SEO is a critical aspect of Internet Marketing.  If you have a website or a business that is looking to start a website, it is a good idea to do SEO on it.  While I’m sure some of you have had tons of emails come in from SEO “consultants” guaranteeing that they can get you a top spot on Google. What you may not be aware of is that it’s almost impossible to guarantee anything – especially SEO results. In the end, Google makes the decisions who is ranked and how they are ranked, depending on factors such as inbound links, quality of a website’s content, the structure of the site and so much more. If you are looking for a good SEO consultant/company here are a few things to consider during your search:

1. Have you received a cold call? – If you have a consultant cold calling you trying to get you to use their service, you need to stop and think. If they were really good at online marketing, don’t you think it would have been YOU who found them? Not the other way around. This, right away, should be a huge Uh-Oh and red flag to stay away.

2. Was that an email blast? - This again is another Uh-Oh red flag – the same as cold calling. You should be the one finding your SEO consultant, not the other way around. If they are emailing you trying to get you to use their services, they obviously aren’t doing there job. So why would you hire them?

3. Do they have their own website? – Sometimes people claim that they can work wonders and get you to the top of search engine results. They may even have examples to share with you. The story is though, unless you have spoken to their past clients there’s no real way to tell if they are legitimately telling the truth. If the SEO Consultant doesn’t have a website with past work and examples, those examples could be fraud. There are people in the world who actually lie. So beware!

4. Are the prices too good to be true? If you have a consultant that will do SEO for less then $200.00 per month, I don’t think they are are going to do what you really need. A good SEO Consultant will need at least 15-20 hours a month to write great content and work their magic. Someone who comes to you saying they will get you 100 links for $30.00 might get you 100 links, but they are going to get you horrible easy low-pr links. Even if they say they are going to get you high quality links, it’s impossible to get you that many links for that cheap. Remember, you get what you pay for, so watch carefully what you’re spending (even if it sounds like a great deal).

5.  Do they have negative online reviews? If you search a company and on the first page you see a bunch of bad reviews, that’s a big No-No. First off, if your good at SEO, you would know how to push bad reputation to the back burner so no one can find it (unless they really dig). Every company will most likely have a hater. There are an endless amount of people in this world, all with significantly different opinions about how to do business, especially when it comes to their business.  So having one or two negative comments isn’t the end of the world. Just compare them to the positive feedback to make sure that they have less than 5% negativity. If you think of it on a larger scale – companies like Apple and Google have their haters who blog and post negative reviews and rants all the time; but we still use them, right? Why? Because they are also mostly known for the great work and service they put out into the world.

6.  How good is their website? Anyone can throw a website up. Above, I said to make sure that they HAVE a website, but don’t just use that as a gauge by itself. Make sure to consider the quality of their website along with the rest of the items on this list. You want to work with a company who shows that they know the web. Having a website that is pleasing to the eye, easy to navigate and memorable for users are all indicators that the SEO company has somewhat of an idea of the website industry and those they are working for.

7. Are they available now? If an SEO consultant is really good, there will be a bit of a wait. If you call at 9:00 AM on a Monday and the company says they can start at 9:30 AM that day, that leaves some room for concern regarding where their time is being spent and how busy they actually are. Try to figure out how big of a company they are, how many staff members they have and the number of current clients they might be working for at the time.

8. Do they write original/unique content? This is a really important one. If you go to a company that asks you to write the articles, that’s a huge No-No. Unless you have someone who specializes in SEO content writing, they should be writing it. Now, coming up with ideas, or telling you to come up with a concept before they complete the task isn’t that bad. But if a SEO company asks you to put your content together from start to finish and don’t revise what you wrote – that right there should tell you to run. Original content is everything in the world of SEO right now. Just like you, Google doesn’t want to read the same thing over and over again.

9. Do they understand SEO? The science of SEO changes every day. So SEO consultants have to be able to adapt and read up on all the new trends. In order for SEO experts to understand what they are doing, they need to stay up to date on the latest trends.  In order to get a better read on how much of an expert your potential SEO specialist is, act dumb and pretend like you do not know anything about SEO at all. Ask the company to send you a sample report that they send their customers every month. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but needs to have the information that you need. If your not sure what you should be looking for here’s what we suggest:

• Reviewing all of the data from all of the months they have worked on a site. Meaning: Traffic Analysis, Social Media Analysis (if they are doing social media as well), PR Ranking, Domain Authority, etc. You want to analyze this data and make sure the general number is up. Now it’s common that it may NOT go up every single month but if you were to make a chart, the average look should be inclining. If it’s horizontal or declining, you need to avoid the company or fire them pronto.
• Look for the keywords they are targeting with the average number of searches of the keyword, it’s difficulty (either out of 10 or 100) to obtain number 1 spot on the search engines, The rankings of the keywords each and every month, and the URL/URL’s that they are targeting for these keywords.

10. What’s their Rank? You know that old saying – “Do as I say, not as I do”?  Well, that doesn’t apply to SEO at all. If you’re going to be hiring a company to help you improve your SEO rankings and move up on the scale in terms of Google, Yahoo or Bing search results – you want to work with a company who practices what they preach. So make sure you check out where they stand in terms of search results.  If an SEO company isn’t putting in the effort to maintain their own rankings, why would they put the effort in to truly help you? Do as many searches as you can for the SEO companies you are looking into.  If they don’t come up on the first page of at least a couple types of searches, this is a huge No-No, so move on to the next search for a new SEO company.

