SEO Expert Series: Using An SEO Agency And What To Expect 22 July 2008
As our expert interview series begins to wind down, Rachelle Money spoke to Wordtracker's SEO expert Mark Nunney about what people should look out for when recruiting and working with an SEO agency who you want to work on your website.
Key points
- Make sure the SEO agency/consultant you have approached has a sound, bespoke plan for your business.
- Profit should be the ultimate goal, not rankings or traffic or even sales.
- The SEO agency must have a proven SEO method – ask them to prove it.
Mark Nunney is an SEO expert with more than eight years experience and runs his own business from Cornwall, England. He offers some sound advice on how to handle an SEO agency once you have hired them.
The good old-fashioned way of ‘word of mouth’ is the best way to find appropriate SEO professionals to help work on your website, as it’s easy to be duped by the glossy brochures and flash sites of some SEO agencies, says Nunney.
Non-SEO companies
Some of the work from SEO agencies “is shocking” and from non-SEO agencies it’s often worse.
“It still surprises me that respectable agencies can spend small fortunes on sites with no regard for SEO. For example, they often rely on (rather than cleverly using) Flash. And somehow these sites get approved by marketing departments.
“It is the job of everyone involved in building a website to help maximize the company’s profits, but that can't be done if you are ignoring search engine traffic, which is becoming the biggest source of sales for many markets. Nevertheless it still happens time after time.”
Nunney also warns against using a company which uses spam as an SEO tool.
“Recently I’ve seen some of the most respected SEO agencies in this country openly talk about using programs to submit comments on search engines. It’s easy to get software for this and it‘s pure spam.
"It’s also very selfish", he says clearly frustrated, “as everyone running a website with comments is reminded each time they have to delete spam comments.”
For some businesses the idea of SEO is very new. This may be the first time they have stepped into the industry. Nunney says it can be very difficult to sell someone the idea of SEO.
“It’s like selling a second-hand car that you can’t see and might not be delivered for a year.”
Don't be seduced by fancy websites
It is this lack of tangible evidence that often makes businesses reluctant to go to the ‘little guys’ because they believe that big companies are better able to produce the right results. Of course this isn’t always the case, and of course we shouldn’t tar all big SEO agencies with the same brush, but what Nunney is advising is to be wary, and not be seduced by fancy, expensive-looking websites.
He explains: “Some businesses out there are only just getting used to being on the internet, doing online marketing and PR, and then along comes SEO and how do they make that judgment (on which SEO agency to use)? It’s very hard.
“Often they will see a company with a nice website and they may be inclined to trust them. I’m sure they are right sometimes and of course there are lots of poor smaller outfits but to me it’s more shocking when respectable looking companies don't deliver.”
Get your money's worth
So how do you avoid being disappointed? Nunney says you should always get a personal referral from someone you know and trust. It doesn’t stop there.
Nunney adds: “You then need to get whoever you have approached to prove it - prove what they’ve done even when it’s a personal reference.”
You should then take a step back, Nunney advises, and ask yourself; ‘What is being delivered?’ Make sure you are getting your money’s worth.
When asked if people should set their SEO agency a target, Nunney said it could “cause as many problems as it tries to solve.”
“I concentrate on method to judge just about everything,” he says.
He went on to say that if a company says they will get you top of the search engines for a collection of words or phrases then they are using a “classic SEO con.”
“It might seem really good but really it’s meaningless - what phrases? What traffic will it bring? They can be quite popular phrases but they might not bring that much.
“Any reasonable sized site is interested in hundreds of thousands of keywords.”
When you have approached an SEO agency you should be more concerned with their method and the process by which they will get you results.
SEO strategy and tactics
So what’s the first thing you should be asking? Nunney says it should be: “Do you have an appreciation of the difference between strategy and tactics?”
“If they don’t know that then move on", he says firmly.
“I’d be wanting them to go through a process of coming up with a strategy first and then an accompanying plan of action. Show me the strategy, how are you going to get there and what’s the plan of action?
“I’d also want a bespoke plan for my website. If they say here’s our list of actions which hasn’t been adjusted for your site then that’s probably good for their systems, but it’s not considering you and your particular situation, and every site is different.”
The end goal should be profit, unless of course you are a non-profit site.
