Hi there,
Top 10
------
1. An understanding of incoming links and their affect on Google
results.
2. A willingness to put in the really hard work of getting those
incoming links - not via automated schemes, but manually and
legitimately. If they want a fee for each link they ask for, that's
alright.
3. The proposal should give you the impression that they have
investigated your industry and your competitors.
4. They should give you some options of how they can do it. Usually
the options range from keyword tweaking, to copy re-writing, to site
re-design.
5. They should have a website and it should look professional.
6. They should provide current evidence of where their SEO work is
providing high rankings. If their own site is top 10 for "search
engine optimization", without cloaking, then that's pretty good.
7. They shouldn't be too cheap. If they are less than $US40 an hour,
and are established, be suspicious.
8. Their proposal should include more than just the initial work. With
Google, for example, it can take a month or two for ranking to
improve, and further tweaking is usually necessary.
9. They should offer to provide you with reports on how well their
optimizing is going - it shouldn't be left up to you to find out.
10. If your pages are created dynamically, they should suggest a means
of making them more friendly to search engines.
Warning Signs
-------------
1. Guarantees of position. Pay for performance is okay, but seeing as
Google etc can change their algorithms overnight, most pro SEOs won't
even do that.
2. The SEO telling you which phrases or keywords they are going to
target, without explaining why and showing evidence.
3. Mentioning of more 10 search engines (unless they are also
targeting a language other than English).
4. Ongoing fees for maintaining #1 position - they are proabably
talking pay-per-click.
5. Any talk about certainty, any use of the word "definitely". Even
the most skilled SEO relies on a touch of luck.
6. Any mention of "cloaking" - it's wrong, it's deceptive, it's
cheating.
7. Any proud mention that they use software like WebPositionGold. It
has it's uses, but aside from getting reports on keyword density,
SEO's don't need fancy software.
Search strategy: personal experience - I work in the SEO industry.
Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
robertskelton-ga
on
15 Jul 2003 22:19 PDT
Hi Jon,
a) I have had sites get double their number of hits after paying to be
listed at Yahoo. It's a ROI thing... Say for arguments sake that a
Yahoo listing gets you 20% more visitors - is that worth $299 per year
to you? Now that Yahoo own Overture, Inktomi, AltaVista and AlltheWeb,
you would expect that, one day, being in the Yahoo directory will
positively affect ranking on those engines.
In general, if you are willing to pay for a SEO, then it's also worth
you paying to be in Yahoo. Look at the category they suggest, and see
if you can find a better one. Higher up the hierarchy is better.
b) A lot of webmasters believe that if you just pay for the home page
to be indexed, the search engines will index the rest of your site
anyway - they just won't re-index the whole site every two days.
Usually just pay to have pages included that either have changing
content, or that you wish to tweak for better ranking, by changing the
copy, title etc.
c) One to one reciprocal links are fine, as long as they are genuine.
Make sure the links aren't on a page full with just links. Ideally
have the link appear within content. If Google sees a site on topic A
having a link on a page full of links pointing to a site on topic B,
and vice-versa, it won't think much of it. Probably won't penalize
you, but probably won't be worth the effort either. Do what's best for
your visitors, and Google will be happy.
d) Hierarchal linking is great. Works best like Yahoo's directory, but
with every page physically existing in the top level directory. Make
sure your site has a site map, and keep the links on it to less than
50. If your site has more than 50 pages, have a multi-page site map.
(Google only looks at the first 50 links on a page).
e) On my current project I was asked, what should we do in terms of
SEO work to the site, before I step in as SEO. I said, apart from
structure, I don't care, I'm almost certainly going to change whatever
you do. Most SEOs feel compelled to tinker, even if what is already
there is fine.
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