Looking at an SEO Company’s Portfolio
By: Gabriel Gervelis
Here’s 3 Questions to look for when reviewing an SEO Company’s portfolio.
1. Is this SEO Company going to put me on the top of the right pile?
Don’t be impressed when SEO companies show you that they ranked a website on the first page of a SERP over millions of results. The fact is, that number does not mean much. Remember when it comes to SEO, it’s always “Quality over Quantity”. On the top right of the SERP, you’ll see a display reading “Results 1-10 of XXXXXXXXX”. This is the number of web pages that have the keyword (or keyword phrase) found in a web page’s content, not the number of actual competitors in this index. This number could read 1,234,000 and only 240 web pages are properly optimized. This works the other way as well, the number could read 194,000 and have over 20,000 web pages properly optimized.
In this case the SERP with 194,000 results is the more aggressive market.
2. How much traffic will do their clients see from the SEO campaign?
Just because a site is ranking on the top of an SERP, it doesn’t mean the site is seeing traffic from the ranking. When an SEO company shows you their client’s rankings, ask them how much traffic they are seeing. Don’t get confused with how many times the keyword is searched for. Any SEO company can rank a website under ineffective keywords that sound good, but doesn’t get traffic to your site.
3. What does the SEO Company do to achieve their rankings?
When an SEO company shows you their client’s rankings, knowing the work they did to achieve these rankings is vital. Sometimes the SEO Company can’t take credit for the success, however they think they can.
For example
Client X publishes articles in print magazines. As an added benefit, the magazine companies link to Client X’s website. Over the years, Client X builds hundreds of links. Then, Client X hires SEO Company Y, SEO Company Y changes a few words in the meta tags and before you know it, Client X is on the first page of an SERP. Did SEO Company Y really give them their ranking?
Good luck with your SEO ventures!
March 20th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Very usuful blog as a business we are developing a new sub-brand and the decision whether to use SOE at 13k a year or just simply use ad words was one that we need to get right. Therefore this information will help me nail down the SOE company to what they can deliever for 13K.
thanks
Chris