Tweet

How to Select a SEO Company

Written by: Aftab Siddiqui

Article Overview: This article provides basic information and general overview of SEO companies operating on the Internet. This article is especially helpful for business owners looking for a reliable SEO company to outsource SEO of their web sites.

How to Select a SEO Company

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is one of the most effective, economical and proven methods of web site promotion on the Internet. SEO is an ideal eMarketing Channel for promoting small to medium size businesses online. Almost all webmasters and eBusiness owners consider SEO as their prime tool for business promotion.

Unfortunately most of eBusiness owners possess very little SEO knowledge and that’s the main reason why they fail to select right SEO Company to optimize their web sites. They are either trapped by Black hat SEO companies who attract them by attractive slogans like “Guaranteed 1st position on Google” or “Guaranteed top ten rankings in Google and Yahoo”. These statements attract eBusiness owners and they outsource their SEO tasks to these companies. These SEO companies (not all) use black hat/ spam SEO techniques to generate results, get payment and run away, leaving web site owner with black listed web site on Google and other Search Engine as a result of using spam SEO techniques.

Another attraction for eBusiness owners is the SEO price; some SEO freelancers offer their services on an unbeatable price. These so called SEO experts know little about SEO and either fail to produce results or by mistake do something which is caught by search engines as spam and end up in getting web site banned or black listed by search engines.

I personally experienced this many times while quoting SEO price to eBusiness owners. I couldn’t get many projects due to price difference between my SEO quote and other SEO freelancers as my SEO price is based on result oriented SEO not just out of the box SEO package which normally includes certain number of optimized web pages and submissions etc.

I conducted a survey of SEO companies offering their SEO service through their web sites and marketing their SEO service on the Internet and able to categorize SEO companies as under:

1-Big and trusted SEO Companies: These SEO companies normally based in US or UK and offer their SEO service worldwide. They are most reliable SEO companies but hardly affordable by small to medium business owner and their SEO price is usually out of marketing budget of a small or medium size business. These SEO companies normally offer fixed SEO packages and customized SEO service/ package. They never use black hat or Spam SEO techniques. They usually have the capability and expertise to work on all type of web sites including static, dynamic, eCommerce etc.
2-Big SEO companies based in countries like India: These are experienced SEO companies and usually reliable. Normally these companies have their representatives in US and UK to coordinate their clients in these countries. They usually offer SEO service on affordable price due to their production offices in countries like India, Pakistan etc. The currency conversion factor is the key to their affordable price. These companies don’t use Black hat or Spam SEO techniques. They usually have the capability and expertise to work on all type of web sites including static, dynamic, eCommerce etc.
3-Small to Medium Size SEO companies: These types of SEO companies based in US or UK are also reliable but have limited capacity. They usually work on static web sites and can handle limited number of clients. They also avoid spam SEO techniques and affordable for small to medium size businesses.
4-SEO Free Lancers and Small to Medium SEO companies: There are many SEO freelancers available on the Net. They offer their SEO service using freelancers’ web sites like guru.com. Some of them are doing good work. Some small to medium size SEO companies based in India Pakistan, Philippines are reliable and know SEO well. They are not only affordable but can work on all types of web sites. You can trust them for your SEO projects. Some of them are new to SEO and are ready to get SEO job on any price. I would call them learners and will never recommend outsourcing you optimization task to them.
5-Black Hat SEO practitioners: These types of SEO companies charge you higher price by giving you guarantees. They usually show you results in a short span of time using Black Hat SEO techniques. Your web site is always at risk of getting banned by search engines.

Now it is important that being a business owner you must know the factors you should consider while selecting a SEO company for your web site optimization needs. You should consider following factors:

1-Your Industry
2-Size of your company/ business
3-Your marketing objectives
4-Your Marketing Budget
5-Type of your web site

If you run a static web site and your industry is not highly competitive industry like Engineering Industry, you can easily find a trusted SEO company on a reasonable price. Its better to hire an overseas SEO company for cost effective and result oriented SEO. You must ask for references before outsourcing. If you run a dynamic web site, specially eCommerce web site, and sell your products online, you need to find an expert and experienced SEO Company. All SEO companies don’t have expertise to perform SEO on dynamic web sites, specially eCommerce web sites developed using some shopping cart software like OSCommerce, ZenCart etc. If your web site is database driven web site with Content Management System (CMS) and other dynamic features, you still need an expert SEO company.

