Question on SEO company

[MrPerrel]

Hello,
I've been talking with a company called www.internetadvancement.com and I was wondering if anyone has heard of them and if they are a reliable company to do business with.

Thanks

[asr_guy]

Hi MrP,
I recently searched, checked out references, and selected a SEO firm for one of my clients. Here are some questions that are still fresh in my mind:

Did you get recent references from them?
Did you ask them what their process is?
What internal tools do they use to track projects, people, tasks?
What is their change process. When a client decides to change requirements, for example.
How do they keep current as SEO changes fast?
What is their vision?
Are they strictly SEO or also into SEM?
Have you compared them with at least 2 other similar firms?
Do their customers' sizes and verticals align with yours?

Not a comprehensive list but maybe some things you have not checked.

Oh and one more thing - try use Google to find them. I did and found this:
http://www.rankforsales.com/n-ay/711-seo-aug-13-04.html Hmmm...

Regards,
Peter

[InfoSourcing]

Hi Perrel,

As Peter pointed the right questions to ask/find out more about your SEO vendor, adding to the list
1. Do they have experience in optmizing static/dynamic websites
2. What kind of visible results are available on search engines (Internet Advancement has few results on their website) it is always worth calling few customers and knowing more about the vendor.

Also you need to understand SEO is a practice and no guarntees that your site will always stay on top results, if that happens lot of companies go out of business including Google, one has to keep the practice on-going and update the sites as alogrithm changes and explore new avenues.

If you want to get a generally idea about SEO and its process, please do visit this link http://www.info-sourcing.com/SEO_SEM.htm

[MrPerrel]

Thanks for the info, I will look more indepth. I'm driven off of cumpulsive deals and I like to take the first thing that comes to my mind. I realise that I have to slow down and really think about who I can trust on this toppic. I emailed Lon Safko (seminars instructor) and he refered me to a guy based on SEO.

Thanks again

[mikey h]

I used to work in seo sales and things I would ask for are a couple of long term clients in similar situations/ markets to yourself to speak to. I would not worry if there own site is ranked well, we used to have a nightmare if we got a good listing withnthe phone ringing off the hook with people asking to top of Google for $100. The proof of the pudding is where there clients rank for generic search terms not brand names and how many clients they retain each year!
Good Luck
mike
www.sophieandgrace.co.uk

[MrPerrel]

I've been talking with this guy from a firm and he has quoted us at $4000 to have us set up for 1.5yr package. I also talked with another firm and they quoted us at $8-9000 (billed on hourly basis), is this normal? They both will recode our site and set up our linkage. The company for 4000 said we will get to choose one keyword, does that mean that the keyword we will choose is the one that their business will be based off of?

[mikey h]

These sound expensive, We used to charge £12,000 for 10 keywords and had clients such as Mercedes benz uk first direct bank and other blue chip corparations. Can you have the option to change keywords some deliver huge traffic without sales and vice versa you need flexibility. Can you get performance related payments involved such as X no of rankings producing Y of sales we will pay Z. see if they are prepared to put their money where their mouth is and back their own ability.
mike
www.sophieandgrace.co.uk
exclusive lingerie

[MrPerrel]

I still dont quite understand what the mean when they say you get one keyword or 10 keywords, does that just mean howmany they guarantee to be listed high?

[dmscs]

Some of the fee's mentioned in here are just disgusting. Many an SEO firm will talk about ROI or return on investment. I practice the investment on return rule.

Another thing that gets my goat, is the theory of keywords and selling against them i.e 10 keywords for £10,000. Utter poppy cock. It seems that the use of keywords in the SEO industry is just another lever in the salesmans tool box. What ever professional website owner wants is their content from their website to be read to convert visitors to sales. The content drives the traffic not the keywords. The use of keywords is so over rated. Keyword someone get the definition and quote it to the SEO's. Keywords have their place but its not where it used to be.

Many SEO firms do not understand about file size or standard compliance code, they would rather blind a potential website owner with figures on density of keywords etc. Which is all very well if they are selling PPC but to market a website for natural results in the search engine, takes a different approach.

Finally, the major search engines would prefer it if SEO firms did not exist and let their search engines do the job of indexing. As an industry the SEO world has a wake up call coming and it is not going to be nice when they realise that their business models are based on something that really does not exist. Just like waking up and finding that all the advertising hordings in your town have been taken down overnight? Who is going to sell what then?

[EWB-James]

Exactly, dmscs. My advice is to do some research within your company and skip the fees. Stay away from schemes, FFL, and black-hat practices.

The real secret to SEO has much less to do with keywords and more to do with content. SEO tends to limit your reach, and dillute your sales copy.

It is a constantly evolving game, and all the engine companies are implementing things to block SEO entirely, and go back to the original rule of the internet

CONTENT IS KING!

[JMaguire]

Hi all,

For more info about getting SEO help, check out these recent E-Commerce Guide articles:

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solut...le.php/3568451

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solut...le.php/3570231


They include impartial tips from some of the best in the business.

And watch out for the black hats -- there are a lot of them out there!

[tcwicks]

Like the man said

SEO can be approached from two points of view:
1) How to cheat the system
2) How to make the system work for you.

Consider that a search engine ranks your site based on what it sees through it's eyes.

The cheat the system strategy is basically dependant on how to fool the system by giving it beer goggles. Causalties of this approach include link farming, Keyword spam etc... basically cheating the system only works for little while cause the system keeps getting better.

How to make the system work for you strategy is base on numerous factors and is a lot harder than the quick fix cheat the system method. The plus side is that the effects tend to last a lot longer. It's all about simple concepts. Look at the site from the eyes of a search engine and give it what it wants without making the poor search engine work so hard for it.
For example:
URL's
Search engines do not like frames so do not use them
Search engines do not like sites where the URL for every page is the same so do not do this
Search engines like meaningfull urls so give that to them:
For example
1) www.yourdomain.com/default.aspx?a=bcf&id=321
For a search engine this means that your page is about your domain, bcf, and 321
2) http://www.yourdomain.com/default.as...pes/apple_pie/
For a search engine this means that your page is about your domain, recipes and apple pies
it is obvious which is better.

Alt tags, and title tags are another really cool place to put meaningfull keywords.
etc. etc. etc...
There is a huge long list of what to do and the full list is another story entirely

Tikiri

Web application development

[marc77]

The real secret to SEO has much less to do with keywords and more to do with content.

If you considered this advise, you have the half way done :-)

Hands off from companies promising you being in the top-10 of certain keyword combinations on search engines - these are usually black hat methods leading sooner or later to the ban of your website.

[RustyGary]

Just remember, no one can guarantee first page organic search results. And avoid doorway page/doorway sites.

[wedwsd]

Thanks .