SEO Consultants: Choosing From the Good, Bad, and the Ugly
If you have a website, search engine optimization (SEO) is probably a key aspect of your marketing plan. According to Wikipedia, SEO is a way to improve the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines. Essentially, it’s a strategy to make your site more relevant and visible to people that are actively searching for what you have to offer. Because SEO is so important, I would bet that 99% of you with websites have been approached by an SEO consultant regarding the value and benefits of both organic and paid search. Some of you have probably even hired on a consultant at one point or another-or at least have considered doing so.
Search engines all have their individual rules and formulas - too much for a marketing director, coordinator, writer or any other dedicated employee to thoroughly examine while still juggling their other responsibilities. Therefore, having someone to spend a great majority of their time on SEO to get you the results you need is not too bad of an idea.
This is where the SEO consultant comes into the picture. And, with SEO being such an important yet complex part of a website’s success, a consultant could be a great step forward.
That being said, I ran across an interesting article a few weeks back that was a bit of a “warning” for those of us that rely on the skills of a consultant. The article is titled, “7 Ways SEO Consultants Rip Off Their Clients.” The author, Brandt Dainow, takes an amusing approach to the article, making it seem as if he’s giving tips to consulting companies that want to cheat other companies in need of SEO services. He states, “The critical thing to avoid is customers who have read this article. They will be extremely difficult to fool.”
For those of us looking for a reputable SEO consultant, this is the best advice we can accept-become knowledgeable about SEO basics, learn about what consultants can and cannot affect, and ask questions.
Take a look at the article, and then take a good look at your SEO plan. Make sure you won’t be on the receiving end of a “rip off” SEO service or consultant. You can find the above mentioned article here.
* Brandt Dainow is an independent web analytics consultant and the CEO of ThinkMetrics. He is not affiliated in any way with QuantumDigital.
