Perhaps to the uninformed, the job of putting websites to first page of search results or raising its ranking for particular keywords is a one-time order, a one-time event. But for us, SEO practitioners, we knew that it takes time and effort and continued monitoring to raise websites rankings in an organic or unpaid search. You cannot even consider it a long event like a marathon or a fun run because at the end of the day, you have to stop and rest because the event is done and you had already achieved your goal, which is to reach the finish line. Rather, SEO is a daily walk, a daily commute, a continuous process to get things done at the end of the day, but in the morning you have to start again because you have to go to work, to the grocery store, school, to anywhere you want to have business with.
There are a lot of things to consider when optimizing commercial sites for business purposes. To name a few, we have on site optimization, off site optimization, and technical optimization.
- On site optimization is primarily the things you put on your page and how to strategically put your keywords or your business niche to target particular market. The local contents and the corresponding keywords are important aspects of on-site optimization. Tags and codes for text are optimally arranged or indexed can be easily picked up by search engine crawlers. However, there are contents like pictures and videos that do not contain keyword by themselves. On site optimization put alternative descriptions for contents to tell the search engine crawlers that this particular content is about this particular topic.
- Off-Site optimization refers to the reputation of your site based on other credible and reputable and trusted websites. This means that your links in these sites are like scores which signals crawlers that your page is relevant as it appears to other websites. The more you inbound links you have, the higher your score. Off-site optimization is usually done in social media platforms where there are abundant user-generated contents. Government and academic sites are also a good provider of inbound links for off-site optimization because these sites are considered non-profit oriented and are regarded as trusted websites. However, link building is an outmoded strategy for off-site optimization. It is frowned-upon by search engines because this method was abused by too much automation by SEO practitioners in the past. Credible and acceptable in-bound links can only be earned by making or writing a worthy content worth sharing.
- Technical optimization refers to the optimization of your site codes in terms of speed and functionality. Is your website takes too long to load? Are there broken links that brings users to blank pages? Is your site mobile friendly? These technical considerations should be considered by SEO practitioners before launching.
Reading reviews of SEO firms available online will help you determine the bulk of your needs depending on which consideration you would like to focus on. SEO results may vary depending on your set goals for your site. If you are aiming for the coveted first rank in your key word niche, then, you may get positive result maybe perhaps after 8 months or so. If you are only aiming for movements of your keywords in your identified business niche, then probably you may see result after a month. You should bear in mind that rankings are not the end of things in your small business SEO campaign. Rankings can serve as good yardstick to measure your success milestone in executing a campaign. Conversions like transactions completed, executed orders, filled out forms among others are considered a good measure of result of your executed campaign.
Now that you have considered SEO as indispensable marketing strategy for your business, you are most likely to look for SEO Firm to achieve better result. And because you will spend a considerable amount of resource for their services, it is always wise to look for their cases studies. It will also be helpful to ask for any references and ask them how frequent the interaction with the SEO company they hired. Was the company able to achieve the goals set according to the contract? Look deeper into the kind of reports these SEO firms have furnished their clients.
But why are you going to hire an SEO firm to do the job for you? As a small online enterprise, they are a lot of advantages why you ought not to do your SEO campaign yourself. You should let someone who knows SEO by heart because of the following reasons:
- Best SEO Firms can create user-friendly websites because they specialize in improving and giving best user experience for web users. A good or high user satisfaction for your site means bigger chances of conversion
- Outsourcing your SEO needs can save you a sizeable amount of company resource. You do not have to shell out money for training and for SEO software (although later on you may invest on these things for continuity). When your small online business is just on its infancy, better leave the nitty-gritty of SEO to the expert.
- Your SEO consultant could give you a better picture of your customer behavior. You can peek into their needs and respond correspondingly. SEO companies employ sophisticated tools to mine these data which are essentials in your business growth plans. These tools can also give you an insight for explore-able business opportunities.
- Your SEO firm can give you a battery of effective marketing strategies that can capture opportunities for businesses related to your niche
Considerations to Look for in an SEO Firm for Your Small Business
The World Wide Web is like an open market where products abound. Fake and low-quality products mixed up. The internet, because of its inclusivity, is not immune to scammers and fake service providers who will just take your money and disappear like bubbles leaving you empty handed. They are firms that will do everything. They will claim everything that they are the best, but their strategies are questionable and can do more harm than good to your business. When considering the SEO firm that will run your campaign, you should take note of the following reminders:
- Don’t fall to too-good-to-be-true offers. Like in real life, when something is too good to be true, then it’s not probably true. To get credible high page ranking, you have to invest time and effort and the quick and easy way to the top by purchasing links is not the proper way to do it. If the consultant promised to put your site on the first page within a very short time by purchasing link package, stay away and look for other firms.
- Look for references of success stories and ask for records of case studies. A good SEO company has an organized record of case studies they have handled. Ask them reports and examples of strategies they have executed with reliable data to back it up. Check their claim by searching on Google.
- Checking the track record and experience of an SEO company you tend to hire is equally important. Search Engine Optimization as an industry is very dynamic, trends and algorithms are changing fast. A company that has a long standing experience must have weathered all these changes to be able to last that long. Check the date of company’s registration as an SEO consulting firm. Check the location of their business just to be sure they are existing physically and not a fly by night scammers. You might as well ask who are the employees, who is the owner of the company, what is their reputations, and other details like if they are outsourcing their services. You should also ask what kind of deliverables they are likely to commit in a definite timeframe. Asking these kinds of details will be helpful.
- Choose only companies that practice white hat SEO. White hat SEO is the clean SEO that are acceptable to search engines terms. Online business who hired SEO firms that practice blackhat methods may bring result faster than legit SEOs would deliver. However, black hat SEO is can bring more irreversible damage than good to your business because search engine algorithms would catch the shady methods and will punish your site severely.
As a business, your ultimate consideration is to hire an SEO Firm to benefit your firm. You should pick an SEO company who has a clear vision of the online presence of your business. A successful campaign would certainly spans over a long time, maintaining and readjusting to the changing needs of search engine optimization.
Visit our reviews of SEO firms at CrowdReviews.com to find SEO consultant that best fit your needs for the optimization of your small online business firm.
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