|
|
Determining the Value of Your SEO Service
Every once in a while--and probably more often than we should--we find ourselves reviewing our SEO pricing models. Pricing SEO has always been a real sticking point for me because there is no one-size-fits-all pricing metric. As I began our most recent review of our pricing something really starting to become quite obvious; search engine optimization is requiring more and more research and analysis than it ever did before.
After doing SEO for several years (since 1998) I recently put all of our regular SEO duties into a spreadsheet and noting the amount of time spent on each activity on a one-time basis, monthly basis, and a per-page basis (both one-time and monthly). This format allows me to quite easily see the man-hours and costs involved in each distinct duty that we perform over the course of an SEO campaign. It also allows me to see the changes that occur in our SEO processes.
A year ago, the bulk of our optimization occurred in the set-up phase, with the monthly optimization consisting of a few hours of link building, rankings monitoring and on-page tweaking. Now, the set-up is just a mere fraction of the hours that go into each optimization campaign. The continual analysis performed on each account every month does not exceed that of the set-up, but add a couple months worth of optimization together and it does. Expand that to a six or twelve month campaign and the man hours of research and analysis performed far exceeds the initial set-up process. And believe me, we do a considerable amount of research up front!
Differing Pricing Models Between SEO Companies
SEO providers come in all shapes and sizes. We often have potential clients come to me price shopping. They are not comparing our services with our competitors, but they are comparing our pricing with our competitors. In that battle we lose almost every time, and the reason for that is because there is always an "SEO" company that will work for less. With SEO, however, you usually get what you pay for. If you want a cheap service, you'll get cheap results.
"But isn't SEO all about top rankings? If firm X can provide top rankings for less, shouldn't I go with them?" This is standard fare from bargain shoppers, but the basic questions to ask yourself is this: do you want top rankings or do you want more business? Most SEO companies are in the business of achieving top rankings and everything else is not their problem. Even still, it is rare to find inexpensive SEOs that can achieve top rankings for competitive, high ROI terms, maintain those top rankings through constant algorithm changes, and continue to beat out your competition which are optimizing for the same keyword phrases.
If you're paying someone only a few hundred or even just a few thousand dollars each year to work on your site, how many man-hours do you really think they are giving you each month? When your site gets dropped or rankings mysteriously crash, how much time do they spend trying to find potential issues and problems? Even the best sites-and those optimized by the best SEOs in the world-can suddenly disappear from the search engines. Sometimes it's a temporary issue, sometimes it's because of something the client did, and sometimes it's due to other external factors. Whatever the reason, the SEO needs to thoroughly investigate so the issue can be corrected.
Continuous Optimization Services
Recently we've changed our overall outlook on the month-to-month SEO services we provide. This is largely due to the number of clients that come to us each month after having been penalized by one or more engines because of previous SEO work performed which ran afoul of the search engines. Rarely do these cases allow for a quick fix which puts them back into the top positions overnight. With the suspected Google sandbox, over-optimization penalties and aging delays, many of these sites must go through a rather lengthy period before they are placed back in the index and allowed to perform well in the search results, long after penalization issues have been resolved.
We look at what we provide similar to having an investigator on retainer. Our job, each month, is to continue to seek out potential problems that may now, or in the future, be keeping our client's sites from performing as best as they can possibly be. If our clients are not in the first page for all their targeted ROI phrases, then our job is to find out why. And then if they are not in the top 5, our job is to analyze what it takes to get them there. And if they are not in the top 3 then we need to see what the competition has going for them that our client doesn't. And if they are not in the Pole Position, our job is to find and eliminate all potential external barriers, no matter how small. And all of this must be done while maintaining the integrity, usability, and performance of the client's site.
Sometimes all this is as simple as finding a duplicate URL somewhere that we didn't know about and other times after months of research we find that a client links out to sites that link out to other sites using spammy techniques. These types of things have to be under constant analysis, even if a site performs well. Heading off problems before they occur is a big part of the SEO game, and plays heavily into pricing.
Pricing is a big deal for the average business owner and it should be. However, pricing alone should not be the deciding factor in which SEO provider you choose. Find out what services you'll be getting. If you get the impression that the SEO is done after a few hours of up front work, you may not be getting enough investigation for potential or existent, yet unknown, problems. This can cost you later on.
On the other hand, just because someone charges huge fees does not mean they'll do you well either. This is a symptom of many very large SEO companies. Do your homework and find the company that will treat you as their only client. If you get that kind of service, you will undoubtedly reap a very significant return on your investment.
Stoney DeGeyter is president of Pole Position Marketing, a professional search engine optimization and marketing firm based in Reno, NV, providing quality SEO services since 1998. Stoney has is also a moderator in the Search Engine Forums and Small Business Ideas Forum. You can read his SEM blog at (EMP) E-Marketing Performance. You can email him with any questions at stoney@polepositionmarketing.com
How to Build Massive Keyword Lists
As keyword marketing becomes more and more expensive and competitive, it has become essential when building your lists to focus on the maximum number of phrases and their variations that a surfer might enter into the search engines.
Get Traffic You Need - Make Your Links Work
So you have built a nice web site with good solid content and now want to start selling your products or services.
Adding Content To Your Site Every Day
If you have been a webmaster for more than a week, you've surely heard the saying "Content Is King". And it really is true! This article will explain why the regular addition of fresh content to your website is so crucial and explain several ways to do it easily and inexpensively (even free).
