SEO Vendor Credibility Tips
You don’t have to look far to find a website that provides some sort of search engine marketing services but to find one that really understands what they are doing is a whole other story. When you first start the task of trying to find a partner to team up with to help you with your marketing it could take some time to really find one that meshes well with you. There are some areas to look out for when you are trying to locate an SEO vendor or SEO company that really understands what they are doing online. You can start off by looking at their website first.
Here is a short list of credibility factors to look at when selecting an SEO vendor to help your organization (in no particular order):
SEO Vendor Credibility Tip#1: Look At Their Meta Tags
Now I’m not saying that unless you have well optimized meta tags you don’t know what you are doing but of all people in the world a website that offers search marketing services should always have well optimized meta tags. Well written and optimized meta tags is SEO 101 and if you encounter a search marketing firm that doesn’t have well written tags that are optimized for search I would question their abilities greatly.
SEO Vendor Credibility Tip#2: How Optimized is The URL Structure
An SEO firm’s website should have very clean URL structures throughout the entire website. That means that you shouldn’t see any random strings of characters that don’t have any rhyme or reason to them and you should see targeted tasteful keywords sprinkled throughout the URL structure of the website.
SEO Vendor Credibility Tip#3: Is There A Visible Blog?
Having a blog in today’s market place is just natural web marketing especially if you are a search engine marketing company offering services and solutions to the business community. A well maintained blog can really make a serious impact when it comes to visibility and leverage online. Any search engine marketing company worth talking about should always have some sort of blog dedicated to their company. If you don’t see one I would think twice about communicating with them.
SEO Vendor Credibility Tip#4: Search Results – Practice What You Preach!
Take a look at what is going on in the search results. If you don’t see much happening in the search results than they are not really active at marketing themselves. Maybe they don’t know how to market their own business? Do you really want to work with a company that doesn’t have the ability to market themselves properly online?
SEO Vendor Credibility Tip#5: Social Media Marketing Visibility
A reputable SEO vendor is going to realize the importance behind having a connection with their specific social community. Most people realize that social media marketing has a very strong overlap with search engine optimization and it is a must for any business to get involved with their social audience. If the search marketing firm you are partnering with does not have any obvious connection to their social audience I would think twice about their philosophy on marketing a business online.
SEO Vendor Credibility Tip#6: Client Testimonials
A search marketing or SEO company that has even some happy client’s will always have a few testimonials that they can use to showcase those happy customers. It should be a goal of a service based firm to acquire happy customer testimonials in order to instill confidence in their new potential or existing clients.
SEO Vendor Credibility Tip#7: SEO Service Pages
This might be something many people that do not understand but if your SEO vendor has all their services listed on one page rather than creating individual pages for each service I would ask them why they did it that way. Each service on any service related business website should always have a separate page for that specific service. This is really website 101 material that cannot be overlooked especially if you are working with a firm who has failed to take this step.
It is important to put your SEO vendor through the test when it comes to marketing your business. How can they effectively market your website when they fail to market their own? Take the time to comb through your partner or vendors website and try and address some of these issues. It might just save you some headaches down the road. Hopefully this post helped, of course there are MANY other areas to look at when selecting the right SEO vendor for your company. If you have any tips for our readers, please feel free to share them and add a comment below.
15 Responses to “SEO Vendor Credibility Tips”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
If you’re an SEO services vendor, then you had better look the part. That goes for your web content and architecture. Always a good basis for the quality of the services you can offer.
HI MicroSourcing,
That is so true! It takes so much more than just saying your an SEO, as a good vendor and partner you should have a site that is very well built!
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
Nick
Nice post Nick. Your newsletter is one of the few I make a point of reading thoroughly each issue. In regards to this article I must admit I’m wanting in two categories. I’ve tried multiple times to do a blog, but always find myself neglecting after a while. And I also seem to neglect my own site to the point that I don’t even know where I rank for the phrases I used to target. I’m lucky in that I get a number of referrals, but I think it is important I put effort into my site and blog now, then later when business might get slow and it might be too late. I just wish you’d do an article on how to find more hours in a day.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for reading and your kind words!
