Convincing Businesses That Not All SEO’s Are Snakes!
Its been quite a busy time since the last time I posted on my personal blog! But more about that another time, fortunately I’ve had some help in getting this blog moving again.
This is a guest post written by Peter Unitt is the Managing Director of Polished Media, an online marketing company that provides solutions for small businesses across the UK. Peter has provided succesful results for all sizes of businesses although his expertise lies with small business and local search.
Here, Peter is going to talk about convincing businesses that not all SEO’s are snakes.
I come in to contact with a lot of business owners and in particular small business owners and when talking about SEO I quite often hear comments about so called SEO companies’ cold calling them offering their services. Now I’m not saying that SEO companies shouldn’t cold call people however the problem surrounding this is the stigma attached with this method.
I know from experience that a lot of companies that do this are 9/10 from a sales background, perhaps they have been involved in sales for an internet marketing company that provides business directory listings or the like. The problem lies here, many of these sales people are money orientated, the more they sell the more money they make, they don’t care if the customer is happy at the end of the day, they just want your money. This is the type of person who will cold call companies on the assumption that the person they are calling will have little to no knowledge of SEO.
The people who I speak to generally fit this category and can sometimes be convinced that the services they offer will get them the results they desire, only to find out months down the line that the traffic and conversions on their website is little to no different. When calling to complain the answer they get is that they are ranking, and generally they will be, but for some obscure term that might as well be a made up phrase for the amount of searches it gets.
Many of the companies I speak to will often lose their confidence of SEO as an industry after such experiences and this is where it is damaging the industry for the real companies. In fact many SEO companies will agree that it is now that little bit harder to get customers on board because we now have to convince some companies that we are the real deal and that SEO as an industry is really a valuable thing for a business.
One of the things I try to do at Polished Media is educate small business owners on the risks of these companies, how to spot one and who are the really good SEO companies. Here are some of my main pointers.
• Always ask what terms you are going to appear for (sounds obvious but the people I have spoken to often forget to ask).
• Make sure you get the name of the company you are buying SEO services from and do some research on the Internet, searching for things like [company name reviews] or [company name scam] or even just the company name on its own will often bring up results or problems people have had. If no results show then I would still be wary, you want to find positive and glowing reviews.
• Ask other business owners if they have had any experience with a certain company or if they know of a reputable one. Word of mouth referrals are still the most important way for real SEO companies to gain business.
• SEOmoz have their own SEO company directory as do Blogstorm for UK businesses. You will find some great companies here.
Paddy Moogan
Paddy is an SEO Consultant working for Distilled in the London office.
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