Engaging an SEO company can be a very important decision for an online entrepreneur. The difference between the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ decision can often mean the difference between success and failure. Here are a few tricks that I have learned over time which can help to seperate the wheat from the chaffe :
- Make sure that the company itself ranks well on terms like ‘SEO’, ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ etc.
- Call up the company and ask them specific questions about your website, keywords etc and assess their confidence in getting you the top rankings.
- Does the company offer any Guarantees? If they do not offer guarantees, more likely than not they will not deliver results
- Tell them to give you examples of projects undertaken and results achieved
- Ask them about their approach and timelines?
- Ask them how much increase in traffic they will be able to achieve for you
- Ask them who will be looking after your project and how frequently will you have access to the person
- Ask them what is their typical client profile? For example, if you are a large web directory, it helps if they have some experience working with large complex websites.
- Find out how well they understand your business. If they have a strong business acumen besides being good at SEO, they are most likely a good company to work for
- Ask them how they manage multiple projects. With a large volume of projects, a company can only deliver results if they have a solid project management methodology
- Ask them if they are willing to work on a fixed fee + Performance based remuneration. If they can, you are very likely in the right place
Here is my formula for likelihood of success with the SEO Company you select :
L = S+B+C+P
L= Likelihood of Success
S= SEO Expertise
B= Business Acumen
C= Commitment
P= Project Management
