Choosing a SEO Professional

Throughout this series of articles, we’ve seen how undertaking search engine optimisation can be the most cost effective marketing option for any on-line enterprise. For those businesses that are willing to commit time and money to undertaking search engine optimisation, consideration is required as to whether to engage a SEO professional to assist in the process.

Can I Do It Myself?
The answer to this question is probably both yes and no. It’s certainly possible, with a reasonable knowledge of HTML and search engine algorithms, to undertake some level of SEO yourself. However, keeping up with constant search engine changes and creating the content necessary to build up search engine rankings over the longer term can take a reasonable amount of resources. Likewise, following through with a linking strategy will also take a lot of man-hours to complete. There are also dangers in incorrectly submitting your pages - a problem in this area can lead to exclusion from a search engines database.

Engaging A Professional
Engaging an expert to assist with your search engine optimisation does carry some degree of risk. Like most fields, you’ll find plenty of unscrupulous operators making all sorts of offers and promises. So it’s important to be careful in engaging someone that has legitimate experience and knowledge. You should expect your consultant to provide:

• A clear plan of what work will be undertaken and what results are hoped to be achieved.
• A comprehensive keyword list.
• Analysis of your competitors.
• Research of potentially relevant directories.
• Adjustment of all relevant HTML elements.
• Appropriate submission of site to all major search engines and directories.
• Submission of site into relevant paid inclusion programs.
• Proposed linking strategy included suggested reciprocal links.
• Suggestions and adjustments for suitable content.
• Tracking and monitoring of all SEO elements.
• Review of results and provide regular reports.
• Clear advice regarding potential advertising budgets and consultancy fees.

You also need to consider whether to engage someone locally based. For those marketing international services or products, then this does not need to be the case (although it may feel more comfortable). Businesses that have products and services targeted towards the Australian market, or even specific locations within Australia, may need to look for someone that has knowledge of local search and marketing issues. This will become increasingly important as the major search engines continue to develop local search capabilities.

Finding a legitimate expert to undertake your search engine optimisation for you can be a difficult task. Apart from the expense involved, actually locating someone you can trust and feel comfortable with, is easier said than done. Beware of those making unreasonable claims or providing unrealistic guarantees. Short term fixes are not really what you need. Long term solutions are what you are after if your business is to flourish in the new on-line world.

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