Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when people search for services and products rather than simply company names. The idea is the fact that people searching for things online are able to find a business website without the prior understanding of the business or its name. You can find all manner of tricks and methods which fall under SEO, although the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called “white hat SEO”) are based around the idea of making your web site easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.
It is not uncommon to decide to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies as well as other companies, but there are actually far too many dodgy types around who like to take companies seeking SEO – especially local and new businesses – for a really expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a great, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?
It really is actually incredibly easy to discover a reliable SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in “SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid ads at the top, whichever firm has landed at the top of the search results are what you want – they must be very good at SEO or their very own website wouldn’t be so high in the natural listings!
To narrow things down a bit, you might try extending your search. Say you live in Essex and want a local agency – just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or if perhaps your web page is specialised and also you want particular help with it you can add your industry or site type – “SEO tourism” or “SEO eCommerce” for example. This could be a good way to discover niche SEO agencies that have specialist knowledge in your field.
Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) attempt to solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it is best to ignore it – if a business which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their very own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they aren’t very good. The exact same is true of SEO services advertised on paid ads at the very best of major search engines or on banner advertisements on other sites. If their search marketing is any good, why are they having to pay for their placements?
Another thing to keep in mind is to steer well clear of the SEO agency that promises you “top position for x keywords” or something similar. Nearly all modern major search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everyone sees websites in slightly different ranking positions determined by their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this sort of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO shall use sustainable “white hat” techniques so that you can bring useful traffic to your website, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, that could constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google’s infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.
Once you have found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you definitely will need to ask them some questions prior to deciding to leap into their services. As well as the common checks like existing client list and testimonials, it really is a wise idea to speak to someone directly on the telephone or even in person.