In order to judge competition, you can consider some of the keywords relevant to your business or web site contents and look for their competition on Google and their search counts. You can easily do that by visiting web sites offering free SEO tools. For example, you can visit:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Just type your keywords one by one and see the number of searches being made every day. You can also get keywords suggestion from this free tool. For competition, you can go directly to Google.com and typing the keyword in the search box. You can find the number of results for that particular keyword. This simple analysis will give you an idea about competition. If the number of results are over 1 million, and per day search count on Overture and Wordtracker is over 10, then it’s a medium keyword and you can get results rather easily with in 3-4 months. Although there are at least 10 more factors which are considered for keyword analysis.

After this simple analysis, you can decide what type of SEO Company you need. If your keywords have high search counts and high competition, you may require customized SEO package and out of the box SEO package will not work. If you have an online store, an eCommerce web site, you may require an experienced and expert SEO.

Related Articles
  Email Etiquette V
  How to Make Demo Tutorial for LMS
  Home Business Expert: What's In A Domain Name?
  Is there a place for Multi-Rater Feedback in the Selection Process?
  How to Make the Mastermind Group Unlock the Door to Success

Article Tags: SEO Company, SEO Services, SEO techniques



Related Forum Posts
How to valuate a business - Hi Garth - here is how we did it at Northern Crown Capital when I was helping them raise venture capital for Toronto-based entrepreneurs. Assume the start date is 2003 so 2008 projections are 5 years out: How Northern Crown Capital Valuates a Business 2008 Financial Projections Earnings Before Tax $5,865,000 Tax Rate 42% Taxes $2,463,300 Net Earnings $3,401,700 Amount Seeking to Raise Today $3,500,000 Discounted Value of Future Opportunity, 5 Years Out 2008 P/E Ratio 15 Value of Company in 2008 $51,025,500 Discount Rate Applied 30% Year 2008 $51,025,500 Year 2007 $35,717,850 Year 2006 $25,002,495 Year 2005 $17,501,747 Year 2004 $12,251,223 Value of Company at Investment in 2003 $12,251,223 Less: Investment Amount $3,500,000 Present Value $8,751,223 Discount for Risk & Private Company 40% Less: Discount for Risk & Private Company $3,500,489 Private Company Value $5,250,734 Present Value (What the Owner Keeps) $5,250,734 60.00% Financing (What the Investor Gets) $3,500,000 40.00% Total $8,750,734 100.00% I hope this helps!
Re: Google Chrome is not faster than firefox 3.1 - Just a quick update here for Beat, To copy your bookmarks (and history, passwords etc if you want) from IE to Firefox: Open Firefox, Click File (top left of browser) Click Import Select IE Click Next follow the instructions provided, hope this helps, Carol
Hi everyone - Hi everyone.I am Alex,SEO Analyst on XSEO Company.Nice forum.
Protect yourself from Hackers - I received this from a newsletter from FXpro that I subscribed to. Please read and apply In the 21st Century internet is widely used for everyday job. Despite the "ease" and free time offered from internet use, one should be aware of the dangers and be prepared to avoid and safeguard him/herself from any attacks his/her computer may accept or even from the "unwanted" e-mails received. Golden Rules of Protection When using the internet make sure you have an antivirus program installed in order to avoid intrusions in your Computer, If you are using wireless internet connection make sure you have your connection locked, Do not save any official documents on your Computer, such as Copy of Passport, ID, Bank account numbers, copy of cards in case your Computer is hacked or even stolen, Keep all access codes/passwords in a safe place, Do not share an e-mail address with any person, Do not reveal any access codes, passwords to any person, If you are using a public Computer, ie in an internet cafe, make sure you log out any internet sites you have visited before leaving and deleting the cookies in order to minimize the risk of someone following your tracks, Regularly change your passwords on your e-mail accounts, or any other account that requires passwords, Be careful of e-mails received. Always check the e-mail address and in case you believe that this does not come from a person, Company, Organization you might be dealing with always send an e-mail to an e-mail address stated on the person's business card, Company's, Organization website requesting them to confirm that the e-mail address on the e-mail received belongs to them, before you reveal any information, Always have in mind that an established Company/Organization never uses an e-mail address such as g-mail, yahoo, hotmail etc thus always be careful when you are receiving such e-mails, even if it appears to be from a Company/Organization you are dealing with, Always remember that a Company or Organization will never require you to send them your login/password/access codes, When using a website that requires an access code, do not allow the browser to remember your passwords
Business magazines - Fast Company is pretty good if you're into technology although it can be very on the edge. Entrepreneur has become one giant advertisement and I cancelled my subscription. Selling Power also has some useful content if you're looking at improving your sales skills / presentations.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Leading with Discernment

Unharnessing Creativity in Business

Is the iPad useful? One CEO tells all ....

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.