“So it’s not rankings, not traffic and not even sales - although they are useful metrics and can help measure progress and success - they are not the end in itself.”
Key questions to ask a prospective SEO agency
- How is this company judging its own work?
- What is their method of SEO?
- How are they going to prove their method works?
- What’s the process, what are the stages and why do they go through them?
- Can they show evidence of flexibility? (That comes back to having a bespoke plan.)
- Is there flexibility depending on results?
- In what way do they monitor results and how are they going to change the plan of action accordingly? Ask for evidence of their ability to manoeuvre.
14 comments
A well thought through & timely article. Even some of the largest ad agencies are jumping onto the SEO bandwagon and hastily adding on an "SEO division," only to actually hurt their own reputation in the long term through offering outdated or even questionable services. Just because a company is well known doesn't mean that each service they offer will carry their historic reputation with it. You've got to do your own careful homework before you hire any SEO service provider and see if they really "know their stuff." The quick profit potential of SEO lures too many ad agencies, web designers & entrepreneurs down the quick and easy trail ... only to hurt their own clients and make legitimate SEO an even harder sell down the road.
I tried a SEO co. that bragged about how good they were. Out of 22 million sites they were #1 but the work they did on my site was less than acceptable. I know SEO and have optimized my own sites. I already had good rankings but I wasn't in the top five on some of my keywords so I thought I would give this co. a try. The fast talking sales pitch with an act now to get this price...buyer beware! For $300 they threw a few links on my site (that were some of their existing clients, I'm sure). They did no research, I had to tell them what to do. Then for an additional $100 a month they would throw a few more links on my site. Yippie, they were fired before the $100 charge was due. Oh yeah, they called me out of the blue. What amazes me is a high percentage of web designers know zero about SEO.
Denise and Andrew, I totally agree. I almost hate to tell companies I am an 'SEO professional'. Half think I'm going to rip them off and the other half don't have a clue about what I am suggesting they do to improve their sites. That's why I offer a free website analysis prior to agreeing to do any work. While it's a great tool for the website owner, it's even more beneficial for me to see the extent of what really needs to be done. It can be difficult to get website owners to accept that they won't show up on page 1 tomorrow because we added some metatags today. Search engine optimization is a process with many, many elements. The best SEO works thoroughly over a period of time, and patience is required to effect the kinds of changes that really count in the long run. It doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars, but on the other hand, you can't really optimize someone's site for $100 bucks either. And I also agree that most web designers don't understand SEO, although the two seem to go hand in hand. That's why it's so important to implement SEO at the design stage, rather than waiting for development to be complete and having to go back in and 'fix' what's wrong. SEO is still in its infancy despite all the available information. As the Internet becomes more sophisticated, and hopefully website owners with it, an understanding of what constitutes good and proper SEO will hopefully grow as well, separating the men...and the ladies... from the boys and girls.
I agree results speak loudest. Also value for money. I may not be the best SEO professional but I do use only white-hat techniques and are very affordable for smaller businesses. I have gotten good results for friends and clients at low cost and anything I do can only be improved upon. It's important to have a useful and good content website... but it's got to be found first before people can appreciate it, use it and then build it's own popularity and generate it's own natural links. So there is an artificial element which requires SEOs to do certain actions that are "robotic" such as Directory submissions, article submission, press releases etc. So that the sites do climb the search engines and get noticed. There are also plenty of spam websites out there and low quality websites getting all the traffic simply because they use the right SEO techniques. I also agree SEO needs to be done from the start but find myself having to re-design the structure of sites and add many new pages for each site to bring them to square one. I've heard it said 90-95% of websites built are not SEO optimized so there is work out there for decent SEOs. My approach will always be to create a strategy and a plan for each business. show them what I am doing and change accordingly as I go. Ultimately it's always about results and profits. And an honest and ethical approach.
Hi
Your blog is very informative n helpful .. thanks…..keep it up.
www.seostep.net
How effective are RSS feed blogs in maximizing SEO results for real estate websites? Do you advise blogging or what other newer Web 2 methods to improve SEO placement and ultimately profit for reaching our target audience?
I've had companies contact me and ask if they can get the number one spot on this keyword and that keyword but don't really understand what is the end goal or even how to measure success or failure other than that number 1 spot. SEO companies that deliver just that (and nothing else) is giving everybody in the SEO industry a bad name.
