The most common question that most marketing professionals have in mind is that how is it that websites magically rank number one for a set of keywords getting the most number of user search traffic and hence contributing to revenue. Chances are that if your targets are ambitious and the competition though, you are going to be taking the help of an SEO agency. However this is easier said than done since if you Google “SEO Agency in India” you get a list of agencies which amount to 11,500,000 results Hence, the question, how do you make sense of which one is the best?
Types of SEO companies
The Big Boys most of these companies come with mercurial CEO’s who are well connected within the industry will come in with a slick looking website, neat presentation deck and quite a few case studies along with lots of number 1 Creds.
They might also make you look good in front of your boss and he might also go with them. However, beware cause under all that flash might be nothing more than a Ferrari with a Maruti 800 engine.
These SEO agencies might gave the glitter and aura, but might not be updated on the latest industry trends and typically might come with a lot of baggage, jargon and an inflated monthly retainer.
However, owning to being the big boys, they do possess a few shiny software or tools and experienced SEO pros on their rolls that would have experience to know what works and what doesn’t.
The Copycat agency
These are those semi cool kids trying really hard to be like the big boys. The might have a lot of buzz going for them, but since they are essentially copying the big boys, expect big boy type of outputs (with a few compromises) and a slightly lesser price.
The Freelancer / Moonlighter
Essentially by day the fellow is an SEO agency minion and by night, he might find some precious hours to look into your website. However, being a one man army, he might flatter to deceive. SEO does need resources and it was as easy being a one man show, anybody would have done it. However, chances are that the fellow might be knowledgeable and could dole out some advice but apart from that, little else.
The Agency in a Small Obscure Place (SEO Sweat Shop)
A lot of the SEO agencies will be like this with some snazzy cool name , build up profile of the promoters , leverage some industry or big boy tie ups. In actually they might be doing a lot of the back end work for the Big Boy SEO agencies but might also be trying to get some of their own work. One look at obscure address or weird designations (SEO Thinker, Creative Hotspot, ) and you know who are these SEO agencies. In principle, some of these might be of use to you but you are still advised to tread with caution
The Slimy Snake Oil Agency
This one reeks of a scam from the word go. Apart from swindling the uninitiated marketing manager , this agency will try every trick in the book, will submit your website to useless directories, PR submissions, 10,000 links to your site in a month, flout every webmaster guideline there is, guarantee results ( but will never deliver) , offer services super cheap. In case you make the silliness of giving them a blog / articles to write, be ready to deal with 2nd grade English, nonsense grammar and machine generated articles spamming the living hell out of any keyword possible. The best thing you could do is to either recommend them to your competitor or ask them to work on the competitor’s site itself. (This is in jest of course!!) The
Agency from heaven
This agency is the one that “real” people recommend to you and have some creds that you can easily verify. When asked about their approach to SEO and their overall plan, they won’t just throw a bunch of Industry jargons, cryptic reports and hard to verify rankings at you.
They come to you with not only accurate traffic and ranking reporting but also something that makes sense to you without having to Google it. Every bit is transparent and it’s not just some 19 year old person you are depending on ( no offense meant here to the 19 to 25 wiz kids)
Measuring the success of SEO
Now this is really the toughest part of the SEO project. But, at the end of the day, what you need is traffic, rankings and ultimately conversions (revenue). Build the agency contract in such a way that it is tied to expected goals in some way or the other.
Traffic numbers based on projections shouldn’t be too hard to generate and built in the payment in segments ( 20% on x keywords in top ten and x% organic traffic increase … ) .Chances are you will have to haggle quite a bit to get agencies to give a contract worked out on that basis. Make sure you mention for Organic traffic , brand related traffic will not be considered as a gain in the project. (Unless that’s the goal)
Conclusion
Even with algorithm changes happening at Google, having a solid SEO strategy a vital tool in every marketer’s arsenal. The rules might have changed a bit, but essentially optimizing your website to benefit from organic traffic remains a valid part of your online arsenal. However, selecting an SEO agency is not something that is easy.
My only advice would be to take time, evaluate every agency on clear parameters and don’t be swayed by promises and awesomeness. After all, it is your brand and if the agency isn’t the right fit, you might be stuck in limbo for a very long time. So go forth but stay clear of the traps and scams.
