Choosing a Company for SEO

The process of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is to fine-tune (or optimise) your website so that it looks relevant (to a specific set of keywords and key-phrases) and important  to Google and other search engines. The best way to look relevant and important is of course to BE relevant and important.

I've seen a lot of people taken advantage of by dodgy SEO companies who rely on their clients not understanding or taking an interest in what they're doing. Don't just blindly trust someone who promises you an increase in traffic! If they're doing something which seems dodgy or underhanded, then it probably is a bad thing. If you trust your website to a dodgy SEO company, your website will be the one that suffers the consequences when Google penalises you -- and your SEO "expert" gets off scott free and moves on to the next sucker!

If you engage the services of a company for SEO, ask for a breakdown of what they're doing. Here are a few things that should (and shouldn't) come up...

Setting up Analytics

If you pay someone to do SEO for you, you're going to want to make sure you get results! Unless you know what your traffic is like before you engage someone then how will you be able to tell how much it's improved? If you don't currently have access to any statistics about your site traffic then you'll never know if your SEO expert actually helped or not.

If you're a Web123 customer, or you've got a good CMS, you should have access to site statistics from the moment your website went live. If you don't have a CMS then you'll need to set up and wire up Google Analytics (a fantastic free tool) so that you can see how many people are hitting your website and where they're coming from.

Once again, setting up Analytics may be quite trivial or require some technical knowledge depending on your CMS (if you have one). If you're a Web123 client then we can easily wire your website up to your Google Analytics account once you've signed up.

If you don't have access to Site Statistics in a CMS then you should get Google Analytics set up right away (and if you've got statistics but you like graphs feel free to set it up in addition to what you've already got!).

Increasing your relevance

The following three services (Keyword Research, Meta Information and Copywriting) are designed to make your website appear more relevant to the search terms and keywords, which will bring you more business. If you focus on traffic without making sure that it's relevant then you might end up with a lot more visitors but no more sales! A great SEO provider will focus on increasing the right kind of traffic - the sort of traffic that's going to buy!

Keyword Research

You can have the best looking website in the world, but if Google doesn't know what your website is about then it's hardly likely to suggest your website as an appropriate result for your potential customers. Keyword Research will help find out what your potential customers are searching for and ensure that Google sees your website as an appropriate match. 

This is absolutely something you can take care of yourself - if you've got the time. But if you engage the services of a good SEO company they can cut to the chase and tell you which keywords you need to incorporate into your website copy.

Without proper Keyword Research it's easy to waste time, effort and money optimising for unprofitable terms: make sure you pick an SEO company who recognises the importance of Keyword Research!

Meta Title & Meta Description

Craftying a good Meta Title & Description for the homepage and any other important pages (especially product pages) can take skill. This information is text that doesn't appear directly on your Website - but it appears when your website appears in Google results.

If you don't have a Content Management System then the process of actually entering the Meta Information can be a bit technical, and if you're intimidated by HTML code you simply may not be able to do this yourself. That means your SEO expert would require full access to your website - so make sure you're working with someone you trust!

If you've got a Content Management System you may be able to set up your SEO company as an administrator so that they can access the content to put it in themselves. Once again - you're handing over the reins to your website so make sure you know they're in good hands. Make sure that each person who has access to your CMS logs on with their own account if possible - that way you'll be able to find out who did what and when.

If you've got a good Content Management System, it should be pretty easy to enter your Meta Information. All Web123 clients have the ability to easily add Meta Title & Description to any page on their website. If you're a Web123 client it may be unecessary to give your SEO expert access to your website (unless you really want to). Just ask them to provide you with the text and then you can copy and paste it in yourself. 

Crafting good Meta Information can take time and skill - well worth paying for when you've got someone who knows what they're doing. The process of getting the Meta Information into your website may be trivial, or it may require a bit of technical knowledge. If you know you've got a CMS but your SEO "guru" is charging you a boatload for getting the Meta Information into your website (in addition for what they're charging you to write it) then start asking questions.

Website Copywriting

If your SEO expert has done their keyword research, after putting your keywords in the Meta Title & Meta Description then they'll probably suggest some changes to the text on your homepage and other pages on your website.

Incorporating keywords naturally into the text on your website can take writing skill -- you want the copy to read fluidly and compellingly, all while incorporating those valuable keywords. The best website copy will be written by a copywriter who specialises in writing for websites. Remember that you don't just want traffic - you also need leads and sales! If your SEO company doesn't provide copywriting services then you may want to also engage the services of a copywriter: you'll provide them with the list of keywords your SEO company has put together!

