Hiring An SEO Company – Don’t Bring A Knife To A Gunfight. By Barry Byers At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

I don’t know how many times we quote a prospective client and when they compare our rates to competitive “SEO” companies they wind up hiring the “cheaper” agency without doing their homework and making their decision based on price alone.

Why would they hire us when the agency they did hire can produce a 1000 links in 30 days or put them in 100 directories in 24 hours and all for the low price of $500 bucks. Awesome! Another one I like is the “We can put you on page one of the major search engines for 10 keyword terms, guaranteed!” Amazing!

Well, in short time the client realizes what we all know, you get what you pay for. The links are completely useless and can be dangerous for that matter. Your directory links are buried inside some inconsequential link farm and your page one ranking is on MSN. Woohoo! (Well they did say one of the Major search engines.)

Do you really believe that using some automated submission service or outsourcing your SEO overseas will provide you with better results than a logical, consistent, ethical SEO company is capable of? As in most cases, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Yes, you may be on page one quickly because they are using some black hat techniques and Google hasn’t caught up to them yet. Better still, they may have some success with a loooong tail keyword but in the end, it’s all about hard, consistent work. Shortcuts will get you into trouble and do you really want to be the one explaining to your boss how your corporate brand has been tarnished (as security walks you to the door).

Frankly, we see numerous clients who have already spent 4-5K on SEO and you couldn’t see the SEO on their sites, never mind the ranking. So it is no wonder clients are gun shy about forking out more money.

You need to do your homework when hiring an SEO company.

• Make sure you are talking about Google results, Yahoo! or MSN are secondary
• Search Google for serious keyword terms they have been optimizing for.
• Ask for phone numbers of several satisfied clients.
• Ask for resumes of the people actually handling your account?
• Will they be completely transparent with you?
• Will they teach you or your staff so they understand what is going on?

If the keyword terms for your industry are highly competitive, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Don’t hire a nickel or dime agency to save money, it will only cost you more in the end and may get you banned from Google. Make sure the agency has the proper resources to complete your project on time. You may have to pay more initially but you won’t have to start over again six months from now. Six months in which your competitors are stretching their lead on you.

Besides, bringing a knife to a gunfight…only works for James Coburn, but now I’m dating myself.

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