SEO is like any other type of service on the market today – as a buyer you need to beware! You need to be aware of when you might be getting duped into making the wrong decision about going with an SEO company.  So the next time you’re looking for some SEO help, make sure to help yourself first, by making some detailed assessments/evaluations about your options.  A couple questions and a little bit of research go a long way.

Keeping your company’s SEO up-to-date can be one tough job. Just when you think you know it all, something about Google and their ranking system changes in an instant. That is why you have to stop thinking about the actual way Google functions, and begin to think about how you want Google to work for you.

This may sound difficult, but really all you need to do is put yourself in Google’s shoes; take charge of the task of ranking your own results, instead of having something else do it for you. Yes, Google’s algorithm comes in handy, however you have to understand exactly how it works if you want to be successful with your company’s SEO.

The way it works is one result usually gets clicked on more than others. The user, more often than not, browses the initial page for a few seconds at maximum, and then navigates back to the results page, to find an alternate result.

In the meantime, there are other results that receive a lot of clicks too. Typically, when users click on the next result they tend to explore the page longer, and in some cases they won’t even go back to the main results page to search for anything else. They also do not alter what they are looking for. So the question is, which page is really more suitable in terms of content for their specific investigation?

Now, is when you must ask yourself if bounce rate should be a legitimate ranking factor. The ability to view both pages to decide which is better is in your hands. At this time you have to begin to think outside of the box—imagine that you are the Google algorithm, and you are in charge of ranking worldwide data for all of these information seekers. You also have over 200 signs that assist you in concluding which page should receive higher rankings.

Although Google’s algorithm may not specifically use bounce rate, they are using something that is relevant to it. It is known that the algorithm serves as a ranking system which utilizes a bounce back to the path of the SERP. However, it is unclear whether or not Google is actually using bounce rate as a factor, or if they are using a similar or specific part of it.
There have been many commentators and speculations from SEO experts about what tactics Google has chosen to go with. Google’s very own Matt Cutts had suggested in a video that bounce rate is not in any way used in their algorithm as a ranking tool. He sort of danced around the subject picking and choosing his words cautiously.

Although there may be many theories and educated suggestions behind the Google algorithm, it is not known exactly what goes into the making of the new Panda update. This just means you really have to concentrate on creating your page to be the best of the best.

You want your page to be the solution to the problem that the users are experiencing. In reality, that is the main focus of search ranking normally. All search indicators aside, you still want to make sure that you are distributing top notch solutions for the inquiry.

Remember, you want to prevent visitors from exiting your page, before they are even able to finish what they were looking to do. So stay on your tip-toes when it comes to keeping your site updated with its best content. Make sure that you give them the answer that they are looking for, that way they won’t have to go elsewhere to find it!

What are your feelings about bounce rate in the post-Panda atmosphere? Let us know its effects on you!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical when it comes to running your own business on the internet. One of your main objectives as a blogger or a webmaster should be to increase as much traffic flow to your website as possible. There is a greater chance of owning and operating a successful business and website with more publicity your content receives from the amplified traffic.

Here are some helpful SEO suggestions that you might want to try out!

Original Content

Ok, this might seem like it is an obvious tip that you have already picked up on. But, there are so many reasons why it is imperative to have your own quality and unique content up on your site. It may take a lot of research and time, but in the end it will all be worth it.

When you do research and spend time keeping yourself updated on the latest websites it may help to fuel your own fire and give you new ideas, which is so important because people do not want to read the same content that they saw on someone else’s blog, or see the same material that is on another site.

Furthermore, search engines are looking for unique content.  Bing, Google … you name it – they’re all crawling for unique content.

Keep your material unique and flavorful. Hopefully this will make it resonate with your site visitors and search engine crawlers, resulting in greater rankings for your website.

Keeping Up

One of the worst things you can do is let your own website fall behind because it has old content that no one is interested in anymore.

As a blogger, you should make sure that you keep yourself updated with current news. If anything, as a blogger, it is important to be one step ahead of the game and get brand new information before anyone is aware of it or has published it.

This also is true if you have a website for your company. It is good to ensure to your visitors and customers that you are up to date with current technologies that they are searching for. Stay on your toes and work hard to provide your site visitors with fresh information and that will be a sure way to gain traffic for your website.

Just make sure not to slack off; the internet and technology are constantly changing, so just because you may want to take a break, think again!

Social Media Marketing

Now, more than ever it is very important that you are participating in social media marketing. Almost everyone has hopped onto the social media craze whether it is via Twitter, Facebook, etc. So it is important for your blog or business that you stay connected with the community. Social media is a great and simple way to bring in more traffic.

Google has also introduced Google Real Time Search, which is very useful when it comes to SEO. The way that it works is when something is typed into a Google Search the results that appear feature the most current Tweets and messages about a topic. The search results also contain links from sites such as Twitter, which encourages the visitors to interact with your website.

So the more that you participate on social media websites, the better it is to bring in traffic to your own page.

Hopefully these tips are useful to your blog or your business. Let us know if you have any insight on what could boost SEO.