Having been through quite a few search engine optimization consultants, I wanted to write an article to share what I have learned. The whole idea of optimizing my website to get search engine traffic was traditionally pretty foreign to me. I guess I never really took any time to try to understand the process or even wonder why one site will out rank another on the search engines.
I always saw the need to have my site rank well, but thought it was kind of luck of the draw. Having my information in front of someone that is searching for the services I offer at the very moment they are looking to buy is an excellent sales strategy. For this reason, I have spent quite a bit of money and time trying to make this happen.
From what I have seen, there are three different search engine optimization consultants that offer services.
The first of which is someone that is very inexpensive that will, for lack of a better word, blast out links to a million different websites. The search engines view all this activity as a major announcement or news story, and they rank your website really high. However, this is only temporary and it doesn’t take them long to figure out what happened. As soon as they do, they basically remove all the links that were created from the equation. Some would suggest that they penalize you; however, I don’t believe this is the case. Instead, they simply disregard all the work your consultant put into the process. This type of consultant is very cheap so the money isn’t a big deal, but they do not produce any lasting results.
The second type of company is kind of a passive search engine consultant. They charge a reasonable monthly fee and work on your site a predetermined amount of time each month. Your keywords and site in general rise to the top slowly but surely. The major benefit of this process is the rankings that are achieved will remain. In other words, once you get to the top you should expect to stay there. The downside is it can take a while to get to the top. If you choose this type of company, have them target the easier keywords first so you get an immediate return on investment. From there, they can go after medium difficulty keywords and do the hard ones last. This way your traffic is always increasing as well as your profits.
The third type of search engine optimization consultants are very high end. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get very good results, but they do some pretty advanced stuff to your site to get people to link to you naturally. A good example of this is they produce very good content that people simply want to link to. Much like the second type of company, the high rankings will remain in place once they are achieved. However, this process can also take a very long time. The bad news with this is these firms charge a lot of money.
You should definitely consider either the second or third option and stay away from option number 1 at all costs. Your choice between the two should be based on your business and some other factors. If you can afford it, go with the high end option. If you are just looking for more exposure in a safe way, take the second option. The key to working with either of these search engine optimization consultants to communicate your wishes clearly and let them know exactly what you expect.