Search Marketing is a very confusing field. The range of offerings really runs the gambit. From offers to get 400,000 links in a day for 29.99 (total garbage) to real professional search marketing or consulting that can range well into the thousands or even tens of thousands per month. Becoming an SEO professional has a fairly low barrier of entry and anyone can say they are an SEO. So when in the market for professional SEO help what should you look for? Below are some tips on things to look for when in the market to help keep you from getting ripped off.
Things your prospective SEO should share with you:
A clear understanding of exactly what method the SEO will use to help you rank higher – SEOs should be able to clearly communicate their business process. How do they do keyword research and selection, on site optimization and link building. What method do they use to track results and how often will that info be communicated with you? Are they able to clearly articulate it so you understand what they are tying to accomplish? If not there is a good chance they don’t know what they can or want to accomplish for you.
Good competitive information on your current site and competition – A good SEO should be able to easily layout how you compare to you competition today and why. Your competitors are likely watching your search marketing efforts, your SEO needs to be able to do the same. There are many tools available for this, both free and paid. One of many methods I have had success with to communicate clients strengths and weaknesses over competition is the visual below. A graph similar to this and the corresponding data is a great visual representation of several factors involved in SEO and helps clients understand there current competitive landscape. Of course there is much more data you could review with an SEO but this is a good jumping off point and is a good visual representation. This can even be broken down further an examples of competitions links, etc can be provided.
Long term SEO project plan – SEO is a long and ongoing undertaking. If an SEO professional promises significant results in 30, 60 or even 90 days, run, don’t walk. You should be able to review with them a detailed sample project play that outlines activities week by week, and month by month. Project elements should include goal setting, keyword research, on site optimization, landing pages, analytics and tracking, directory submission, competitive link analysis, link building and much more.
While I don’t pretend this is all you should ever see from an SEO, this is a good place to start. It is really important you understand and are comfortable with an SEO and how they work. Bad SEO practices can not only waste your time and money, but can actually cause you to be penalized or even banned from the search engines. How’s that for double kick in the pants? You could waste your money and get your site banned!
