Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow websites to show up in search results when individuals search for services and products rather than simply company names. The idea is that people looking for things online are able to locate a business website without any prior comprehension of the business or its name. There are actually all manner of tricks and also techniques which fall under SEO, however 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 determine to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but you can find 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 an excellent, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?
It’s actually incredibly easy to find a quality SEO agency online. Go to a fantastic read search engine like Google or Bing and type in “SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid advertisements at the top, whichever firm has landed at the top of the search results are what you want – they has to 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 are living in Essex and want a local agency – just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or maybe 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 can be a great way to find niche SEO agencies who have specialist knowledge in your field.
Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try and 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’s 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 are not great. The exact same is true of SEO services advertised on paid advertisements at the very best of search engines or on banner ads on other web sites. If their search marketing is any good, what makes them having to pay for their placements?
Another thing to bear in mind is to steer well clear of the 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 web sites in slightly different ranking positions based on 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 will use sustainable “white hat” techniques so that you can bring useful traffic to your webpage, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, that may 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 definitely will need to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. And also the usual checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a good idea to talk to someone directly on the telephone or in person.