The internet marketing industry has grown dramatically since 1996. There is really no telling where it’s going to go in the near future, but we do know that it’s going to continue its growth curve at quite possibly an even greater rate. I get excited when I learn about new companies opening their doors, but get alarmed at the same time when companies with little to no experience claim that they are the next great ticket to search engine optimization.
I figured I would do my part to the community and alert business owners who may not have the educational background to make proper decisions regarding internet marketing about the possible pitfalls and scams that are out there.
So here we go… 4 easy steps to follow when choosing an Internet marketing company to work with.
Local or Long-Distance
One of the first things you have to decide is if you’re looking to work with a company that is local to your business, or if you don’t mind working with someone through a long-distance relationship.
It’s always great when you’re working with a local vendor that you can access easily. There is a lot to be said for being able to walk or drive down the street and go into their office to discuss your business matters. The problem, however, is that many of these companies are simply not the best in the world. My recommendation would be to do a search for “city name SEO company” in Google as well as “city name internet marketing company”. From there, I would set up meetings with all of the companies that appear in the top 10 organic search results. To be frank, I really wouldn’t worry about meeting with the people that show up in the pay-per-click results only… because anyone can be there. And today it’s common knowledge on how to make that happen.
If you’re looking to work with the best in the world then do those same two searches, but take out the city name. This is going to give you the best SEO and Internet marketing companies in the entire world. I guarantee you that these companies are used to working with people who are outside of their area and many of them are larger companies with systems already set up to keep you alerted as to how your campaigns are going.
Questions to Ask
So once you’re in your meetings with these companies, whether it’s on the phone or in person, you will want to make sure that you ask them this question. If the people you’re meeting with a look at you like you have lobsters coming out of your ears, then get up right away and walk out the door. Any successful Internet marketing company will have full knowledge of the answers to this question. What are your basic belief principles behind how to rank and market a website profitably? Obviously, the answer to this question can vary greatly. However, I think it’s extremely important to make sure that the answer to this question contains the following:
Age of a domain name is important.
On page SEO is not as important as it used to be.
The more quality relevant links, you have to your site, a higher your site is going to rank.
Highly interesting or useful content must be created and used as link bait to get links to your site.
The bottom line is this. In order for a website to rank well, there has to be a lot of links coming into that site from quality reputable sources. The text that is linked (anchor text) to the pages you’re trying to rank is also extremely important. Popular ways to get links include link baiting, cherry-picking links, purchasing directory links (not link farms or bad neighborhoods), and negotiating with other site owners and webmasters to get links. There are many other ways to get what links as well but these are the main ones.
Talk about Your Business and Get a Verbal Strategy
Take some time to talk to the people that you’re meeting with about your company, and especially what your goals are. Without understanding the goals of your business, it’s impossible for an Internet marketing firm to truly understand how they can help you. You’ll find that many SEOs are addicted to traffic, and not necessarily generating more leads or increasing your sales. In reality, traffic doesn’t matter, the sales do.
Once you’ve shared what your business goals are with your website, ask the people you’re meeting with to go over a verbal strategy of how they would recommend moving forward. If they seem the least bit uneducated… they’re not the right firm for you. The team you want working on your website will be one who is truly passionate, and gets really excited, about your business. Don’t be like so many business owners and managers and settle for someone who isn’t passionate but seems like they’re knowledgeable. If the team doesn’t enjoy working on your website, the results are not going to be the same.
So how do you know that you’re getting your money’s worth? Simple. Before the SEO company begins working on your campaign, they’re going to need to have an in-depth written marketing plan that outlines how they’re going to go about working on your campaign. If they don’t… don’t use them. When they provide you with that plan, make sure that it also has dates and goals. This plan can then be used to make sure that the company is completely on track with what it promised you.
While you may be creating some conflict between the different firms, you’ll be guaranteeing yourself the best of the best of the best.
If you spend more money on one car than another car, the more expensive one will last longer and have a smoother ride. The same thing goes when you’re picking an SEO company… don’t let yourself get ripped off.
Passionate about SEO and its possibilities, Digital Junkies, the best SEO services gold coast focuses on SEO services that help small and medium-size businesses with web issues of importance to business owners and deconstructs the SEO industry into understandable terms.