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How To Choose An Agency And avoid the coming zombie apocalypse

How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

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When selecting and working with a search agency, sometimes it can be hard to know if that deal really is too good to be true. After having been called in a number of times to audit other SEO agencies work, I offered to speak on how to choose an agency well the first time. I also thought it would be helpful to cover how to survive the coming zombie apocalypse as the session was the last one on the last day :-)

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Page 1: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

How To Choose An Agency

And avoid the coming zombie apocalypse

Page 2: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Who Am I?

I do work at an agency (but I am not a zombie) Got on the Internet in 1986 at my school lab Working online with search since 1996 Paid & Natural Search – all aspects Worked in-house within e-Commerce, Publishing & High Tech At i-level worked with Orange, COI, NatWest/RBS, National Gallery,

CIPD, Fidelity, GalaCoral, NBC Universal, Readers Digest, Bayer & more

At Beyond have worked with Virgin Trains, Family Search, Amadeus, AMD, AmEx & more

Chosen as a founding Modern Muse, contributed to a book on promoting websites, top finalist “Female Social Media Guru” (not yet awarded)

One of the SEO Chicks...and I blog at MostlyAboutChocolate.com

Page 3: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

How to Start...

http://www.buyzombie.com/2007/06/12/zombie-clothing/zombie-shirts/zombie-pwnage-t-shirt/

Page 4: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

How to Start...

Establish what your goals are

What level of help do you need

How much do you know about search

What is your budget and is the ROI worth it

What level of competition is there

Are your goals realistic given your budget

Is there an internal champion for the work?

Co-ordination between all agencies is a must

Page 5: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Guarantees – We Haz Sum

Credit: Declan McCullagh

Page 6: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Guarantees – We Haz Sum

No guarantees possible in natural search

No “special relationship” possible for most search engines esp. Google

Paid search can cost more than expected

Paid Placement in Yahoo not a guarantee

Social media exposure and fans no guarantee of conversion

Yes, the DDA is important

Page 7: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

What *IS* Possible Then?

www.zombieportraits.com

Page 8: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

What *IS* Possible Then?

Adjusting on-site elements

Keyword analysis/research

Technical audit

Competitor/Gap/SWOT analysis

etc

Link building through on-site baiting, competitions, advertorials/advertising, etc.

Analytics-based intelligence & adjustments

Lots... Just not special secret relationships

Page 9: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Link Farms

http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=400446&expand=false http://www.flickr.com/photos/fifikins/4719789589/

Page 10: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Link Farms

Links built on farms are artificial

Built too quickly results in penalty

Profiling results in penalty

Wrong kind of link results in a penalty

This kind of building requires an extremely expert hand – look for recommendations from people already using service (i.e. LinkFish existing customers)

Page 11: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Expectations

http://io9.com/5080787/harold-and-kumar-director-takes-a-bite-out-of-corporate-zombies

Page 12: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Expectations

What the agency might do

What reports you can expect

Link-buying issues

Analytics

Analysis

Link analysis & reports – what you can do to check

Page 13: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

How To Check An Agency Out

NewMediaAgehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/44124466908@N01/3971755099/

Page 14: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

How To Check An Agency Out

Paid Search? Member of IAB, Google AdWords certification

No official SEO industry body but do have SEMPO membership (voluntary)

Check search results on name & social media on name

Companies House in the UK, other business registration services through government elsewhere

Due diligence Professional Indemnity Insurance Non-disclosure agreements Ask: Number of years in business, company

turnover, staff levels, staff split, awards, etc

Page 15: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

How To Check An Agency Out

Case Studies Public visibility of staff Question methodology – not always possible to be

transparent but lots Things like level of reporting

Client levels – do they have lots or few & are any long-term

Escape clause – make sure you have one Input – if it is a retainer establish exactly what you

are getting for your money Excellent resource from the IAB -

http://www.iabuk.net/media/images/IABSearchAgencySelectionChecklist-UK-Final_2956.pdf

Page 16: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

What Can I do If They Screw Up?

http://zombietools.net/

Page 17: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

What Can I do If They Screw Up?

How have they done so

Can it be specifically traced to a change they made and

Can it be rolled back and if so does it fix the “penalty”?

If not, and it is traced to a specific change they made, and you can prove it, that’s what PI insurance is for

Fraud = police involvement

Page 18: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

But Remember...

http://newmediapop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/zombie.jpg

Page 19: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

QUESTIONS?

Page 20: How to choose an agency & survive the zombie apocalypse

Judith LewisHead of SearchBeyond

[email protected]

Twitter.com/JudithLewis

www.bynd.com

www.SEO-Chicks.com

MostlyAboutChocolate.com