Many businesses develop a website that they are very happy with however struggle to drive traffic to it and this includes both ecommerce websites and brochure websites. A common misconception is that once you build a website then the customers will come naturally and this is a very big misunderstanding of how the internet works.

Once you have developed your website, you then need to market it online through either pay per click or search engine optimisation (seo). Seo involves many different factors to be successful such as link building, article writing, social media, link baits, social bookmarking, good content, news sections on the website and much more.

It is also worth noting that different market sectors vary in competition and some can be extremely competitive such as football retail. Football is a hugely popular sport and as a result online competition to rank for terms like football shirts and football kits are hugely competitive, so you need to be realistic in what you want to achieve.

This can get very confusing for small business owners to understand and as a result many end up signing with bad seo companies that take advantage of the lack of knowledge around search engine optimisation. You don’t need to understand seo as a business owner; however you do need to know what to look out for when selecting a seo company.

We have outlined 5 tips to assist you to find a good seo company and help you avoid the seo companies that are just after your money! See below:

1. When looking for an seo company look out for the way they ‘sell’ their services to you for example, do they use words like ‘guarantee’ and other hard sell tactics. This is a big tell about the company as it shows they a sales driven rather than a results driven company meaning you probably are best to avoid them. It is very important to remember that no one can guarantee you a first page on Google for a competitive key term. Again using the football retail example we discussed above, if someone is promising you a first page Google ranking for a football retail terms such as Arsenal shirt, Barcelona kit, Manchester United shirt or Arsenal kit, then be very cautious indeed.
2. Before you go with a seo company ask them for a seo report and analysis of your website as this will show you if they know what they are talking about. If they refuse then this is a very bad sign as there are many good seo companies that will do a seo report before money is exchanged.
3. To deliver a good result for most semi competitive keywords on Google’s search engine tends to take 3 to 6 months, and if a company is telling you different then they most likely are misleading you. Seo is an ongoing process that needs to be done each month, so make sure you are comfortable investing with a company for several months before you commit to them.
4. A really good way to see if a seo company is any good at their job is to ask them for examples of their work and perhaps a few companies to contact to verify they delivered the good seo results. Also see if the seo company’s website is ranking for any competitive keywords on Google or not, at the end of the day if they cant rank their own website – how are they going to be able to get yours to rank?!
5. You really want to be with a seo company where you can talk directly to the seo consultant doing the work. This is why we think small seo companies are better than big ones as with big companies you usually get ‘sold’ to by great sales people.

With small seo companies you often deal directly with the seo consultant meaning they won’t over promise like salesmen tend to. Also by speaking directly to the seo consultant you can get a feel for their knowledge, customer service levels and you can ask them all the questions you want answers to before you commit to any money.

As you can see there are some really simple ways to figure out whether a company is any good at seo or whether they are more interested in hitting their sales targets. Remember to always get in multiple quotes and try to get all seo deals in an email or some form of writing as this way there is absolutely no confusion further down the road.

This is a guest post from Jonathan who works for J21Media, a first rate affordable seo services company based in the UK.