Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when folks search for services and products rather than simply company names. The idea is that people trying to find things online are able to search out a business website with virtually no prior knowledge of the business or its name. You’ll find all manner of tricks and techniques which fall under SEO, however the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called “white hat SEO”) are based around the notion of making your site easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.

It really is not uncommon to determine to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies as well as other companies, but you will discover far too many dodgy types available who like to take companies seeking SEO – especially local and smaller companies – for a really expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a good, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?

It really is actually incredibly easy to locate a decent SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in “SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid ads at the top, whichever firm has landed at the very best of the search results are what you want – they has to be very good at SEO or their very own website wouldn’t be so high within the natural listings!

To narrow things down a bit, you can try extending your search. Say you are living in Essex and want a local agency – just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or maybe if your web page is specialised and also you want particular help with it you may add your industry or site type – “SEO tourism” or “SEO eCommerce” for example. This will likely be a great way to find niche SEO agencies who have specialist expertise in your field.

Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try and solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it is best to ignore it – if a business which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their very own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they aren’t great. The exact same is true of SEO services advertised on paid advertisements at the top of internet search engines or on banner ads on other web sites. If their search digital marketing is any good, what makes them having to pay for their placements?

Something else to bear in mind is to steer well clear of the SEO agency that promises you “top position for x keywords” or something similar. Virtually all modern major search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everyone sees sites in slightly different ranking positions depending on their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this sort of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO will use sustainable “white hat” techniques as a way to bring useful traffic to your web site, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, which could constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google’s infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.

Once you have found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you will need to ask them some questions before you decide to leap into their services. And additionally the normal checks like existing client list and testimonials, it’s a good idea to speak to someone directly on the telephone or even in person.