How to Avoid 5 SEO Buying Mistakes
November 20, 2011
1. Guarantee’s
Some SEO firms use marketing gimmicks such as ’100% Money Back Guarantee on Page One Rankings’ – This certainly sounds like a wining situation, doesn’t it? In reality, you should exercise caution because when you hear these guarantees:
a) If an SEO firm is going to have to give you your money back unless they provide you with page one search engine rankings, they are going to be extremely conservative in how they will approach optimising your website.
b) If they concentrate on page one rankings they will not be aligned with your company’s internal goals which will not be to ‘get on page one on Google’ but instead to actually generate business from Google.
These are quite different goals. If an SEO firm needs to get you to page one rankings to fulfil their guarantee, they will most likely choose to focus on certain keywords that do not have much competition so their payment is secured when they reach this page one target. How does this hurt you? You’ll have page one ranking, but zero ROI. Getting to page one for an obscure keyword term won’t make any financial difference to your business and should never be the ultimate goal. Your goal and your SEO provider’s goal should be focused on generating revenue by increasing online visibility.Rather than looking for a company that guarantee’s page one results, choose an SEO provider that can demonstrate a positive return on investment from their optimisation work. (I.e. ask this question of a potential SEO provider, “Given how much money your client X has spent on SEO, how much additional revenue has this generated for them?”).
2. No Experience in Your Industry
It’s fair to say that a lot of SEO people are techie-geeks. This means that they might not understand exactly how your industry operates and does business. The only way you can find out if they understand how to generate revenue for your business is to talk through some of the customer case studies that an SEO company has. Also, they should be able to understand how a prospect makes a sale. Why is an understanding of your industry a vital key? Let’s take a look. The Journey of a SaleWhen a potential customer decides to buy from you they will have taken a specific online journey, and understanding what that journey entails is vital to strategic SEO. First, they are going to start by using specific search terms that are unique to your industry. This is how they will find your website. For example, if you sell men’s fashion and your current goal is to sell more ‘men’s suits’, an inexperienced SEO company might decide to target the term ‘suits’ since this term receives the most traffic. However, experience proves that search traffic for the term ‘suits’ is much too generic. Individuals typing in this keyword are far from being ready to make a purchase. ‘Suits’ will also be highly competitive, being just one word. The best SEO strategy would be to start with a highly targeted keyword phrase, such as ‘men’s suits online’ which will provide you with a steady stream of potential new customers, while at the same time filtering out the following:
1. People searching for women’s suits
2. People searching for children’s suits
3. People who cannot spell and are searching or furniture, such as ‘bedroom suites’
4. People looking for a brick and mortar storefront (not good if you only sell online)
If the SEO Company understands your industry they will know what the buying cycle is and what terms or keyword phrases individuals tend to type in when they are close to making a purchase. Ask your potential SEO provider the following question, ‘If a person wanted to buy product x from our store, what would they type in and why would they do this?’ – The answer you receive will very quickly reveal whether or not they truly understand your business. By having an understanding of your particular industry, your SEO provider will be able to work autonomously, targeting new keyword phrases as desired Google rankings are achieved with others. Without this clear and vital understanding you are going to have to watch over every move they make to ensure your investment is worthwhile. No one wants that burden, and as a business owner, your plate is already full.
3. SEO Supplier Takes Too Long to Achieve Page One Rankings
The time taken to achieve a page one ranking for a specific keyword will really show how good the SEO supplier is. They should be able to show a good track record of taking websites that do not rank on Google at all for a chosen keyword or keyword phrase and moving them onto page one. The time this takes on average should be no longer than 4 months. Most keywords can be optimised in four or less months unless you are targeting a very competitive keyword. If a SEO supplier tells you that a keyword is going to take more than 4 months then you should be also choosing a ‘building keyword’. For example if you want to be on page one for ’diamonds’ and your supplier tells you it will take 12 months to achieve this, then it would be better to achieve a ranking for ‘princess cut diamond’ in 4 months which will also be a stepping stone to the keyword ‘diamond.’ If your SEO provider simply focuses on the keyword ‘diamond’ then you won’t have the benefit of ranking through ancillary keywords and will most likely lose out on revenue in the interim.The key here is that your SEO supplier has a solid plan of action to achieve the desired goal.
4. Poor Turnover of Clients
A good SEO firm will have clients that have been with them for years. The only true testament to an SEO suppliers worth is how long a client has been with them. If an SEO firm can provide proof of multiple clients that have experienced years of positive results, they must be doing something right.Avoid companies that have little track record for SEO as it is likely they are just resellers who are brokering their service. These firms simply take your money ‘clip the ticket’ and outsource the work for a quarter of the price.
5. Not Willing to Give You a Trial Period
A valuable SEO company will have confidence in their work and know they can reach your goals. They will be willing to give you a trial of their services to prove it to you. This could be in the form of a minor keyword or on a smaller campaign you are running. They should be able to prove that their methods work. If an SEO company is unwilling to provide you with a trial offer, they are probably unsure of their own effectiveness and rely on the ‘woolliness’ surrounding SEO to dazzle or pressure you into doing business with them.