What the heck is SEO and why do I need it?
If the goal of your website is to advertise your business or product, it's likely you'll want your website to attract new people who may be searching on the internet. Optimizing yourself on the search engines is one of the most effective ways of doing this. The term "SEO" or "SEM", effectively "Search Engine Optimization" or "Search Engine Marketing" is meant to offer just such a service. SEO takes time and consistency to be effective. Should you not have time to invest, a professional SEO/SEM service can also undertake this for you.
Should you be looking to outsource your SEO work, here are some important things to look for:
1) Most SEO companies will mention that they offer "white hat" services, meaning they don't use underhanded dirty methods to get the job done as this generally gets you blacklisted from the search engines. White hat is good.
2) Local may be better. If you're a Canadian company, make sure your SEO company has had experience with SEO in your country. American companies, for example, may claim they can provide SEO services in any country but miss out on some of the important local resources that they weren't aware of. We've even heard of one American company saying that there wasn't a local search engine resource for Yahoo in Canada. Um, hello? Yahoo.ca?
3) As much as your SEO company might try to convince you, SEO does not necessarily need to be done every month. Well of course, the more the better, but if your industry is in a small uncompetitive market where things don't change often on the search engines, once every few months may also do the trick. So check constantly and if you see your listing being pushed down or disappear completely, you may want to invest in more frequent upkeep.
4) Some SEO companies offer an extended service where they will post entries on things like Twitter, Facebook and a web blog. Depending on your industry, you may want to consider it. A blog is always a good addition to a website and search engines love them.
5) SEO should require some changes to your website. Inserting keywords and tools such as a sitemap are important for long-term results. Be wary of a company who performs SEO and doesn't do this for you. It may work for now, but what about next week? Next month?
6) An SEO company should always look at your website before they do the work. How will they promote you if they have no idea what you do? SEO is better when it's done right ahead of time. I've seen countless companies charge users a monthly fee when errors have been made on their part and require another waiting period to fix.
7) Some SEO companies guarantee results. While this can look good, it can also only offer short term results. Nothing is guaranteed as far as search engines are concerned so make sure your SEO company provides a detailed report of the work they've done and that you're happy with the services they've provided so far before allowing them to continue to charge you.
8) Take the time to understand a little bit of what keeps the big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing happy. By knowing, you can employ these tactics when selecting the wording for your website in the future.
If you're interested in learning a bit more about SEO, Google is an excellent place to start. This link will give you an explanation and provide some further important warnings about choosing an SEO/SEM company.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
Should you want to consider us for SEO services we'd be glad to tell you exactly what our process is. Should you have questions on performing SEO yourself, feel free to ask those questions by using the "Ask A Question" link on the right under "User Menu" or by contacting us here:
http://createbycbs.com/contact.php
Should you be looking to outsource your SEO work, here are some important things to look for:
1) Most SEO companies will mention that they offer "white hat" services, meaning they don't use underhanded dirty methods to get the job done as this generally gets you blacklisted from the search engines. White hat is good.
2) Local may be better. If you're a Canadian company, make sure your SEO company has had experience with SEO in your country. American companies, for example, may claim they can provide SEO services in any country but miss out on some of the important local resources that they weren't aware of. We've even heard of one American company saying that there wasn't a local search engine resource for Yahoo in Canada. Um, hello? Yahoo.ca?
3) As much as your SEO company might try to convince you, SEO does not necessarily need to be done every month. Well of course, the more the better, but if your industry is in a small uncompetitive market where things don't change often on the search engines, once every few months may also do the trick. So check constantly and if you see your listing being pushed down or disappear completely, you may want to invest in more frequent upkeep.
4) Some SEO companies offer an extended service where they will post entries on things like Twitter, Facebook and a web blog. Depending on your industry, you may want to consider it. A blog is always a good addition to a website and search engines love them.
5) SEO should require some changes to your website. Inserting keywords and tools such as a sitemap are important for long-term results. Be wary of a company who performs SEO and doesn't do this for you. It may work for now, but what about next week? Next month?
6) An SEO company should always look at your website before they do the work. How will they promote you if they have no idea what you do? SEO is better when it's done right ahead of time. I've seen countless companies charge users a monthly fee when errors have been made on their part and require another waiting period to fix.
7) Some SEO companies guarantee results. While this can look good, it can also only offer short term results. Nothing is guaranteed as far as search engines are concerned so make sure your SEO company provides a detailed report of the work they've done and that you're happy with the services they've provided so far before allowing them to continue to charge you.
8) Take the time to understand a little bit of what keeps the big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing happy. By knowing, you can employ these tactics when selecting the wording for your website in the future.
If you're interested in learning a bit more about SEO, Google is an excellent place to start. This link will give you an explanation and provide some further important warnings about choosing an SEO/SEM company.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
Should you want to consider us for SEO services we'd be glad to tell you exactly what our process is. Should you have questions on performing SEO yourself, feel free to ask those questions by using the "Ask A Question" link on the right under "User Menu" or by contacting us here:
http://createbycbs.com/contact.php