Marketing to Search Engines AND Humans
When you were just a young and precocious student of marketing, someone explained to you how to market to humans. "Know your target audience!" said the experts. "AIDA method!" they pressed on.
SEO = Search Engine Optimization, tips on successful page ranking
One of the key things to remember when developing your web-site presence is to always evaluate your competition. See what's working for them; how they market their products and services, and even evaluate their KEYWORD and DISCRIPTION tags.
Look Out MSN Search, Here Comes Gbrowser
It is official, the search engine wars are in full swing. On Tuesday, February 01, 2005 MSN officially rolled out its new search solution to all of its websites, including MSN.com. This comes on the heels of growing speculation that Google plans to launch its own browser, possibly in an attempt to attack Microsoft's greatest strength in Internet Explorer. Is it possible that MSN actually rolled out their search engine to prevent Google from doing the same thing they did to Yahoo! with the release of Gmail?
Search Engine Optimization for Beginners
If you are confused about terms like "search engine optimization" or having a "search engine friendly" site, then listen up! I am here to help.
Expert Help From Google Answers
Web users turn to search engines for answers to their questions. This is usually done through various levels of searching the engine's database. Sometimes though, no matter how hard they try, searchers can't find the information they need. Maybe they're not familiar with how to narrow and focus searches, or they may not have enough background in the subject they're researching to recognize the answer they need. Google Answers offers a solution.
PageRank for Websites: Is There More to the Web?
Google's PageRank has been around for years, and in the opinions of a lot of e-business owners, it can make or break a site. Lately, with Google's fingers in every pie, it seems important to remind everyone that there is more to a website than just PageRank. PageRank is a term that relates to the algorithm that Google uses to rank a website in its search engine. Coined by Larry Page, one of the engineers of Google, PageRank has come to mean so much to webmasters and SEO's that it dictates how we market a website. But let me coin a few terms of my own. (Or, borrow them from others, perhaps?) And while some of these concepts are included in the PageRank algorithm themselves, it's often helpful to be reminded that there are many factors that a webmaster should concentrate on, and not just one overwhelming aspect. It bothers me that Google's toolbar's PageRank indicator "measures the IMPORTANCE" of a page; important to them, perhaps, especially in light of the release of the Google Toolbar for Firefox on July 7th. But lack of PageRank doesn't mean that your site isn't important. So how do you let the search engines, Google in particular, know that? This article is a collection of the phrases that indicate the behavior of search engines today.
Internet 2005: The Ten Billions Pages Search Engines
To see each and every page during 10 seconds would take 694 days 24/24. The leading search engines fight to be the first that oversteps this level. In the meantime the key word "sex" has been typed about 20'000'000 times on the entire web and Google found 333'000'000 results for this query in January 2005.
Taking Advantage of Googles Sandbox Effect
Most new sites submitted to Google (at least within the last year or so) encounter a peculiar phenomenon known as the "sandbox effect" within about 2 weeks to one month after appearing in the index. Sites may very well rank relatively high in the index at first if the keywords associated with the site are not highly saturated. After about 2 weeks to one month, however, the ranking of most new sites drop significantly. In fact, it is not uncommon for a new site to appear in the number one position for a specific keyword or phrase (typically similar or the same as the website title) up until this drop-off point. For the next 2 ? 3 months, new websites are said to reside in the "sandbox," an abstract realm where new, fledgling websites are kept aside from older, mature websites in the index.
Analyzing Googles Backlinks Is Close To Worthless
Dont Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake
SEO consultants will tell you that you need to be in the Top 30 or you can pretty much give up any hope of getting a visitor to your web site.
SEO Made Easy!
Search engine optimization remains a minefield of old advice, outdated ideas and outright dangerous techniques that can get you banned. Here's the main points to great search engine optimization.
SEO For Ecommerce
Ranking well under the free listings in the major search engines basically mean one thing ? Lots of free, recurring, and targeted traffic. Major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN can be very powerful weapons in your internet marketing, if you know how to optimize your website to rank highly for your keywords. This article will focus on how you can optimize your website to rank on the top positions in search engines.
Stuck on Keywords
Keywords have turned into big business on the internet. If you pick the keywords that your customers are typing in, then your product is finally exposed to your perfect customer. That keyword is gold. Either you have run out of keyword ideas, you don't know where to look, you haven't had time, you need an easy to use tool, whatever the reason, I'm here to help.
Search Engines: Tips and Strategies on Getting Listed and Ranking High for Newbies
You've got a website. You've put countless hours into it, tweaking the look and feel and making sure all the links work. The bad news is there are a gazillion other websites out there. The good news is there are many things you can control to make sure your site isn't lost in the morass of dot coms.
Have You Been Dropped By Yahoo?
Yahoo has fairly recently updated its guidelines. You can read the full list at:
Complete Web-Site Optimization For Search Engines (Part 1)
SEO or search engine optimization strategy now becomes widely popular among online business operators. Nothing strange about it as it allows to substantially increase your gross income, as a result of growing traffic or visitors flow.
The 3 Essential Components of a Search Engine Optimization Campaign
Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 MILLION searches. In a recent Forrester Research report 81% of consumers on the Internet find products and services by using the Search Engines. Search Engine Optimization allows you to achieve top search engine placement and a tap into a new source of qualified visitors who are actively searching for products and services on the Internet.