What is the difference between an consultant who provides seo services and one that is an seo expert. Since you yourself are no expert in internet marketing you are going to find it difficult to know what to look for. As with anything, getting a quality service will make a huge difference to your bottom line so choose wisely.

Search engine optimisation has been around since the search engines started and has been evolving ever since. Most business who provide web design, web hosting or other internet marketing services often add it to their list of services. Customers know that they should be optimising their websites for search engines so they request the service.

However, there is a big difference between making your website more search engine friendly and dominating the search engines. Business’ who have added this service rarely have the skills or knowledge to be able to get you ranking well where it counts, for your most relevant and high volume searches. Unfortunately weeks or months after paying them  you don’t see any significant boost to your traffic. Your business will not benefit from their work and you are left doubting the potential of the internet to bring you new business.

Request a Keyword Report

The first critical element to search engine optimisation is the keywords that your website is optimised for. For example if you sell widgets you might want to rank for “widgets”. General terms such as “widgets” are often searched for a huge number of times but the intention of the person searching isn’t clear. They may be interested for widget repairs or second hand widget’s so these keywords generate a lower return on investment. Customers who are intending on purchasing are searching for “buy widget” or “buy red widget”. These searches indicate that the person is in the buying phase so getting traffic from these keywords will generate a much high return on investment.

Agree on What Keywords To Optimise For

When you engage an seo company you must agree beforehand on what terms they should be optimising for. Part of their service should provide a keyword analysis report that shows the relevant keywords searched and how often they are searched for. This should be based on the number of searches, the relevance to your business. They should also be able to say how strong the competition is for each of these keywords.

Before making an agreement with a consultant agree on which keywords they should optimise for. By getting your seo consultant to focus their efforts on relevant keywords with a high volume of searches where the intention of the searcher is clear your business can only benefit if they can get you ranking well.

Demand a Page 1 Ranking

Appearing on Page 1 of the search engine results is the second critical element for search engine optimisation. 90% of all clicks are distributed amongst the results on the first page(with most going to the top three). So if your site doesn’t appear on page 1 for your most important keywords(identified in the report) then you aren’t going to see any significant traffic from the search engines.

If you choose the right keywords and you are ranking well in the results you are going to see some good results.

Guaranteed or Your Money Back

So how can you be sure that you actually have an consultant that can deliver on these results. Seo experts that are confident in their abilities will happily offer some sort of guarantee placement for your top keywords or you get your money back, significantly reducing your risk. Any consultant who says that this is not possible or makes excuses for why they cannot offer this isn’t confident in their abilities and should be avoided at all costs.

Search engine optimisation is a fundamental long term strategy for growing your website and business. Choose the right provider and realise your full online potential.