As I’ve said many times in the past - SEO is a bit of a black art. Most of us know it’s a really important part of any good online marketing strategy but very few of us actually know what’s involved in making a site rank no1 in the major search engines for our selected key terms.

The fundamental reason for this comes from the very top – the search engines themselves. Google is by far the largest search engine so lets use them as an example. Google, like all search engines, have their own unique algorithm to determine where a site ranks. The algorithm calculates where a site should rank according to a huge number of factors. Each of these factors (and there are 100’s) is given a different weight or importance in the algorithm. Get all of these factors right and you’ll dominate the search engines. However, this is much easier said than done – mainly because Google keeps their algorithm, and the factors involved in ranking at the top, highly secretive. So essentially, SEO is a guessing game. Over time SEO companies get better and understanding what these ranking factors are through trial and error… but then Google will change the rules, which they often do!

Google have to do this because if we knew the rules we’d all build sites and optimise them in exactly the same way and they would have no way of ranking sites effectively.

Because of all this SEO companies are also highly secretive. They don’t want to give away exactly what they’re doing because then they’d give away their competitive advantage over other SEO companies who have not worked out how to ‘play’ the search engines quite as well.

The problem with everything I’ve just explained above, and it’s a problem I’m sure you’re all too aware of, is that this leads to many SEO companies offering services that can be quite misleading. If an SEO company doesn’t tell you what’s involved in their service, which most won’t, then it can be extremely difficult to know which companies are offering true value for money. The sad truth is that, some SEO companies will sell a service to you that involves very little actual work for the company, offers little in the way of results and is expensive for what you’re (not) getting.

Ok so I’ve probably scared you away from SEO forever now, but never fear. What I want to do is give some practical tips and advice on how to pick the best SEO company that will give you real value for money.

Educate yourself

The more you know about what’s actually involved in SEO then the more you will be able to suss out what a company is offering you. I know it’s a bit of effort but spending just 2 hours scouring the internet or dipping into an SEO book will pay you back in droves because you will be so much better equipped to choose a better provider. When the difference between a good SEO company and a bad one is either success that will generate real business for you or expensive failure that will achieve nothing, then this education is well worth the time invested. You’re reading this blog post so that’s a good start!

Proper keyword analysis and selection

When in discussions with an SEO provider, make sure to discuss the selection of keywords you would like to optimise your site for. If they suggest key terms for you then ask them the number of monthly searches completed for this term. If you’re paying good money for SEO then I suggest you find a provider that analyses search trends and finds key terms that they can optimise your site for that have significant monthly search traffic. I’ve often spoken to businesses that have told me they rank no1 in Google for a certain term, which sounds impressive. However when we go and do the keyword analysis on this it emerges that barely anyone (if anyone at all) is searching or optimising for that term. It’s easy to optimise a site for a term that no one else is optimising for but it provides no benefit to the client. In my opinion, effective keyword selection is the most important factor in effective SEO so make sure you ask about it.

Details, details, details

I mentioned in the start of this post that, for good reason, most SEO companies won’t tell you every last detail of what their process is. However, you should be weary of an SEO provider that won’t tell you anything at all. This is where a bit of SEO education comes in handy. Ask more specific questions than just ‘what’s involved in SEO?’ If the company does link building then ask about their process for sourcing links – do they have a current network of links that they will add your site to or do they go out looking for linking opportunities specific to your industry? If they are doing your on-page SEO then ask for an analysis of your site as it is at the moment and ask what they would like to change on the site to improve SEO.

Clear reporting

Before you engage with an SEO company make sure they will give you ranking reports on a monthly basis at least with comments and analysis on the past months performance and what needs to improved in following months to keep progressing. If link building is part of your SEO package then ensure you get a monthly linking report detailing all the links sourced in the past month. For the first couple of months check a few of the links they provide and check the quality of site and link they have sourced. Some link building companies paste spammy links on forums for instance, which quickly get deleted by the forums webmaster and provide little in the way of SEO results. Look for good quality links and non-spammy posts.

Overnight success is not possible

Be weary of companies offering instant success. SEO success is not something that can be achieved overnight and it will usually take up to 12-18 months to get to your end goal. SEO companies offering overnight success will either not deliver, offer very temporary success or will achieve a no1 ranking that no one is searching for. The only potential time to accept this offer is if you don’t have to pay until they get the result because you have less to lose in that situation… but even then I’d make sure you lay out all the details of the contract carefully.

Have they called you or have you called them?

Just a small final observation I’ve made over the years. It never ceases to amaze me how many SEO companies call us trying to sell us services that we already provide in house! Sometimes I’ll engage in conversation with them to do a bit of ‘competitor analysis’ and find out what they’re actually offering. Now it wouldn’t be fair to say any company that calls you out of the blue trying to sell SEO is a bad one, but in my experience you’re better spending the time to seek out a company online rather than engaging in conversation with those bombarding you with calls. Do an online search for SEO companies – if a company’s top when searching for SEO then they must be doing something right!

I hope you found this helpful but, if you can’t be bothered doing all of this research, then I’ve heard of a really good SEO company called Brinn Marketing. You should give them a call…

Any other tips on picking a good SEO company then, as always, leave a comment!