Seven Questions You Must Ask Yourself Before Hiring an SEO Company

If your company has a website, it really needs to implement search engine optimization (SEO)—the process that helps your website get ranked on search engines. Before you run out and hire the first SEO company you can find to implement SEO into your website, you should consider the following questions.

1. What is an SEO company?
SEO companies are those that specialize in providing SEO for other company's websites. They are professional and have the necessary experience to help your website achieve the results you want. Like most companies out there, there are plenty of SEO companies that are scams and cheat other companies out of their money, so before hiring one, make sure to do your research.

2. Is SEO really a necessity?
Yes. SEO helps Internet users find your website. If your website contains great SEO content, it will typically rank higher on search engines. This way, when an Internet user uses keywords in the search field of a search engine, your site will appear. The higher your site ranks, the more people will find it.

3. Can I do it myself?
Having a website rich with SEO does not simply mean throwing a few keywords into your copy and calling it a day. There are certain tactics that get better results, and certain companies benefit from certain practices more than others. Learning SEO cannot be done in an hour, so it is best to use a professional.

4. Should I just hire someone to work in house?
There are pros and cons to both, and it all depends on your company’s needs. Having someone in house can save you money, and you will be able to communicate with him or her more effectively. Having an outside company can be more beneficial, in that you will have a team of people working for you and not just one individual.

5. Can I afford it?
Hiring an SEO company can cost a pretty penny. It is worth it, especially if it's generating the results you want, but you need to take a look at your budget and decide if you can afford it. Most SEO companies will charge you to perform an analysis of your current website and then create a strategy plan. Once that is done, there will be another charge to put the plan in the place.

SEO is also something that needs to be monitored and adjusted on a monthly basis, so most SEO companies will also have a base monthly fee after the initial costs.

6. Am I stuck using one SEO company?
Some SEO companies will make you sign a contract for a certain period of time. If this is the case, you are locked in with that company for the length of your contract, even if their work isn't generating results. You could always break the contract, but it will be costly.

Other SEO companies work solely on a month-by-month basis. If you like their work, you can hire them again the following month. If you don't, you can stop using them and find a new company you think would work better with your company.

7. What exactly do I need?
Before you can implement an SEO plan, you need to know the goals of your website. If your site is already getting good traffic and you have a decent ranking on the search engine listings, you may not need to hire a company to create a whole new SEO plan. If your website is barely getting traffic and the search engines haven't heard of you, you need a company that can start from scratch.

Before hiring an SEO company, look over these questions and decide what is best. Maybe you need a company to create an entire plan, or maybe you need a professional to update your content once a month. Either way, you need SEO.

Charlie Adams is a tech guru and consultant for telecommunications companies in the Las Vegas area. Before drafting any letters or delivering texts he instantly proofs his work using a grammar checker to ensure his writing is free of any embarrassing mistakes. Charlie has recently entered into an association of entrepreneurs.

Infographic: Costs of Driving Drunk

Are rational arguments effective at changing behavior? The following infographic argues that you shouldn't drive drunk because of the extremely high monetary costs. However, rational arguments can often be less effective than emotional arguments. A more effective ad might show pictures of children who were killed by a drunk driver rather than the threat of an expensive bill.


Infographic by Criminal Justice Degree Schools, a provider of information on criminal justice degrees.

Infographic: Tips for Improving Your SEO

Infographic by Sparkplug Digital a Seattle SEO company providing SEO audits and linkbuilding for technology companies and startups.

This is a helpful infographic that provides actionable tips for things your company can do to improve their SEO. A good tip is to monitor social networks to see what keywords or phrases your customers are using to describe you because it suggests that people are also searching for these terms.

Good Example of an Infographic Done Right

Infographics have been growing in popularity as an online marketing tactic. When done well, it can add a lot of value to readers because they can learn valuable information in a visual way. It can also earn quality links to your site when authority blogs or websites pick it up and republish the infographic on their site. Sometimes infographics can go viral and pick up hundreds of inbound links. This example is excellent because it doesn't have too much text, provides fascinating information, is sharable, and promotes a worthy cause.


Infographic by Seametrics, a manufacturer of water flow meters that measure and conserve water.

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Listen to Past Ad-Tech Speakers

The following is a guest post from The Executive Marketing Blog.

Ad-tech.com advertises itself as “The Event for Digital Marketing.” An initial glance around the web-site will immediately confirm that Ad-Tech, in fact, the event. When the initial Ad-Tech.com page loads in a browser‘s window, they will be immediately be presented with a list of international cities where Ad-Tech has a presence. Sydney, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Chicago, Tokyo, London, New York, Shanghai, and Beijing all have clickable links in the left hand frame of the browser bar. Clicking on any of these cities will bring up a page detailing events scheduled for the near future in that particular location. For example, upon clicking on Chicago a reader will see a list detailing upcoming conference and exhibit hall hours with a list of keynote speakers, conference sessions, and regular speakers. Each speaker’s name is listed along with a headshot photograph. Keynote speaker’s names are clickable to provide the user with additional biographical information.

An extensive “Missed a Session” section of the site contains a series of podcasts. Each podcast contains a clear label, a very clear description of the topics discussed, and an easily accessible download button. The file size of the podcast is also presented to the right (measured in MB). Any person who did not want to download the actual podcasts can also listen to them in a background browser window. This section will prove particularly useful to business representatives who were unable to attend a particular conference.

Any company looking to actually be a sponsor or speaker, or to host an exhibit at an Ad-Tech conference, can find all of the pertinent contact details on the homepage. Clicking on any of these three opportunities will bring up specific contact information for Ad-Tech representatives the world over, as well as detail the advantages doing business with Ad-Tech provides. Any company looking to increase their digital marketing presence would benefit from Ad-Tech’s services, and at Ad-Tech.com a browser has access to all the information they need to attend a conference or exhibit on digital marketing in several major international cities.

This article has been republished with permission from The Executive Marketing Blog.

You Tube Star=Great Marketing for Stride

Matt is a guy who made a video of himself doing a goofy dance in several interesting locations all over the world. It became a viral hit on You Tube and Stride sponsored him to do a encore tour. The second edition of the video came out 2 months ago and already has over 9 million views! Stride is smart because they have acquired the attention of millions with their "ad", and probably spent less than it would have cost for a traditional ad. They have also created good will by sponsoring something that has entertained and inspired people everywhere.