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PNP.com Archive |
E-Ezine - Free marketing resources,articles,website promotion tips
How to Choose an SEO Provider
By Cody Moya
As the demand for search engine marketing continues to grow, so does
the demand for experts in the area. In recent months, mass emails seem to
be the new ‘promise’ of top search engine rankings. How do you choose
an SEO provider that will understand the needs of your website and
provide quality service?
Let’s breakdown the elements of SEO, to make it easier for you to
recognize a good product. To find a good SEO provider, look for these
things:
They need to be able to check your current site, evaluate it and set
goals for it. They should develop a list of target keywords relevant to
the site, write and insert good meta tags for you, and check all other
tags to make sure that they’re alright. They should also check all your
content and make recommendations on how to improve it to get better
search engine rankings.
They should provide link-building programs, including writing and
submitting listings to directories and giving you ideas on who to ask for
links from. Reports tracking search engine referrals to your site are
always good, especially if they explain what they mean and how they can be
improved.
Website maintenance is a very important aspect of any SEO program. Once
their site has been optimized, many people don’t realize that they need
to keep up these methods over time. If you let your site lapse back to
the way it was as you add new content, then you’ll need to start all
over again.
What kind of price can you put on all this? Well, pricing structures
for SEO vary a lot between companies. Some companies will charge more
because they include a monthly maintenance fee, while other companies
offer customized proposals based on a websites specific need.
In general, good SEO can cost as much as $150 an hour, so be prepared
for that. Keep in mind that the larger your site is, the more work will
be involved. It will naturally take less time to optimize a smaller,
simpler site, so keep this in mind when you consider the pricing.
After you’re more comfortable with what the services offered are and
how they’re priced, you’ll want to make sure that the company you’re
choosing as your SEO provider has the knowledge and skill to complete the
work for you. You should talk to three or four companies before you
choose one. Be sure to ask them these questions, and back off if you don’t
feel like you’re getting an honest answer:
1. How long has your company been in business? Can you explain what
your previous experience is and what principles your SEO works under?
2. What other services do you provide besides SEO? Do you provide
Internet marketing services?
3. What kinds of industries have you serviced previously? Can you
provide me with checkable references?
4. How will you break down the cost of your services?
5. How much will I need to do myself for this SEO project to run
smoothly?
6. How much time do I need to set aside to communicate with you during
the process?
7. How long does it usually take to achieve results? (SEO is a gradual
process, so a reply of anything under 6 months should be a red flag for
you).
8. Is it possible to have someone from your firm teach us how to
maintain your SEO once it’s done? (If they tell you that you wouldn’t be able
to do it yourself, then that’s another red flag).
When they do send you a proposal on the project, you will want to make
sure that it contains everything you spoke about, and everything else
that should be there. If the answers to any of these questions are
missing, you should walk away:
1. What specific services are included in the contract? Are any
omitted? Make sure that what you discussed and wanted is included.
2. What is the name or position of the person you will be working with?
Are you dealing with a salesperson, a designer, or someone else?
3. Are allowances made for communication with you? Are there any
additional fees for contact?
4. How will the company be providing support? By email? On the phone?
Do they stop supporting you after a month or so?
5. Are there extra fees for re-optimization or additional consulting?
Is it really necessary? What maintenance is provided? If not, what is
the additional cost of it? When maintenance is not included with the plan
you need to be careful, as there are people who will charge you
exorbitant amounts of money to maintain their optimization.
6. What reports are provided and how often will they provide them?
7. What are the total charges? Are there any additional charges?
By taking steps like this you will guard yourself against bad
practices, you will also have a better understanding of the service you are
getting, and you can easily compare offers to find the best one.
But how can you tell if your provider is operating ethically? Well,
that’s is pretty easy. Here’s a list of the sales pitches that bad SEO
providers will use on you. If you hear any of these from a company, use
someone else instead.
1. Guaranteeing top-ranking placements. This is impossible to do since
the algorithms of the search engines change often, and any good SEO
provider will tell you that.
2. Offering a service that includes the development of ‘doorway pages’.
These designs often don’t take your visitors ease of use into
consideration, and search engines will ban your site if they catch you using
them.
3. Telling you that you need more than one domain name pointing to your
website. You can get banned for domain spamming, so don’t take the
risk.
4. Any company that says it will get thousands of inbound links to your
website – they will be using free-for-alls, which are very bad for your
rankings.
5. Companies that offer you search engine submission software. Good
positions always come from hand submission. If they tell you that
submission by hand is not the best way to go, don’t stick around.
Many SEO providers use unethical ‘spam’ practices because they are
cheap, easy to implement, and do provide very short-term results. Beware of
any provider that uses them.
The best way to tell if the provider’s SEO practices are ethical is to
ask: "Do these changes benefit visitors to my site as well making it
more search engine friendly?" A good SEO provider will always say ‘yes’,
as SEO is as much about the users as it is about the engines. After
all, what’s the point of a high ranking page if it’s nothing but unusable
rubbish that will have people rushing for the ‘Back’ button?
Don’t be overwhelmed by these things, but always be on the look out to
make sure that you’re getting the best service possible. Good SEO
companies can boost your site’s traffic without resorting to unethical
practices, and keep up with changes in the industry.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cody Moya writes about Search Engine Optimization in his free 50 part
Big SEO Course. You can sign up for his free
Big SEO Course and get additional information at his
website: http://www.bigseocourse.com
By Cody Moya
As the demand for search engine marketing continues to grow, so does
the demand for experts in the area. In recent months, mass emails seem to
be the new ‘promise’ of top search engine rankings. How do you choose
an SEO provider that will understand the needs of your website and
provide quality service?