Time is a big factor when it comes to building content, especially as the reputation of a blog is built.
If I could help people find more time, I would certainly write about it
Thanks Again & Take Care,
Nick
Great read! not sure how i missed this the first time, but always great points!
Hi Nick,
While I agree that if an SEO company has each of these items done correctly it is proof that they have an understanding of SEO, the absence of some of them does not mean they do not know what they are doing.
A better proxy of an SEO company’s abilities is how well the firm’s clients are optimized. It is far more relevant for a prospective client to see actual results delivered to other clients than to extrapolate performance from the SEO’s own website.
For a variety of reasons our firm has not had the need to market and probably will not have to market for another couple of years. While we know we should develop our own site and do all the things you talk about, we have been too busy to think about it.
While our own site fails in some respects, our clients sites are very visible and convert well.
Great newsletter.
Some GREAT points Nick! I owuld also like to add that when you Google the SEO company, make sure their name comes up in different “Types” of results. As an example, there are a lot of companies out there that just promote on forums (or just blogs, or just PR’s, etc…). A well rounded search engine results page (lots of different types of sites they are listed on) means they “get it” and will market your company effectively through a well rounded series of efforts and not just one pocket that may or may not be there tomorrow because Google changes it’s mind….
Mike
Hi Rafi,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
You bring up some very good points, but I still do think that an SEO vendor’s portfolio, so to speak is their results that they achieve for their clients and also their own site. In my opinion you should make time to truly practice what you preach…
Thanks again for reading and the comment!
Take Care,
Nick
Hi Mike,
Great points! Keeping the link building or brand building side of things should contain a white hat, well rounded approach!
Thanks for the comment & Take Care!
Nick
Im sorry but I dont agree with you fully here- as you know SEO takes time. If I spend time on my own SEO, I will not have time for my clients. My URL’s are great, and some of my sites tags are done, and I dont have any testimonials cause they take time to get and I dont have time. My SEO work is so amazing and top notch, that I really dont have time to do some of these things- some are a given, but others take time I dont have. Slowly I invested in building my ranks, but to rank for SEO consultant is more competitive that New York Real Estate these days.
Hi ELM Consulting,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
I agree building positioning and visitors in the SEO industry is very competitive, much like the real estate industry. In fact, I think that the SEO industry is the most competitive industry that I have ever worked with…since everyone is an SEO pro
Take Care,
Nick
Can’t agree with the “the shoemaker never has shoes” arguement for SEO practitioners. Sure we’d all like to do more writing, spend more time on SEO, but if you haven’t done any of the work for yourself that you’re telling your clients’ you can do for them, you may get the raised eyebrow. Investing in your name and reputation from a global or national standpoint may be unmanageable, but for your region should be workable. Great list, thanks Nick!
Nick you got any suggestions. I just don’t have the expertise to pick a company.
Hi John,
Thanks for reading and submitting your question!
Other than looking at the items in this blog post, to pick a good SEO vendor, you must also understand where you website is currently at, budget constraints, etc. One size does not fit all and not every SEO firm is a good fit for every type of business. For instance, if you have a newer website, it may be sense to learn how to do it on your own for a while until you get a good return and then outsource your SEO to help make you good results, great…this is a much more cost effective way to approach it sometimes…
Hope this helps and thanks again for reading!
Nick
Nick,
While I agree with all of your points, an SEO company should have an optimized site, wouldn’t you have to understand SEO enough to use these tips? If a small company is in the market to hire an SEO firm and they don’t know SEO, none of these tips will help them.
What advice do you have for a small company that doesn’t know the first thing about SEO? There’s so much crap out there, how can they know who to trust?
Hi Ben,
Thanks for reading and your comment!
I disagree, I do think that these tips should help most businesses looking to hire an SEO vendor or firm. I always advise people that are 100% new to SEO, is to learn SEO on their own first, at least the basics.
As a business owner, before I invest in anything for my company, I make it my business to have a basic understanding of what it is and how it may help my company. SEO is no different. So for small businesses that are new to SEO, I recommend taking the time to learn the basics and then explore hiring an SEO service provider.
Thanks again for reading & take care,
Nick