy taccs.

Recently, Google rolled out updated algorithms that have the power to destroy the rankings for a huge number

of businesses. In fact, many businesses large and small took a hey hit from Googles Penguin and Panda be-

cause their SEO pracces were deemed unethical. When one major retailers SEO taccs were deemed uneth-

ical by Google, they went from the #1 spot to #71 in a maer of two hours. If your SEO reputaon is damaged

and your site loses ranking, it will take a great deal of me and resources to recover. So how do you select a

white-hat SEO company that will help you get it right from the start? First, know what to avoid.

Avoid any SEO company that pracces these black-hat taccs:

1. Keyword stung:This is the pracce of pung too many keywords on your website.

2. Hiding keywords:A common example of this is placing white keywords on a white background or plac -

ing ny keyword-dense text at the boom of a webpage.

3. Duplicang content: Disreputable SEO companies create mulple web pages with idencal content


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then insert keywords into the content

4. Doorway pages:These web pages are created solely to rank in search engine results these pagesredirect a visitor to your website.

5. Automacally generated content:The process of creang web pages with content that makes no

sense but is liered with keywords.

6. Too many links:Like keywords, links must be relevant and well placed. Stung a website with too many

links is a huge red ag to search engines.

7. Hidden links: Similar to hiding text, this is the unethical pracce of hiding links in images, in code, or in

the footer of a website.

8. Unrelated links: Placing links to your website on sites known as link farms or sites that are notrelevant to your content can be very damaging and nearly impossible to correct once the damage is

done.

9. Illegal content: Avoid using content from other websites and passing it o as your own and never

use copyrighted and trademarked content.

10. Malicious pages: Of course, always avoid web pages that are misleading, pracce phishing or con-

tain malware.

How to nd the right SEO company

Clearly, a search engine query would be a good place to start, but dont trust your SEO to the rst company

you nd. Selecng an ethical and reputable company with deep SEO knowledge and experience is paramount.

Remember, an inexperienced or black-hat SEO company can seriously damage your ranking and reputaon. Do

your homework before making a selecon.

Think globally. If you cant nd the level of talent and experse that you deserve in your neighborhood, its

easy to work with an SEO company remotely. Much of the work development, keyword research, analysis,

reporng is achieved electronically.

Check their credenals. An established and successful rm will have a wealth of informaon and resources

available on their website. Look for case studies, customer tesmonials and cercaons. Good SEO compa-

nies are cered by Google.

SEO companies with vast experience oer a full-range of services to help you get it done right from the start.

From website design and development to keyword research and analycs, the right SEO company oers a

mul-faceted approach to success.

Contact potenal candidates. Ask the SEO company what types of analycs tools they oer. Ask to see exam-

ples of their tools and reporng. Ask them to outline their process for SEO strategy. Ask them what separates


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their SEO company from the compeon. Do you feel that you will have a posive rapport with your potenal

SEO team? Are they easy to communicate with and quick to respond to inquiries? Here is a checklist of things

to consider during the selecon process.

What to consider when selecng an SEO Company:

1. Only choose an SEO company with a proven track record. Make sure that proper and ethical SEO

pracces are in place before you start. Do not sign up for shady schemes and black hat SEO.

2. Any reputable SEO company will have references, case studies and customer tesmonialsat the

ready. Ask to see them and ask for permission to contact one or more of their customers.

3. The SEO company that you select should be able to recommend best SEO praccesfor your prod-

uct, service or industry and provide some market researchas part of their services.

4. Discuss strategy and taccsahead of me. How can you improve the SEO on your website? How do

you choose the best keywords for your business? Will you use social media? Will you need to use

geo-targeted keyword phrases? Will you run any pay-per-click (PPC) ads?

5. What is the SEO companys back linking strategyand how can it help your ranking with search en-

gines?

6. Find out if the SEO company can provide relevant keyword contentin the form of web page con-

tent, arcles or press releases that will aract natural links.

7. Talk about goal seng. How many keywords should you focus on? How much new content will youadd to your site each quarter? What are your goals for increasing website trac? How many new

inbound and outbound links can you expect to add and in what meframe?

8. Which reporng and analycstoolsdoes the SEO company use? How will they measure your key-

word ranking, the SEO health of your site and the eecveness of your eorts? What tools does the

SEO company use for analycs?

9. Talk about pricing and budget. Once you determine your strategy, what is the monthly cost and

what kind of ROI can you expect?

10. Last but not least you should like your SEO team. Aer all, SEO is an ongoing and necessary ele-

ment of success and so is the relaonship that you have with your SEO team.

What types of services does an SEO company oer?

Ideally, you should look for an ethical SEO company that has deep knowledge and experience in a multude of

online disciplines. If you cant nd an SEO company that does it all, your account manager should at least have

knowledge and understanding of the following disciplines.


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SEO consultancy services

SEO keyword analysis

SEO strategy

SEO meta tags, descripons and tles

SEO reporng and analycs

SEO content wring services

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign management

Social media strategy and integraon

Facebook markeng and integraon

Email campaign management

Online public relaons

Business branding and adversing Video SEO services

Website design and development

Mobile website development

Graphic design

The right SEO companyhas the talent, resources and deep experience to posion your website for long-term

success.

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How to Select the Right SEO Company for Your Business