On Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company

A Search Engine Optimization Company specializes in improving your website’s search engine position, monitoring that position, and adjusting their strategies if undesirable results occur. Since the process is time-consuming and requires special knowledge, it’s preferable to use an outside source rather than try to do the job yourself. 

When deciding on which Search Engine Optimization Company to do this for you, there are certain things to consider. What approach, for example, does the company use to improve your position? Avoid companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to improve your position as these techniques violate most search engine policy. Your website can be penalized or even banned from the search engine index if you use such underhand methods. 

A cloaked page is one that is invisible to website visitors. The page is coded to detect and divert a search engine spider to the page, which is set up to artificially boost its rating. It’s the same with doorway and bridge pages which often reside on a different server. Google will not hesitate to remove your site from the index if unorthodox pages are found on your site. 

It’s important to get a guarantee from the company that it will not work with your competition while working for you. As you can imagine, this would compromise the effectiveness of your search engine optimization program. Get your guarantee in writing. 

Another essential element is the company’s track record of results. Don’t accept the company’s word on this. Ask specific questions and verify the answers. 

Check the engines that have supposedly given the company best results. The important ones are the most popular engines, so these are the ones you’d expect to get good results with. 

Find out the keywords and phrases the company is claiming great results with. Note if the claim is associated with unpopular words, or the popular words likely to give you good results. You can easily determine the popularity of certain words yourself by the software Wordtracker, which can be used on a free trial basis. 

Next, evaluate the results on an entire site that the company claims success with. You should see results on different search engines for a variety of different keywords and phrases. See if a client report is available in support of the company’s claim. 

Ensure the company will monitor your pages on a monthly basis by asking them for documentary evidence showing that this has been done for a specific company. The report should include findings and recommendations made for that site. 

Ask the company for references as this will be a reliable indicator of the company’s worth. You should expect to be provided with at least references, one past reference and on recent. 

On contacting the references, ask precise questions and determine their experience with dealing with the company along the lines of support and ability to meet deadlines. What would be their overall rating of the company? Did the work the company did for the references result in higher profits for the references? 

These are just a few of the elements to consider when seeking a Search Engine Optimization Company to improve your website’s search engine position.