Sunday, November 27, 2011

Identifying The Right SEO Consultant.

By Sarah Lee


SEO consultants cover a wide ranging subject area through their role, from discovering coding faults in your website that are stopping it from ranking successfully to increasing your sites popularity with search engines by creating the necessary links. SEO consultants come from a range of assorted backgrounds and this impacts upon their preferred type of optimisation method. The primary role of the SEO Consultant is to raise and optimise your ranking on Google and other relevant search engines.

Websites who have been manipulating search engine rankings through the use of underhand SEO techniques are frequently found out by search engine companies. Penalties for these sites vary from a temporary drop in their ranking to a total de -listing from the relevant search engine. As with most industries there are good consultants and there are bad ones so the following pointers will assist you to choose the right SEO consultant and avoid the chance of getting your website rankings penalised.

Does the consultant adopt the best practices? Search engine companies issue guidelines of how they wish to see websites built and marketed, they additionally list practices ,for example; purchasing back linksand website cloaking that will attract strict penalties. Be sure that the professional you choose to look after your SEO follows the search engine guidelines and steers well clear of anything that could cause your site reputation permanent damage.

Does their method to SEO give consistent and long-term results, whilst protecting the identity of your brand at the same time? You would be severely disappointed if having hired an SEO consultant your ranking with the search engines began to fluctuate erratically and your site became negatively affected. These issues could give your brand a poor reputation and subsequently hinder your business. Don't be afraid to ask the consultant as many questions as you like regarding their practices and approach to SEO. Even if you are not able to fully understand all that they say, your initial questions are probably going to lead to them taking a more methodical approach to the Search Engine Optimisation for yourwebsite

Are their strategies going to appeal to web users? Sites should be optimised with web users in mind rather than concentrating exclusively on search engine rankings. All of the main search engine companies state that all sites should be built to provide visitors the best experience possible with good, relevant content and an easy to follow navigation structure. A good SEO consultant will give you advice to help you improve the relevance of your websites content. It is important to remember that your purpose is to satisfy the needs of website visitors, not simply rank as highly as possible in searches. The majority of SEO consultants will\ offer examples of websites that they have previously optimised to rank highly, visit them and gauge the quality of your experience.

Surely quality is more important than quantity? The quality of the site visitor is much more important than the number of visitors. It is much more advantageous to have 100 site visitors and make 10 sales rather than have 1000 site visitors and make nothing. The keywords you choose to focus on for optimisation purposes are central. Say for instance you trade blue coloured Widgets. In successfully optimising your website for 'Widgets' you might get a high number of site visitors but a low-level of sales, your site visitors might have been looking only for red coloured Widgets. In optimising your website for 'Blue Widgets' or 'Buy Blue Widgets' you are much more likely to achieve sales.

Exactly what range of services are provided by the SEO? It is vital to know exactly what services they are going to carry out. There are many consultants who offer clients an advisory role and will write a detailed report telling you exactly what you need to do to rank well. If you have your own in-house development team on hand that service is fine. Other consultants take care of both the strategy work and its subsequent implementation.

How much will you be paying for the optimisation services? Although this is an obvious question, it is a complicated one too. Carry out price comparisons between different consultants and make sure that you compare services like for like. What is the customary cost to optimise a site similar to your own? No professional consultant will promise to get you to the no.1 position, there are so many variables to consider.

Do you click well with the consultant? You don't have to be the best of friends but an easy working relationship will go a long way to making your SEO campaign more successful. Consultants might do the minimum to meet the terms of their contract or do their utmost best to get you the results you are looking for. You are certain to receive the best service from an SEO consultant who you are friendly with.




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