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