Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when individuals search for products rather than simply company names. The idea is the fact that people looking for things online will be able to seek out a business website with virtually no prior knowledge of the business or its name. You can find all manner of tricks and techniques which fall under SEO, though the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called “white hat SEO”) are based around the concept of making your website 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 as well as other companies, but you will find far too many dodgy types available 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 the best, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?
It’s actually incredibly easy to search out a quality SEO agency Suggested Online site. Go to a 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 must be pretty good at SEO or their very own website would not be so high within the natural listings!
To narrow things down a bit, you may try extending your search. Say you reside in Essex and want a local agency – just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or if your web page 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 locate 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 company 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 very good. The exact same is true of SEO services advertised on paid ads at the top of search engines or on banner ads on other websites. 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 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 in order to bring useful traffic to your site, 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 are going to need to ask them some questions prior to deciding to leap into their services. As well as the usual checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a wise idea to talk to someone directly on the phone or in person.