Market Leader 324

How A Small Business Usually stays Competitive

small business

Well done seo, often called SEO for brief, is designed to allow websites to show up in search results when individuals search for products and services rather than simply company names. The theory is that people searching for things online can find a business website with no prior knowledge of the business or its name. You'll find all manner of tricks and methods which fall under SEO, however the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called "white hat SEO") are based upon the idea of making your website easier for internet search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in pursuit of appropriately relevant terms.

It's not uncommon to decide to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies as well as other companies, but there are far too many dodgy types around who like to take companies seeking SEO - especially local and small businesses - for a very costly ride. How then do you actually go about locating a good, honest and bonafide search engine marketer?

It is actually incredibly easy to find a decent SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and sort in "SEO agency." Ignoring the paid ads at the very top, whichever firm has landed on top of the search results are what you would like - they must be very good at SEO or their unique website wouldn't be really at high level in the natural listings!

market leader

To narrow things down a little, you could try extending your research. Say you live in Essex and need a local agency - just key in "SEO agency Essex." Or if perhaps your website is specialised and also you want particular assistance with it you can add your industry or site type - "SEO tourism" or "SEO eCommerce" for instance. This can be a great way to find niche SEO agencies who have specialist expertise in your field.

Sometimes SEO agencies (at least people claiming being SEO agencies) try and solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if the thing is that something like this come in then it is best to ignored - if a company which supposedly specialises searching engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their particular website ranks highly and individuals can find them anyway, chances are they aren't very good. The same is true of SEO services advertised on paid ads on top of search engines or on banner ads on other websites. If their search engine marketing is any good, what makes them having to pay for their placements?

One other thing to bear in mind is to steer well away from any SEO agency that promises you "top position for x keywords" or something like that. Nearly all modern engines like google used personalised searching, meaning that everyone sees websites in slightly different ranking positions determined by their personal search history. Absolute rankings certainly are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to supply this kind of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO will use sustainable "white hat" techniques in order to bring useful people to your website, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, that will constantly get them slapped by internet search engine updates like Google's infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.

When you have found an SEO company that appears mostly all right you'll want to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. Along with the usual checks like existing client list and testimonials, it's a good idea to speak to someone on the phone or in person. Here are several good questions to ask them.

- Who does their search marketing work? Is it handled by in-house staff? Will they do any outsourcing, especially to foreign companies? Plenty of agencies outsource to cheap link builders in Asia who often produce very low quality work that can have a negative influence on websites in the medium to long lasting.
- How often do they report, along with what format do these reports take? Any professional SEO agency should be providing regular updates to all or any its clients, in addition to written reports detailing actions taken and progress made.
- What sort of skills and qualifications have they got? Take a look at their existing client lists for almost any recognisable big names, and discover if they have anyone who is Analytics qualified. Some companies operate quality standards like ISO 9001 which can be an excellent sign.
- What else would they do? A lot of these organizations are primarily website designers who are resellers for outsourced Search engine optimization services to boost their profits. It is far better to look for an online marketing specialist to ensure you get a good quality service.

If you don't have the money to hire an experienced SEO agency there are other possibilities open. Some companies will let you pay for a one off website review to make recommendations on how to improve your site from a search marketing perspective, or you could research current techniques and ideas to do SEO by yourself.

Many online marketing methods are actually startlingly simple. Improve your domain authority by permitting other relevant sites to link to yours. Get a backlinks boost and also general marketing benefit by making use of social media like Facebook. Keep your website full of regularly updated and top quality content to encourage people to link to you as well as grow the site's visibility and importance. Use a good, solid SEO plugin to your content management system, and make sure your website's code is error free.

Remember you'll receive a natural boost from modern search engines if your website is

- Attractive, easy to use and nice to look at
- Full of good, up to date and useful content suitable for real people, not internet search engine robots
- Free of errors, fast loading and devoid of spammy ads or buggy code

Happy online marketing, everyone!