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How good should a SEO company be?

  • 27-11-2009 1:10pm
    #1
    missP
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3 ✭


    You are paying a company to look after your SEO and page ranking.

    How often should you and the company be in contact to discuss how well the website it going? should it be once a year, every 6 or 3 months?

    What should be discussed at the meeting?
    - word proformances?
    - change of images in front page?

    How important is SEO with regards to getting sales into your site, would it be as important as advertising?

    If a SEO company stopped doing the SEO for a period of time would the website suffer in anyway

    Thanks

    I just need to get a better understanding of it


Comments

  • #2
    HandWS LTD
    Closed Accounts Posts: 263 ✭✭HandWS LTD


    Asking anybody to describe seo will become a laughing matter. There are lots of ways to describe seo.
    missP wrote: »
    How often should you and the company be in contact to discuss how well the website it going? should it be once a year, every 6 or 3 months?
    This is up to you. Depending on what kind of seo work is being done. If its keyword ranking, then starting off on 3 months, then 6 months would be suitable.
    missP wrote: »
    What should be discussed at the meeting?
    - word proformances?
    - change of images in front page?

    No need to talk about images (only if they are containing text behind it, away from the viewers eyes). You should discuss your keywords that you want to be ranked high for,link building etc. Also, always ask the seo company what they are going to do for you to achieve each point you made. If they don't tell you then it's likely your throwing money away and they will not give you what they promise. If they said they'll get you to #1 in search engines.....run and don't look back. There is no guarantee you'll get #1.
    missP wrote: »
    How important is SEO with regards to getting sales into your site, would it be as important as advertising?
    Yes, very important. SEO can get you ranked quite high, therefore bring traffic (visitors) to your site who have never heard of you before. Which in turn can change to not just traffic for you but SALES.
    missP wrote: »
    If a SEO company stopped doing the SEO for a period of time would the website suffer in anyway
    After a period of time you may drop down the SE ranking if you stop it, due to your rivals still doing their seo. SEO is nb for any website.


  • #3
    link8r
    Closed Accounts Posts: 387 ✭✭link8r


    missP wrote: »
    You are paying a company to look after your SEO and page ranking.

    How often should you and the company be in contact to discuss how well the website it going? should it be once a year, every 6 or 3 months?

    What should be discussed at the meeting?
    - word proformances?
    - change of images in front page?

    How important is SEO with regards to getting sales into your site, would it be as important as advertising?

    If a SEO company stopped doing the SEO for a period of time would the website suffer in anyway

    Thanks

    I just need to get a better understanding of it

    Thats a very good question but I'm afraid the answer may very. But good to ask anyway.

    From my point-of-view, SEO is about managing your visibility on the Web. One way to look at it (and there is many) - its a bit like trying to look at what the web says about your company.

    We are normally most in contact with our clients at the outset - the very start. We need to build, tailor a process to deliver a strategy and then implement that strategy and process.

    There is typically a huge handover of education to the client, empowering them with the right knowledge and tools to assess their site at the same time - it's not a "fire and forget" process and its probably not going to get well explained on here either!

    I'd suggest you research a few companies using the search engines yourself - what does Google say back. A good SEO should have this area well managed - if they don't then how will they manage yours?

    I'd suggest that you perform a number of searches and try to get a good rounded overview - read their blogs (if they have one) and have a look at what they're saying. Then engage (via telephone/initial meeting). Then maybe you can ask some more questions?


  • #4
    conolan
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 586 ✭✭✭conolan


    SEO is important, BUT the nature of SEO is that there is an awful lot of bull about.

    It's very hard to quantify, measure, see or anything else for that matter.
    Beware those who claim to be able to get you in top 10 of google (or similar claims).

    My business is the first listed in google for my keywords, which include my location. Leave out my location and I doubt that I appear in the top 10 pages, because there are 100s of similar businesses in Ireland. My SEO isn't the problem, if I want to appear in top 10 without my location, I'd need several years and lots of LINKS, LINKS, LINKS. After you've done good SEO, you need links.


  • #5
    link8r
    Closed Accounts Posts: 387 ✭✭link8r


    conolan wrote: »
    SEO is important, BUT the nature of SEO is that there is an awful lot of bull about.

    It's very hard to quantify, measure, see or anything else for that matter.
    Beware those who claim to be able to get you in top 10 of google (or similar claims).

    My business is the first listed in google for my keywords, which include my location. Leave out my location and I doubt that I appear in the top 10 pages, because there are 100s of similar businesses in Ireland. My SEO isn't the problem, if I want to appear in top 10 without my location, I'd need several years and lots of LINKS, LINKS, LINKS. After you've done good SEO, you need links.


    hi Conolan,

    There is a lot of bull and it's a pity because SEO is really well definied on both the Google WebMasters Blog and the Bing Webmasters blog. Both of them mention that Links (Quality NOT Quantity) is what counts. Natural links that people will follow, i.e. your website is recommending that people can learn more about your products by visiting this site, etc.

    Like on boards - if you like somebody's post, you can vote for them, they collect more stars, everyone's happy.

    On your specific question/comment
    You don't need several years to rank nationally. Some things to point out

    1. Take "Gifts" - I rank #2 (at time of posting). Gifts only delivers a tiny % of traffic - other related phrases deliver a lot more. People in Cork will want "ice cream cork", "mechanic cork" - or even more localised

    2. you said after you've done good SEO you need links - just FYI - unless you've links, you have no SEO

    3. despite what is written about SEO (99% of it is "on-site") on the webmaster blogs from the biggest search engines - people will still think that SEO is onsite

    4. Despite what they write about HTML compliancy - people are still willing to debate it - this is a another live thread on boards: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2055753670 - nobody, even Bing! Webmasters doesn't agree with him nut he swears by it

    Go figure


  • #6
    dorongez
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭dorongez


    conolan wrote: »
    SEO is important, BUT the nature of SEO is that there is an awful lot of bull about.

    It's very hard to quantify, measure, see or anything else for that matter.
    Beware those who claim to be able to get you in top 10 of google (or similar claims).

    My business is the first listed in google for my keywords, which include my location. Leave out my location and I doubt that I appear in the top 10 pages, because there are 100s of similar businesses in Ireland. My SEO isn't the problem, if I want to appear in top 10 without my location, I'd need several years and lots of LINKS, LINKS, LINKS. After you've done good SEO, you need links.

    There is a lot of truth in what you said. Its not always the most important thing to appear first on google search results. Your SEO pro should be up-to-date with SEO current methods. Google changes its algorithm a few times a year, and should be creative in finding new ways to promote your site and keywords. you should be getting quality new links, not just a lot of them.


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  • #7
    p
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,120 ✭✭✭p


    I think it's important to take a company who doesn't just do the technical SEO stuff, but rather manages yrou online marketing in a more general way. Often just buying google adwords can be a more efficient way to get traffic. So look for a company that takes a broader view of how to get traffic to your site.


  • #8
    dorongez
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭dorongez


    Content is a key issue for your site, so writing a blog(or someone can do that for you) and producing short youtube clips can really boost your sites position on search engines, I had a good experience with www.sortfix.com with that. Social media isn't really measurable, but can creat an ongoing buzz for the site. So as p said a company or an expert that not only does technical SEO , but can help with content, and a wide range of view will do wonders for you.


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