Got a website? Excellent! But now you need people to find it. That’s why some dudes invented Search Engine Optimization, a service that will help your website get found on the world’s popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Now you need to pick the best SEO service for your website.
There are literally thousands of SEO services available online, many of which have prven very successful, but how do you choose the right one? Here’s our guide to choosing the best SEO service and avoiding the pitfalls of picking the wrong service provider.
- Look at their past work.
A top SEO company that know what it’s doing will have a portfolio available to show you. There are two things to look out for here: firstly, if they show you lots of sensitive information from a previous campaign, ask yourself if you want them handling your private data, and secondly, make sure they show you some reliable statistics that you can check (i.e. if they say they reached #2 for “keyword X”, have a look and find out).
- Ask for a site audit.
A top seo company will have the software and the know-how to offer you a quick site audit before you commit to their services. Best SEO service providers will quickly be able to idenitify the problems and solutions available for your site and give you a reaosnable cost breakdown for the work involved. Remember that your website belongs to you and while the SEO professional will know best, you don’t always have to agree to everything they might wish to carry out. If your site is large, get quotes from more than one SEO company for comparison.
- Learn what search engine optimization is.
You don’t need to enrol in college, but you will get more out of a professional seo service if you learned the basics first. Try the Moz beginners guide to seo for starters and if you love what you see, start looking for more information on seo forums and internet marketing forums. The most important thing to know about SEO is that it’s an art not a science. There are no clear-cut right or wrong approaches and methods and different results can often stem from the same actions. Consequently, when you purchase seo services, you will need to keep maintaining the work in order to stay visible on search engines.
- Bespoke or off-the-rack?
Finally, you need to consider whether you’re looking for a bespoke seo service, i.e. one that is tailored to your website and needs, or whether an SEO package is more suitable. This question is really one of budgetary concerns as bespoke packages almost always cost more as a result of the extra man-hours required to put them together.
If your website is small or you are experimenting with SEO for the first time, you might want to try a few small pre-packaged seo services first. There are many places to find low-cost seo companies, such as fiverr.com and SEO Clerks. Check feedback scores and responses from previous customers before purchasing and don’t be afraid to ask sellers questions before you buy.
Now you know a little more about choosing the best seo service, dive in and get started on your epic ranking journey!