When it comes to getting your site listed on Google, there’s no better option for small businesses than to turn to professional search engine consultants. SEO strategies can be complicated and technical, so it’s best to call in a pro. Like any industry though, it can be difficult to find a qualified professional who can deliver the results you need. When you start to look for search engine consultants, keep these common mistakes in mind:
3 Common Mistakes in Hiring Search Engine Consultants
1. Choosing Bulk Over Precision
Many search engine consultants will promise a large number of first page keywords. What they won’t tell you, is that many of these keywords are long-tail keywords that people simply aren’t searching for. Long-tail keywords are keywords that have descriptive words attached to a base keyword. For example, the word “hammer” is a base keyword. When you add the description “blue” or “steel” to the base keyword, you create a long-tail keyword “blue hammer” or “steel hammer.” Many search engine consultants will target hundreds of these long-tail keywords with little-competing pages or searches. These keywords are easy to rank but will bring in little to no traffic. When looking for search engine consultants, choose precise keywords that you want your site to be found for over bulk rankings for long-tail keywords.
2. Single Focus on SEO
Many search engine consultants are just that, search engine consultants. When pursuing an SEO campaign, it is important to seek out a professional that will help you turn traffic to your site into customers and clients in your retainer. In other words, it is important to seek out a professional internet marketing firm instead of a simple SEO firm. Because SEO is one piece of a complete internet marketing strategy, it is important to pick a marketing firm that can take a holistic approach to your online marketing.
3. Looking Only at Rankings
In terms of metrics, many search engine consultants will promise results in terms of rankings alone. Be wary of any firm that simply looks at rankings as a measure of success. Rankings only show where your pages are ranking on major search engines. What it doesn’t show is how well those placements are doing in drawing in traffic or how well that traffic is converting into leads and sales. The point of SEO is to gather new leads and clients online, so you should be able to measure the success of an SEO campaign in terms of whether or not you are bringing in new leads and clients from your SEO efforts.
Picking search engine consultants can be an important decision in bringing in new leads and customers. In order to have an effective campaign, be sure to stay away from common mistakes that can be easily avoided.