It's generally less of a headache if you find an SEO company who also provides copywriting services: whether they do it in-house or outsource it. 

Increasing your Importance

There may be several websites that are relevant to the search terms or keywords that your potential customers are searching for. So how does Google decide who to put at the top of the list? This is where importance comes in. Google sees websites which have a lot of incoming links (other websites link to your website) as being more important than a website that nobody links through to. Think of these backlinks as referrals from other websites -- you want your site to be endorsed by quality referrers.

Link Building

You or your SEO expert should approach non-competitors in your industry and ask them to link through to you. Your SEO expert should let you know how many new links they expect to generate to your website and where they'll be coming from.

Blog Writing

A great way to get more links through to your website is to write engaging, useful content on your website that hopefully other people will link to. It will depend on your industry as to how well this will work. You'll also need to try and build an audience by commenting and responding to other people's blogs. Writing and responding to blogs can take up a huge amount of time, but it can be well worth doing. Blog posts are another excellent place to pull in those keywords your SEO company has researched for you. However, blogging is only worth doing if you've got something to say that other people will find of value. This may be absolute gold for your SEO: or it may end up being a waste of time and/or money. 

If your company for SEO suggests or offers Blog Writing, get a list of other similar blogs in your industry. You want to make sure that there's an audience available and also that you've got something unique to offer.

Article Submission

Rather than (or maybe in addition to) having a blog on your own website, your SEO company may suggest publishing articles on other websites. This works best when you have your own blog as well - you can "guest post" on another website with an established audience, then link back to your own website in your byline. If people like what they read they're more likely to click back through to your website and read your blog too, or read about your products and services. 

Other Services

XML Sitemap

It's pretty important for Google to know about and read every page on your website - content that Google can't see can't help you in your rankings! An XML sitemap is a list of links presented to Google so that we know that Google knows about all the pages on your website.

If your website has been developed properly, Google should be able to find all of the links even without a sitemap. And depending on your Content Management System you may have a sitemap generated for Google automatically.

If you're a Web123 client then you've already got an XML sitemap which is dynamically generated and automatically updated if you ever change your site structure. That means it's just not necessary for your SEO expert to provide one.

If you're a Web123 client and your SEO expert is charging you to develop or implement an XML sitemap: let them know you don't need one.

Search Engine Submission

If Google doesn't know about your website at all, then you'll never appear in any Google search results. Most of the time Google and other major search engines will crawl (or find) your site within a few weeks of going live.

Search Engine Submission is generally only necessary for very new websites with no incoming links. If you appear in the listings at all (even if you're on page 10 or page 100) then there's no need to submit your website to search engines.  I've seen requests for websites to be submitted to a whole list of Search Engines (that hardly anyone uses) - which just isn't necessary. Most search engines will pick up on websites that appear in Google's listings. Chances are that if you haven't even heard of these other engines, neither have any of your potential customers so you probably don't need to worry about listings.

Other Tools, Tracking or Uploads

I've occasionally received a whole bunch of files that some SEO company wants uploaded to the root directory with no indication of what they do or what they're for - and my client has no idea either. Looking into it further, I found that they were all for pointless or unpopular services - at best a complete waste of time.

Make sure you know what your SEO is doing and (more importantly) how it's going to benefit you. Some SEO "experts" will try to pull the wool over your eyes by using a bunch of acronyms and technical terms. Make sure you know what you're paying for and how it's going to bring you more business!

Red Flags

There are a lot of blackhat SEO techniques that you should be wary of when choosing a company for SEO. Hidden text, invisible links, link exchange schemes, cloaking, redirections, empty promises of tens or hundreds of links through to your website (with no indication of where those links will be coming from), spammy content.... there's a very long list of dodgy SEO techniques which may work in the short term and then get you penalised or banned from Google entirely.

Some of these dodgy techniques may temporarily seem helpful, or your SEO expert may claim that Google doesn't know about this particular trick: but Google is always changing, updating and refining their algorithms.

Good SEO makes sure that Google knows how important and relevant the services on your website are to searches. Bad SEO makes you look more important or relevant than you actually are. If you ever think something you or your SEO expert is doing feels like trickery, if you wouldn't be comfortable explaining what you're doing to a customer or a competitor, then think twice before you hand over the cash.

You'll want to make sure that you engage the services of an SEO company who'll be doing real work to get you more traffic - and more importantly, traffic that's going to increase your revenue! You want an SEO provider who tells you what they're doing and provides measurable results.
 

Now that you're informed and prepared, let's talk about getting a good SEO strategy on your website!