An SEO consultant’s job role includes a wide subject area, from finding and resolving problems with the coding of your site which are preventing it from ranking well to increasing the popularity of your site through the creation of proper links. Because Search Engine Optimisation is such a new industry, SEO Consultants have a range of different backgrounds. Each consultants background and route into SEO will have an impact on their favoured mode of optimisation technique An SEO Consultant’s main role is to better your rank within Google and other search engines.
Search engine companies such as Google are extremely adept at sniffing out websites who are using underhanded SEO techniques in order to manipulate search engine rankings. Commonly these bad practices are penalised by dropping their rankings until the optimisation techniques are changed but in the worst cases it could result in a site being completely de-listed from search engines. As with most industries there are good and bad consultants so here are a few pointers to help your choose a good SEO consultant for you and avoid the chance of getting your website rankings penalised.
Does the consultant follow the best practices? Search engine companies issue policies regarding how they like to see websites constructed and marketed, they also publish a list of practices like; purchasing back links, website cloaking and hidden site content that will attract strict penalties. It is essential that your chosen SEO consultant practices only ‘white hat’ techniques as underhanded practices could damage your sites reputation and be detrimental to your business.
You need an SEO consultant who offers results which have a long-lived impact without compromising your brand. It would be severely detrimental for your ranking to begin to waver precariously or suddenly fall subsequent to the hiring of an SEO ‘professional’ If either of these occurs it can give your brand a poor reputation and therefore affect business. Questioning your consultant about their optimisation tactics will ensure that they take a methodical approach to your SEO.
Are their chosen strategies likely to be attractive to individual web users? The experience of web users should be considered first. Websites should be designed to give visitors the best possible experience. Major search engine companies state that websites should include well written, content and have a straightforward structure for users to navigate. A good SEO consultant can give advice about how to enhance site content to increase its relevance to a given search term. Remember that your purpose is to meet the needs of website visitors, not simply rank as highly as possible in searches. The majority of SEO consultants will\ give examples of websites that they have previously optimised to rank highly, visit them and gauge the quality of your experience.
Would you prioritise quality or quantity? The quantity of your site visitors is nowhere near the importance of the quality of the visitor. Your business will profit more from 100 visitors who lead to 10 sales than 1000 visitors who make no purchases. The keywords you choose to focus on for optimisation are central. Say for instance you sell blue coloured Widgets. Successful optimisation of your site for ‘Widgets’ thanks to your SEO could attract huge amounts of traffic to your website but if the visitors are only interested in yellow Widgets you are not likely to benefit from increased sales. You would be far more likely to benefit from increased sales by optimising the website for ‘Blue Widgets’ or ‘Buy Blue Widgets’.
Find out what services the SEO will be able to provide. It is vital to be sure that you know exactly what services you will be receiving. Various consultants simply adopt an advisory role, they view your website, examine your competitors and subsequently provide a report telling you that you need to do A, B and C to increase the ranking of your site. If you have an in-house development team available that service is great. Whilst other consultants will carry out all of the strategy work and then implement it for you so be certain that you are aware of exactly what services you will receive.
What amount will you be paying for the optimisation services? Whilst this seems like a undemanding question, it is a tricky one to understand To make effective comparisons you need a clear picture of the level of service you have been quoted for. If possible, find out the likely cost to optimise a site similar to yours. If any consultant guarantees that they will get your site to number 1, you should be wary as there is no way they can guarantee this 100 per cent.
Do you believe you would be able to develop a good working relationship with the SEO consultant? There is no need to become best buddies but it is will help to have a fantastic working relationship with your SEO. Whilst some consultants provide you with a basic service to fulfil your contract, others do their best to get the best possible results. You are certain to receive the best service from a consultant who you are friendly with.
Are you looking for a SEO Consultancy UK company? My name is Ade Lewis and I am an SEO consultant providing a wide range of SEO services. No matter how large or small your business is, or at what stage of development your online presence is you will benefit from having an SEO Consultancy firm on-board. I can help you succeed in gaining higher search engine rankings.
