On December 4th, I replied to a blogger's question about How to Choose an SEO Company. As promised, I have followed up with "What to Ask Your SEO Company" -- these are questions to use when interviewing prospective SEO vendors or when considering search engine optimization for your website.
Choosing an SEO company should not be a decision about cost, but rather skill and return on investment. Look to see if the company you are considering ranks well for the keyphrases related to their services, i.e. "Charlotte SEO."
Here are some questions to ask your SEO company:
1. How do you determine what keywords to optimize for?
2. Are you considered a "white hat" SEO company?
3. What are your contract terms?
4. Can you show me some of your client's sites?
5. What was the client’s ROI?
6. What kind of increase in qualified traffic can you expect for my site?
7. How long will it be until I start to see results?
8. How can I/we assist you in making this relationship work best?
9. What are your top SEO achievements?
10. Do you do PPC and would this be a part of your SEO process for me?
Look for the best company based on their performance for themselves (their website) and their client sites. Remember that cost should not be a deciding factor so much as ROI (return on investment)--believe me, you won't have any problem spending the money on SEO if your are getting it back 10, 20, 30 fold because of good SEO!
The Big Cheese
Mouse and Man - A Charlotte Web Design & SEO Company
Your Kickin' Website - Charlotte, NV
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
How do I choose an SEO company?
Dear Big Cheese,
I run a small professional services company in Charlotte and I have been talking to other business owners who have told me that I need to find a good SEO company to promote my website—but they disagree on what makes “a good” SEO company. Some of my colleagues suggest price, others performance, others by an SEO company’s client list...
In your opinion, how should I go about choosing an SEO company that will do the best job optimizing my site and get it to the top of the search engines?
Keith C., Charlotte.
Dear Keith,
A lot of decisions a business owner or manager has to make are subjective… but Search Engine Optimization is not! And here is why: A good company will be easy to find—and by finding them, you will know they are good at what they do.
If you go to your favorite search engine, Google, Yahoo, etc. type in your city name and what you are looking for—like you would any other search. In this case, “Charlotte Search Engine Optimization” or "Charlotte SEO" on top, (after the sponsored links if they are there) are the companies who currently understand how to optimize a website the best. They recognize the value, have taken the time to do this for themselves and organically rank for a keyphrase that they have chosen, and for which they have supporting content in the site.
And this is what they will do for you!
From there you can narrow down the choices by recommendations by satisfied clients, range of services (such as do they do Pay-Per-Click, as well as organic SEO), and their performance with customers they have been working with for more than 6 months who are in similar industries to yours.
This is what you want your prospective customers to do when they do a search for your city and service... so find a company who can do this for themselves!
Big Cheese Tip of the Day: Always ask your prospective search engine optimization or pay-per-click vendor if they are working with a company that would be in direct competition for your preferred keyphrases--you don't want them to have any conflicts of interest when working to get the best qualified traffic to your site.
Check back here soon for a list of things to ask your SEO company.
The Big Cheese
Mouse and Man - A Charlotte Web Design Company
I run a small professional services company in Charlotte and I have been talking to other business owners who have told me that I need to find a good SEO company to promote my website—but they disagree on what makes “a good” SEO company. Some of my colleagues suggest price, others performance, others by an SEO company’s client list...
In your opinion, how should I go about choosing an SEO company that will do the best job optimizing my site and get it to the top of the search engines?
Keith C., Charlotte.
Dear Keith,
A lot of decisions a business owner or manager has to make are subjective… but Search Engine Optimization is not! And here is why: A good company will be easy to find—and by finding them, you will know they are good at what they do.
If you go to your favorite search engine, Google, Yahoo, etc. type in your city name and what you are looking for—like you would any other search. In this case, “Charlotte Search Engine Optimization” or "Charlotte SEO" on top, (after the sponsored links if they are there) are the companies who currently understand how to optimize a website the best. They recognize the value, have taken the time to do this for themselves and organically rank for a keyphrase that they have chosen, and for which they have supporting content in the site.
And this is what they will do for you!
From there you can narrow down the choices by recommendations by satisfied clients, range of services (such as do they do Pay-Per-Click, as well as organic SEO), and their performance with customers they have been working with for more than 6 months who are in similar industries to yours.
This is what you want your prospective customers to do when they do a search for your city and service... so find a company who can do this for themselves!
Big Cheese Tip of the Day: Always ask your prospective search engine optimization or pay-per-click vendor if they are working with a company that would be in direct competition for your preferred keyphrases--you don't want them to have any conflicts of interest when working to get the best qualified traffic to your site.
Check back here soon for a list of things to ask your SEO company.
The Big Cheese
Mouse and Man - A Charlotte Web Design Company
Monday, December 1, 2008
Newsletter Email Blasts
Dear Big Cheese,
I would like to send out an email blast to my clients for the holidays and I don't want it to be an impersonal boring plain text message that gets ignored, or worse-yet hits a spam filter without being seen. I would like to show my clients that I appreciate their business and let them know about the exciting things happening in '09...
Can you send out "a better" email blast?
Carol P. - Madison, WI
Dear Carol,
Yes! We can send out a better email blast. Through the power of technology, design savvy and good ol' common sense, we can design your HTML version email newsletter to work seamlessly with your branding, look great, AND be received by your contacts, no matter how many spam/ junk filters they have enabled. All you need to do is provide some fabulous content and give us your mail list... we will do the rest.
Contact our Charlotte Web Design Headquarters at 704-968-1775 for more information. Thank you for the great question.
THE Big Cheese
I would like to send out an email blast to my clients for the holidays and I don't want it to be an impersonal boring plain text message that gets ignored, or worse-yet hits a spam filter without being seen. I would like to show my clients that I appreciate their business and let them know about the exciting things happening in '09...
Can you send out "a better" email blast?
Carol P. - Madison, WI
Dear Carol,
Yes! We can send out a better email blast. Through the power of technology, design savvy and good ol' common sense, we can design your HTML version email newsletter to work seamlessly with your branding, look great, AND be received by your contacts, no matter how many spam/ junk filters they have enabled. All you need to do is provide some fabulous content and give us your mail list... we will do the rest.
Contact our Charlotte Web Design Headquarters at 704-968-1775 for more information. Thank you for the great question.
THE Big Cheese
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)