Choosing the right search engine optimization company can be a scary thing. It is a lot of money for a small online business to invest without any type of guaranteed results. Even if the SEO company is able to rank your business, will it equate into more sales? These are all major concerns and it doesn’t help with all the stories out there about how some SEO companies are less than honest. They do things like rank you for keywords that does not get any search traffic. So then you think you are seeing results however, nobody is coming to your website from the search engines. So what is a small business owner to do? They need to run an active SEO company in order for their business to compete online but how do they find a company that will help them be successful? Well, there are some things you need to know about search engine optimization before you look at hiring an SEO company such as:
- Strategy – You understand your business better than any professional SEO company will ever. That is why before you contact any SEO company you need to have your strategy in place. Who is your target audience? What type of people do you want to come to your website? If you do not have a strategy in place then the SEO company you choose will likely put together a basic strategy. They will do keyword research and work off of a strategy that is based upon their understanding instead of a customized strategy that will work best for your business.
- Choosing the Right SEO Company – You need to choose a company that will be able to articulate in plain English what they are doing. Not everyone is well versed with search engine optimization. Link building and other SEO terms are not going to be understood unless you have researched search engine optimization.
- Expectations – Prior to contacting an SEO company you must define what your expectations are. Do research to make sure that your expectations are reasonable. Too many times, small online businesses fall into the trap of hiring a below average SEO company because they listen to the lofty goals the SEO company has for their business. They end up choosing this company because they sound much better than the professional SEO companies that will do things right. However, in the long run the company that sounds to good to be true is going to leave you wishing you chose the professional SEO company. By simply doing a little research and setting realistic expectations you will be able to weed out the bad companies and choose the right one.
- Keyword Research – Prior to starting an SEO campaign we would suggest that you run a Pay Per Click campaign to determine which keywords are going to convert. This is important because it won’t matter how many visitors stop by your website if none of them convert. Then once you know which keywords convert you will be able to discuss with your SEO company their keyword research. Once you have settled on keywords make sure that you understand that your SEO company will need to begin updating your content to optimize it in order to rank for those keywords.
- Measurement – You will be provided an analytic report by your search engine optimization company. Many online small business owners that are running an SEO campaign look at the these reports and are narrow sited. All they tend to see is how many visitors they are getting to their site. However, there is a lot of factors that go into why there could be a decrease in visitors. For example, you may not be as active on social media. The important thing is the return on investment. Is your SEO campaign bringing you more income than you are paying out?
- Perfect SEO Company – It is a good thing that you are searching for the perfect SEO company just note that it is impossible. Due to the moving variables and the extremely complex algorithms there are no search engine optimization specialists out there that know everything there is to know about SEO. It is important that you hire a company that is knowledgeable but maybe even more important is finding a company that does things the right way. You do not want to get penalized by the search engines. This may keep you from ever having the chance to rank your site on the search engines again.
- IT, Web Developers, and Designers – Many IT, web developers and designers claim to be SEO experts but this is simply not the case. Just because you develop websites or work in the computer industry it does not make you an expert in marketing and or search engine optimization. Many people in these professions will claim to be an expert however. Make sure that the SEO company that you are looking at hire has a dedicated SEO team. A team that their only job is to work on SEO. The same is true in reverse. An SEO expert is not a web design expert.
Having an understanding and knowing what to look for when it comes to search engine optimization it will help when you are looking at picking out a search engine optimization company. Do not fall victim to hire one of the many wannabe SEO experts. There are so many companies out there that will end up hurting your marketing campaign rather than helping it. That is why you must take your time do your research and hire the right company. You can form a business partnership with the right search engine optimization company that will end up benefiting both of you for years to come.