Even if you are armed with all the knowledge of SEO, you might and probably still need the services of a good SEO company. Having a good knowledge about SEO is hardly enough sometimes. Even if you are doing your best to try to get a good ranking for your site, you may still end up wondering why your site is just not doing well. For starters, you should be aware that your site will need to be optimized in all aspects. Not only that, your site needs to be maintained in a regular basis. SEO is an ongoing process that involves a lot of time and effort. To make things easier, you will be better off hiring the services of a good SEO company to do the work for your site.
There are many SEO companies today, and there are just as many reliable companies as unreliable ones. Thus, it is very important that you choose the right SEO company. Here are a few points that you should keep in mind when selecting SEO services:
Site Analysis Report
Does the SEO company provide you with a website analysis report? A reliable SEO company will be able to provide you with a comprehensive analysis of your site in terms of ranking and design to give you an idea of how much work needs to be done. They should be able to inform you of any elements in functionality, content and design that may hamper in the reading and indexing of your pages.
Providing Qualified Traffic
Do they understand the difference of plain traffic and qualified traffic? You will hire the services of an SEO company mainly because you need to attract traffic into your site. However, what you want is qualified traffic that gets customers who may be genuinely interested in availing of your products and services. You do not want unqualified traffic that comes to your site because of irrelevant keywords. Unqualified traffic only increase your bounce rate (surfers that land on your page and leave) and not your sales
Tools in Determining Keywords
What tools does the SEO company use to search for keywords? You also need to know what methodology the SEO company uses for keyword analysis. You may also want to do your own research on usual basic tools and those provided by Google AdWords, for example.
Back Link Collection
From where will the SEO company get back links from? Back links are just as, if not more, important in SEO then onsite optimization. What you would like is to get back links from good sites and sites that are closely related to your niche. Ask your SEO company what their methods are for collecting back links.
Cost Structure
A reliable SEO company will only give you a quotation as soon as they find out just how much work needs to be involved. Charging you high prices may not always necessarily ensure you high quality of services. Make sure that the price being quoted is proportional and consistent with the services that you can expect your SEO company to provide.
The Timeline
Does your SEO company offer you a timeline? It is only through hard work and proper planning that results can be achieved right on time. Some companies offer SEO packages that claim to put you in the first page search result in just a matter of 10 days. Realistically though, no SEO company can possibly guarantee you the number 1 ranking in Google in as short as 10 days. This is one of the basic guidelines actually published by Google. Make sure you do not give in to false promises. Conversely, avoid SEO services that will give you time limit. A good SEO company knows that optimization is an ongoing process and they will need to provide you with regular maintenance jobs, customer service and proper updating. An SEO campaign will take 3-6 months before seing the top results you expect.
SEO Strategy
What SEO strategy will your SEO company use to raise your ranking? You should look out for companies which will use spam advertising strategies to get you on top in no time. If the plan involves some form of unethical practice such as spamming or deceiving search engines, immediately walk away. A good SEO company will make sure that you will not be subjected to spam or deceptive services. Remember that if it is based on deceitful tactics, your site may simply be pulled out of Google’s indexing and will lead you to trouble. Knowing your SEO company and doing your own research are very important in choosing the right firm.