Let’s breakdown the elements of SEO, to make it easier for you to
recognize a good product. To find a good SEO provider, look for these
things:
They need to be able to check your current site, evaluate it and set
goals for it. They should develop a list of target keywords relevant to
the site, write and insert good meta tags for you, and check all other
tags to make sure that they’re alright. They should also check all your
content and make recommendations on how to improve it to get better
search engine rankings.
They should provide link-building programs, including writing and
submitting listings to directories and giving you ideas on who to ask for
links from. Reports tracking search engine referrals to your site are
always good, especially if they explain what they mean and how they can be
improved.
Website maintenance is a very important aspect of any SEO program. Once
their site has been optimized, many people don’t realize that they need
to keep up these methods over time. If you let your site lapse back to
the way it was as you add new content, then you’ll need to start all
over again.
What kind of price can you put on all this? Well, pricing structures
for SEO vary a lot between companies. Some companies will charge more
because they include a monthly maintenance fee, while other companies
offer customized proposals based on a websites specific need.
In general, good SEO can cost as much as $150 an hour, so be prepared
for that. Keep in mind that the larger your site is, the more work will
be involved. It will naturally take less time to optimize a smaller,
simpler site, so keep this in mind when you consider the pricing.
After you’re more comfortable with what the services offered are and
how they’re priced, you’ll want to make sure that the company you’re
choosing as your SEO provider has the knowledge and skill to complete the
work for you. You should talk to three or four companies before you
choose one. Be sure to ask them these questions, and back off if you don’t
feel like you’re getting an honest answer:
1. How long has your company been in business? Can you explain what
your previous experience is and what principles your SEO works under?
2. What other services do you provide besides SEO? Do you provide
Internet marketing services?
3. What kinds of industries have you serviced previously? Can you
provide me with checkable references?
4. How will you break down the cost of your services?
5. How much will I need to do myself for this SEO project to run
smoothly?
6. How much time do I need to set aside to communicate with you during
the process?
7. How long does it usually take to achieve results? (SEO is a gradual
process, so a reply of anything under 6 months should be a red flag for
you).
8. Is it possible to have someone from your firm teach us how to
maintain your SEO once it’s done? (If they tell you that you wouldn’t be able
to do it yourself, then that’s another red flag).
When they do send you a proposal on the project, you will want to make
sure that it contains everything you spoke about, and everything else
that should be there. If the answers to any of these questions are
missing, you should walk away:
1. What specific services are included in the contract? Are any
omitted? Make sure that what you discussed and wanted is included.
2. What is the name or position of the person you will be working with?
Are you dealing with a salesperson, a designer, or someone else?
3. Are allowances made for communication with you? Are there any
additional fees for contact?
4. How will the company be providing support? By email? On the phone?
Do they stop supporting you after a month or so?
5. Are there extra fees for re-optimization or additional consulting?
Is it really necessary? What maintenance is provided? If not, what is
the additional cost of it? When maintenance is not included with the plan
you need to be careful, as there are people who will charge you
exorbitant amounts of money to maintain their optimization.
6. What reports are provided and how often will they provide them?
7. What are the total charges? Are there any additional charges?
By taking steps like this you will guard yourself against bad
practices, you will also have a better understanding of the service you are
getting, and you can easily compare offers to find the best one.
But how can you tell if your provider is operating ethically? Well,
that’s is pretty easy. Here’s a list of the sales pitches that bad SEO
providers will use on you. If you hear any of these from a company, use
someone else instead.
1. Guaranteeing top-ranking placements. This is impossible to do since
the algorithms of the search engines change often, and any good SEO
provider will tell you that.
2. Offering a service that includes the development of ‘doorway pages’.
These designs often don’t take your visitors ease of use into
consideration, and search engines will ban your site if they catch you using
them.
3. Telling you that you need more than one domain name pointing to your
website. You can get banned for domain spamming, so don’t take the
risk.
4. Any company that says it will get thousands of inbound links to your
website – they will be using free-for-alls, which are very bad for your
rankings.
5. Companies that offer you search engine submission software. Good
positions always come from hand submission. If they tell you that
submission by hand is not the best way to go, don’t stick around.
Many SEO providers use unethical ‘spam’ practices because they are
cheap, easy to implement, and do provide very short-term results. Beware of
any provider that uses them.
The best way to tell if the provider’s SEO practices are ethical is to
ask: "Do these changes benefit visitors to my site as well making it
more search engine friendly?" A good SEO provider will always say ‘yes’,
as SEO is as much about the users as it is about the engines. After
all, what’s the point of a high ranking page if it’s nothing but unusable
rubbish that will have people rushing for the ‘Back’ button?
Don’t be overwhelmed by these things, but always be on the look out to
make sure that you’re getting the best service possible. Good SEO
companies can boost your site’s traffic without resorting to unethical
practices, and keep up with changes in the industry.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cody Moya writes about Search Engine Optimization in his free 50 part
Big SEO Course. You can sign up for his free
Big SEO Course and get additional information at his
website: http://www.bigseocourse.com
PNP.com
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