Here are a ten tips for those looking for SEO; most of this was initially posted by me on a LinkedIn thread entitled Is SEO Dead? I may add to these over time; but these will help you decide.
If you really want; you can always use me…I’m Free! Well depending on what you want to use me for; more information on this can be found on the page listing my SEO Consultant Fees.
- If they sell packages; leave well alone; this will probably lead to a short term gain and a long term fall.
- Do they guarantee top rankings? If so; leave well alone as per above. Also you need to bare in mind that in Google; there are no guarantees.
- If someone offers lots of Twitter followers or Facebook likes etc; leave well…you know what I am going to say. One day Google will look for Social Media Link Farms…they may even be doing it now considering that Trust; Reputation and Authority is high in what is needed to rank well in the search engine results pages.
- If you can only find them by attending a business networking meeting or one of the numerous marketing exhibitions and not when using Google incognito window to search for their main or localised terms; yep! Your’e learning fast!
- If they do rank high locally; check their rankings for other local towns and cities? If they do rank; do the pages have virtually the same content on them? If so they are likely to be hit by a future Panda update. If they are opening themselves up to penalties on their own website…what will they do on yours?
- Does the email address differ from the domain name; i.e typically the ending of the email address. I can name at least 8 SEO Companies who have changed their domain names over the years due to penalties on their websites. Often to counteract this they move from a .co.uk to a .uk or similar. If they have caused problems for themselves; do you really want them working for you?
- Go to incognito and actually check any search results listed on their website; however often they say what they are without giving you the name of who it is they are working for. If they do this…
- Go to their website; if you hover over any home page link and it shows /index.hml or similar like /home.php etc; yep again! If they can’t optimise their own website…
- When on their website; does the non www. version of their website redirect to their www. version or visa versa? As above; often a sign of not optimizing their own website.
- If they have a dynamic website; i.e using WordPress etc; do their pages have “pretty links” or are they proliferated with things like question marks? Again; no attention to their own website.
I could go on; oh and yes I mention SEO Packages on this website; but it clearly states on there I don’t do them!