SEO Companies - Your Experiences

Hi Guys,

I was hoping to get some idea on your experiences with SEO companies (good and bad) you have dealt with (either contacted to enquire or had working for you). There is no need to name the companies, just looking for experiences that you might like to share.

Common complaints about SEO companies:

Pricing - Costs too much
Contract Length - Long tie in like 12 months
Results - Failure to get website to agreed spot
Communication - Failure to explain realistic outcomes

Hopefully we can get a good thread going which might help others.

__________________
Local SEO Solutions

My gripe is SEO companies who use broad search results to impress the naive buyer, and worse still, propose or agree on keywords that do not have a decent amount of searches per day (except where it's niche and/or long tail, and that this is explained to the client beforehand).

Obviosuly if after that they still insist on paying you to get them to Google page 1 for 'dancing green elephants in walthamstow' then you've done your best. However I have yet to see anyone part with their money for a rubbish keyword after it has been explained to them.

__________________
Virtual Business Address - £90 per year + postage - nothing else to pay, just one fixed price. Includes a Mail Forwarding Service.

Garden Summer Houses | Oak Framed Log Cabins Scotland

Van Racking | Van Signwriting | Roof Racks for Vans

------------------------
Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance

12 month ties in's are definitely my pet moan. Especially something like a link building campaign, where you know in 6 months time you will have the office junior working through web directory freebie lists.

From the firms I've dealt with in the past, communication was always a problem. The lack of contact between "account manager" and the backroom techie. Depending on the account manager depended on the amount of drivel you were fed.

Never really seen price as an issue, as you have to decide the potential value any SEO work will have on your site, and as long as your not tied in, if it's not viable, then walk away.

It would be nice to start a relationship with a technically savvy account manager, agree on expectations, including when to walk away, agree a fee and then have consistent monthly reports. With a 30 day notice period, you are then in control, and as long as the results are going the right direction, then you will happily carry on paying.

Doesn't sound too much to ask, and each time I think I've found someone who does that, they let me down

__________________
cheers Steve
Forum Admin - teaboy and general gofer...

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance | Find me on Google+ | or even Facebook!

My Local Services - The UK and US Online Business Directory | JobsVitae - Recruitment Help and CV Creation

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban

You can try GMR Web Team. It's affordable and great service!

Sorry guys, but am I missing something here? You are a SEO company asking HOW to do SEO?

They are asking for EXPERIENCES people have had with other SEO companies, I would imagine to offer a better service, and find what USP's would work for them.

Hope this helps

__________________
Web Design Portfolio | Social Media beats SEO

Mmm - OK. Just seems a little strange, I thought I was misunderstanding the point.

You have to understand SEO - and then you may realise!
95% sure way to get a higher ranking is to have more inbound links to your own website using your chosen keyword. As you can see, the original poster has infact , by starting this article/page, created a page about SEO on another company website, not his own - that links to his website using the keyword "" in his signature.

The more inbound links you have increases the "importance" of your site. If a lot of people link to it - it must be important right?
So your ranking increases....

But what's the point of targetting a keyword as rightly mentioned abut green elephants if no one actually searches for it.

BUT and this is a BIG but....
What's the point in targetting SEO or Cheap SEO
(see i'm making this page more relevant to SEO now (he'll love me for this)
and of course - i'm wating my time doing the hard work for him... grr


...anyway - i digress - the BUT
so yes whats the point.
The point is - there isnt a point.
Picture this.

You're a sole trader and you want to set up your own bank.
Ridiculous right.
Too much competition and no one would take you seriously.
Searching UK Bank on google brings you a lot of results....
So why would you try to compete against the best.
It's simply a TOTAL waste of time.
and remember, just as you increase your pagerank by doing SEO, the top #1 position is probably moving the goalposts by equally STILL doing SEO.


So my point is...
SEO is POINTLESS
UNLESS
You research your keywords first.

Based on the following fake information - what keyword would you try to target to get you to the top of listings...

Bank - 1'000'000'000 websites / 400'000 daily searches
UK Bank - 300'000 / 300'000 daily searches
Best UK Bank - 216'000 / 400'000 searches
Free UK Banking - 50'000 / 60'000 searches


Targetting bank - you have to beat 1 billion other websites to get to the top!
but what about the rest?
What word would be more achievable and profitable?


SO point 1.- the fact you dont understand why this comment was originally posted - it's all to do with SEO and link building. (unless he's a saint)

point 2 - vague keywords are the best. Some are niche words meaning low competition but high searches. Dont fight above your weight!

point 3 - Reasearch - For roughly £150, you can get a full breakdown of words for your market and the best keywords to target. In terms of SEP - you can do a lot yourslf - if you have the time and if you have the right knowledge.



If you're interested in keyword research, send me a private message.
I know what im talking about and I hve many keyowrds at number 1 now for words with low competition but high volumes of traffic......

Example - Online backup, online data backup, remote backup, off site backup.
All common terms right -

What about Laptop Backup?
Infact - it's a word that gets huge traffic and look where I am on google!

Position 1 I think you'll find (SysFix)
(correct at time of article)
IT Support London


I'm also going to be running an online seo training session shortly so again - if interested, drop me a message.

__________________
IT Support London|IT Support Contract|Computer Repair|
(020) 3095 7740

Even more confused now itsupportlondon.

(Let me check that punch again. My partner swore it was non-alcoholic!)

__________________
Dr Ian Smith Internet Marketing Consultant offering small business website packages, seo packages & online website builder

'laptop backup' has very low competion. It's what I would consider a 'walk in the park' (easy) keyword to rank on Google page 1 for however, I wouldn't chase a keyword that has less than 10 searches a day (as an exact phrase) like this one, except where my only product was a backup product such as Carbonite, in which case, I would be chasing all the back-up related keywords since there won't be too many to choose from.

Unfortunately now that new layout of Google's local listings take up most of page one, your position for 'it support london' is now top of page 2.

@ Drian, the original post was asking about experiences on having used an seo company, and not how SEO works.

__________________
Virtual Business Address - £90 per year + postage - nothing else to pay, just one fixed price. Includes a Mail Forwarding Service.

Garden Summer Houses | Oak Framed Log Cabins Scotland

Van Racking | Van Signwriting | Roof Racks for Vans

------------------------
Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance