Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when individuals search for products and services rather than simply company names. The idea is the fact that people trying to find things online will be able to search out a business website without any prior familiarity with the business or its name. You will find all manner of tricks and methods which fall under SEO, although the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called „white hat SEO”) are based around the concept of making your web page easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.
It’s not uncommon to decide to outsource SEO to external digital marketing specialists agencies and other companies, but you will discover far too many dodgy types around who like to take companies seeking SEO – especially local and smaller companies – for a really expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a good, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?
It’s actually incredibly easy to locate a good SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in „SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid advertisements at the top, whichever firm has landed at the very best of the search results are what you want – they has to be very good at SEO or their own website would not be so high in the natural listings!
To narrow things down a bit, you could try extending your search. Say you are living in Essex and want a local agency – just type in „SEO agency Essex.” Or maybe if your web page is specialised and you want particular help with it you can add your industry or site type – „SEO tourism” or „SEO eCommerce” for example. This could be a great way to discover niche SEO agencies that have specialist expertise in your field.
Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try to solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it really is best to ignore it – if a business which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they aren’t very good. The exact same is true of SEO services advertised on paid advertisements at the top of major search engines or on banner advertisements on other web sites. If their search marketing is any good, why are they having to pay for their placements?
Another thing to bear in mind is to steer well clear associated with any SEO agency that promises you „top position for x keywords” or something similar. Virtually all modern major search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everyone sees websites in slightly different ranking positions based on their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this kind of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO will use sustainable „white hat” techniques as a way to bring useful traffic to your web site, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, which can constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google’s infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.
Once you’ve found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you’ll need to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. And also the common checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a good idea to speak to someone directly on the phone or in person.