A friend recently hired the services of an Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) consultant for his blog to ascertain what the hype was about. Imagine his surprise, when, while searching the Internet for information on life-saving drugs, he found one of his earlier blog posts listed among the search results.
Vanity aside (admit it, who hasn’t searched their name at least once on Google), being visible on the web has become essential for most businesses. The easiest way to look for a service vendor or a new product is to Google it. Therefore, it becomes essential to make sure that the search throws up your service or product among the top options in its category.
SEO is the foundation for online visibility. To be successful in the virtual world, you need to grab eyeballs. It isn’t enough to just be on the web. You have to make sure that maximum traffic is diverted to your website. And that is what Search Engine Optimisers do for you.
Since most small companies work on a shoe-string marketing budget, it is crucial for them to be able to capture the vast internet audience. In most cases, these companies lack the necessary expertise required to do so, and a specialist needs to hired, or consulted with, for the job. But given the mushrooming of SEO specialists, it has become essential to recognise the real expert from the fake know-it-all. The following pointers can lend a hand in making that important choice.
When and where to look: An appropriate time to engage an SEO specialist is when you are planning to launch a new site. Although an existing site can always be improved on, it is always better to ensure that your website is search engine optimized right from the outset.
Your professional network should be the first place to tap into when looking to hire a SEO specialist. Businesses are flooded by cold calls or e-mails from consultants, but it is best to ignore such communication promising to improve your company’s rankings in a jiffy. Referrals from your business network or from industry experts should work well in identifying a consultant suitable to your business needs.
Try to glean information from the blogosphere and various discussion forums. Head to some of the SEO-focussed blogs or forums to find out who are the experts in the field and where to find the relevant resources.
Ask the right questions: Does the consultant have all the skills necessary to do the job you are looking for? Though a good consultant usually is a decent copywriter, excellent keyword researcher, decent link builder and has a basic knowledge of social media marketing and its usability – you might need someone with specialised expertise in only one of the fields.
Get a clear understanding of the process to be followed for every aspect of SEO work. Negative strategies for improving rankings, such as “spamdexing” or “black hat” methods, only end up harming a business due to the degrading effect on the website. As search engines do not approve of such methods, sites employing these techniques are removed from search engine indices.
Ask whether the consultant has a formalised approach to keyword research? Do they rely solely on the seed list given by the client and expand the same using tools like Wordtracker or do they have approaches to figure out trends – things like tags on blogs, Technorati, Digg, content sites, popular articles on networks, web site log files to see what visitors search for.
Do not forget to ask about the resources involved. It is common for SEO consultants to outsource/ subcontract different pieces of the work. Hence, it is important to understand the quality control steps in place. You might also want to know the percentage of repeat business your consultant gets and the kind of visibility he or she has in the online marketing circuit.
Remember that a good consultant will ask appropriate questions about the company’s business, marketing objectives and target audience.
Manage your consultant: Once you have decided on who will do the job, define the desired outcome and key metrics. A rigid delivery schedule is often impossible. An SEO consultant should be confident of the parameters she or he will be looking at when deciding on the timeframe, as also the metrics for measuring success. For example, for a software company, a trial software download might signal a future sale and may be viewed as a success metric. On the other hand, for a clothes retailer, only actual sales can qualify as a measure of success.
As with every other aspect related to a business, it is important here as well to work out a budget in advance. SEO consultants and firms offer a broad range of services. Hence, your hiring proposal should be specific about the services being rendered by the vendor and their worth. There are flat-fee packages, monthly retainer arrangements and success-fee based models.
Communication with your SEO consultant is critical in achieving high rankings. Weekly or monthly in-person meetings or video conferences with a standardised reporting system should be incorporated in the engagement proposal. Contracts of employment should be easily accessible to both parties. Working towards a common goal also means that the consultant’s opinion should be in sync with your business ethics. It always takes two to tango – in life as well as in business.
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