I'm not an SEO consultant per se, I'm a marketing professional who moonlights on consulting, but nevertheless a lot of companies need re-education in terms of SEO. It's not some fancy tech term that's "in fashion" so to speak. SEO is a tool that is supposed to be used for ROI purposes just like all other marketing campaigns. This article is an excellent piece on that. Thank you
I'll prefix anything I say by saying I do SEO. With that out of the way, any good internet marketing company will tell you as Mark says it's all about strategy. But not just SEO strategy but your whole internet, marketing and business strategy.
Tips for getting a good SEO agency or company. Put in SEO and the town or city where you live into Google, the good agencies will be listed together at the top. Have a look at their websites, any that don't read well or don't look good have been sacrificed too much for SE. You want an agency from the top 5 that has a website you like, best of all try to pick 2 or 3 then ask for prices vs. services.
If an agency doesn't mention Keyword/Keyphrase research, walk. If they say, "You pick the words," walk. If all they talk about is links, walk.
We're still a dark art to many people when all SEO is, is hard work, good use of language and the ability to put a strategy together.
Excellent tips that couldn't be simpler to understand, to the point of common sense. Too many companies, particularly small ones, don't have the exposure or experience to know which questions to ask, much less how they are relevant or why they are important. And, there are a lot of 'SEO/M experts' out there ready to take advantage of this. The only thing I would add is to make sure SEO/M is only one part of any marketing strategy: Never forget about press releases, staying in contact with local media, and direct mail.
I teach a class called "How to Get Seen on the Web". My formula for building a great website is one that will get someone to click, call or buy: Code + Content + Pretty = SEO and Human Friendly website. If the 'SEO' company has no background in Marketing or Sales or Lead Generation, say thanks but no thanks. I totally agree that if they promise top rankings, say thanks but no thanks. And as a final comment about Keyword research, if they do not use Wordtracker, say thanks but no thanks. Good Article. Thanks.
Response back to Ginny Mitchell Realtor. I took the time to go to your website and if I did not live in Maui, Hawaii - I might consider going to Vero Beach, Fl. My recommendation to you before you start with blogs - which are very time consuming is to get on the most popular real estate blog in your area and make comments. Next, I would improve your use of Wordtracker. Here is one of the techniques I use. First, search on one of your chosen words 'Vero Beach Real Estate'. (I use the universal search.) See how many people are in fact searching on that term. If there are very few - that is fine, the question is what percent of those searching have clicked on your site. So if only 30 people are searching on a monthly basis and you got 10 to click to your site - that is an excellent response. However, if you think out of the box and look at your target market to find a more popular term - What are the reasons someone would look at your site, I would consider researching the use of keywords 'Moving to Florida' or Moving to XYZ area as many people who are looking for a real estate agent to help guide them to find property is because they already know the area and are ready to move. Then if this tactic proves useful and you have found the killer phrase for the moste people search and the fewest competitive websites, be sure to add the content to your site so that if for your target market finds you - you will let them know you are here to help. In other words, use Wordtracker to come up with other types of keywords than the literal ones and you might get a better response. Think Outside the box, do not be so literal with your searches, think target market. To me this is one of the types of SEO techniques a good SEO person would use.
I am a real dud on the internet affair....Market I mean. I am still not sure how this seo works..and the ultimate goal to get lots of hits on your site. How do you get the right hits? How does it really work? Do the words use on blogs count as well as the actual site? Do the words in articles matter??? Just would like a little direction...And I did gain something from these entries..carol stanley author
For Kids 59.99 and Over"
This is a very timely article for me as I was recently approached by an SEO company and they have prepared a proposal for me. We have a call scheduled for tomorrow and I will be using this article to decide whether or not to sign the contract.
I will also preface this comment with I own a Tampa SEO Company. I agree profusely with the fact that you need to have a strategy offered. On top of that the strategy needs to be ethical SEO or white hat. I have spoken with too many people who also judge an SEO company by their site and its rank. This can be dangerous as well. Many of the quality search companies spend time on their clients rather than their own site. The old adage holds true........the cobbler's chilren always have bad shoes. Also steer clear of companies promising quick results for competitive keywords......SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. It can take a year or longer for certain keywords depending on your sites history and achievability. Ask the right questions and demand answers. That is the best way to hire the right company.