There are several important factors when considering an SEO company to help optimize your company’s website. There are many companies out there that do an excellent job, however, there are some that utilize some techniques that may not be ethical or even useful.
There are several steps you can take to help make sure you’re choosing an SEO company that will provide you with the results you are looking for. It’s just a matter of doing your homework. The first is to find out exactly what they offer in their packages. Do they include a portion of your monthly payment to fund your ppc campaign? If so, does it say, “Up To $100 deposited in AdWords” or something like that? If that is the case, be wary. This means that it is in their best interest to deposit as little as possible to contribute to their own bottom line. If there is a specified amount each month that will be used to fund the pay per click campaign, that is a better way to go.
Another tip - Don’t get locked into long contracts. If you sign a year long contract, you have to pay them whether you’re getting the results you want, or receiving the service you expected. If you have a month to month contract with an SEO firm, there is a very high incentive for them to provide you with high quality service and results. They want to keep you, so they’ll have to work hard every month.
One somewhat obvious thing to do is see how well they’ve optimized their own website. Are they ranking on competitive keywords? If they’re not able to rank their own website well, they’re probably not going to be able to do much for your website.
Another means of seeing what kind of a company your SEO firm is to take a look at their backlink profile. This is a good indicator of what type of SEO they practice. I found one firm that created fake SEO/design companies that said they were no longer accepting clients, but you could contact “X” firm (themselves-I guess they were trying to get relevant backlinks). Well, it wasn’t difficult to find out the “feeder” companies were fake because all of the “clients” listed didn’t have websites, and the company address was just a house (thanks Google Maps!), and their firm was the only referral the website gave. When firms practice techniques like this for their own SEO, what would they do for a client?
Once company I researched tried experimenting with developing backlink profiles. They submitted themselves as a product to Amazon.com, hoping for an amazon backlink. Instead of that, however, they just ended up looking dumb. They received no backlink, but they’re listed in Amazon. Come on! I think it’s pretty funny, but companies practicing techniques like that probably have done other dumb things. I think it’s a good indicator to stay away.
This is certainly not a complete list of things to look out for, but it’s a good start. When you’re investing money in marketing, you want to know that the firm you hired will work hard and provide good results. If a firm promises to have you ranking in the top spot, guaranteed - run. No reputable SEO company will guarantee results simply because there are no guarantees. SEO firms cannot control what Google, Yahoo or MSN do, nor can they control the amount of SEO your competitors are doing. It’s just a matter of staying on top of things, and constantly utilizing the most up-to-date methods to provide the best results for your marketing campaign.