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What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company

Written by: Chris Genge

Article Overview: What is SEO and how do you determine what SEO company is better then another? I thought it would be useful to write this article explaining some of the aspects of SEO and what services should be offered by an SEO company.

What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company

Having a website that cannot be found is similar to constructing an elaborate billboard on a deserted island. It may look great, but you’re certainly not going to get seen let alone business from it.

But what is SEO and how do you determine what SEO company is better then another? I thought it would be useful to write this article explaining some of the aspects of SEO and what services should be offered by an SEO company.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the improvement of your websites visibility within online search engines such as Google, MSN & Yahoo. What this means to you and your business is that, in general, increased visibility = increased number of visitors = increased number of sales/leads.

It is an established fact success on the Internet requires a business to have a strong presence in the ‘results’ returned by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Professional SEO companies utilize techniques to make a web site more search engine and people friendly. Accomplishing this is not easy and that's why you should carefully research any website promotion and SEO consulting company that you are considering working with... in the long run, it really pays to work with ethical SEO experts who know what they are doing.

There are two main aspects to SEO:

1. Onsite Optimization - Website Optimization

2. Offsite Optimization - Website Reputation through inbound links

Onsite Optimization

The onsite optimization aspect of SEO is the work performed in enhancing and optimizing your website.

Onsite optimization helps the search engine not only find the website page but also to know the website page is very relevant to the internet user searching.

On-site optimization should include:
- Site Analysis & Server Setup
- Tuning your pages, domain name, file names
- Keyword research
- Write Keyword Rich Content
- Navigation and menus
- CSS optimization
- Site structure
- Search Engine Friendly Site Maps
- Internal Linking
- Detecting and fixing site visibility and usability problems
- Testing and improving content or source code quality
- Minimizing graphic content on graphic heavy sites
- Minimizing flash content
- Removal of frameset pages
- Converting dynamic URLs to static
- Many other individual factors that when combined, make a difference

Most companies will perform Keyword Research and suggest they will optimize your website for those keywords. Indeed, a primary way to obtain rankings within search engines are through the development of targeted ‘keywords and keyword phrases’ that are relevant to your particular business.

However, True SEO is far more then simply keyword research and making sure those words are found in the content and tags of your webpage. Ideally, SEO will make you an authority on those keywords, which will then provide the rankings you want and deserve.

Offsite Optimization

The second aspect of SEO is offsite optimization.

Offsite optimization concentrates on increasing the number of inbound links and the description of the current links leading to your site.

Off-site optimization includes:
- submitting to search engines
- submitting to directories
- exchanging links

Most companies don’t realize the profound effect good, high quality ‘inbound links’ from other websites can have on their search engine rankings.

Link Building (aka. Link Popularity, Link Exchange, and Reciprocal Linking) is a crucial element in attaining top rankings in the ‘organic / natural’ results returned by the search engines.

In order to rank highly in the search engines both onsite optimization and offsite optimization needs to be conducted.

The Check List

I have here a checklist of some of the main services that should be offered by any SEO company.

1. Website and Server Analysis – There are many reasons as to why your webpages may not be indexed by the search engines. Before you can obtain rankings you need to ensure that there is nothing keeping the search engines away.

2. Keyword Research – What are the key words and phrases a customer uses to find the goods or services you offer? And more importantly what words searches will result in a sale or ‘conversion’.

3. Optimization & Content Writing – Whether it is rewriting the content on your current pages or adding new pages with written content, your website needs to have written text that search engine ‘spiders’ can read that shows you are an authority on the keywords you have chosen.

4. Site Maps – The internal link structure needs to be clean and efficient, a site map will allow easy access for a search engine ‘spider’ to view all the pages on your website for indexing.

5. Manual Submission – To ensure proper indexing your website should be manually submitted to the search engines. Search engines do not approve of automatic submission and doing so can result in future problems

6. Inbound Links – Some form of link building campaign should be performed, Google in particular puts a great deal of value on the amount and particularly quality of inbound links.

7. Reports – It is always important to know how your keywords are doing within the search engines.

8. Maintenance – Search engines are constantly refining the algorithms used to determine rankings and competitive businesses in your field are optimizing and adding content to their own sites. With this in mind, SEO cannot be considered a one time or short-term process.

Well that should be enough to get started with. Keep in mind that there are many different types of SEO businesses out there. Some SEO companies are trustworthy, some… not so much. Some SEO businesses have a great deal of experience and others… do not.

If you are not sure about an SEO company then ask for references. You are allowed to see what kind of work they have done for other businesses.

Finally, when it comes to price remember these two proverbial adages.

- If you pay the cheapest price, then you are going to get what you pay for.

- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.


Written by Chris Genge and Rick Stanton

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Article Tags: Keyword research, MSN Professional SEO companies, search engine, search engine rankings, search engines, SEO, SEO company, SEO company, SEO company Search Engine Optimization SEO, site optimization, Yahoo



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