Looking to work with an SEO provider is one of the smartest decisions a business can make. However, how do you know you’re talking to the right search optimisation provider for you.
There are 5 things you need to know when thinking about buying search optimisation or related services. We encourage you to make sure you have the right answers to the following questions before you sign up with any agency or consultant.
1. Do you offer blanket (low cost) deals
Some search engine marketing providers offer boilerplate packages of SEO work at a fixed price. In our experience, this is not a good sign if you are looking for quality. The problem with this approach is that no two businesses are alike and each business has its own set of goals it wants to achieve. Search optimisation is by its nature bespoke to a particular client. You can understand then, that low-cost, standardised packages of work are often low-quality, rinse-and-repeat offerings that may provide little SEO value, be completely unnecessary or actually harm your site.
That is the reason we don’t offer such packages and why we insist on assessing your existing web position before discussing how (or even if) we can help. We don’t offer services that we are not confident will bring value to your business.
2. Can you complete this project in X months
A professional SEO service will not be able to give you a definite time-scale before understanding more about your current situation, your goals and the market competition. Be careful with any potential provider who gives you an approximate time-scale BEFORE discussing your precise requirements and current search profile in some detail – however hard you press them.
3. Is SEO your full-time profession
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that someone who works with IT knows about SEO? One of the biggest mistakes we see businesses make is assuming that their own IT team or someone they know (family member perhaps, or friend) in IT can deliver search optimisation. Wrong. Search engine optimisation is a specialised and ever evolving specialisation which requires a passion and dedication to operate in. Most general IT people know very little about it or have some knowledge that may be months or years out of date. This is not a part-time commitment and if someone isn’t current in the latest techniques then the possibility of sending a business backwards in the search engines is a real risk.
4. Do you outsource to a 3rd party
There are a lot of service providers who outsource SEO work to 3rd parties, often in overseas locations. These services are cheaper and they can be priced up and passed on to the client. Needless to say, there is no end-to-end oversight of projects that outsource this way and the 3rd party is not invested. For them, your task is just another on the conveyor belt. Make absolutely sure an employee of the potential search marketing provider is going to be doing the SEO optimisation work for you. You want to know just who is working on your website.
We don’t believe cheaper outsourcing is the way to deliver a quality SEO project and we don’t do it. We own and manage your project end-to-end.
5. Is each proposal tailored to the client
As noted in point (1) above, each campaign should be built around the client’s specific requirements. The answer to this question should always be a strong ‘Yes’!
It’s definitely a YES from us!
