We recently wrote a blog post on why you shouldn’t let a bad experience of SEO (search engine optimisation) put you off the industry as a whole and the benefits SEO can have on your site.

We believe that if SEO hasn’t worked for you in the past that you have selected the wrong company and not the wrong industry.

Here are a few things that you should be wary of if you go looking for SEO:

A Generic Package

The first thing to watch out for is if something looks totally off the shelf.  Your business is different from others and the goals you have will be different to those other companies.

So why would you want a search engine package that is the same as everybody else?

Simple answer is that you won’t.

All of our SEO work is bespoke because when it is you get more results and you get better value for money.  This is the same with our SEO audit package; each audit is completely tailored to your business and how best you can reach your search engine goals.

A Fixed Monthly Fee

About to get yourself into a long term commitment of six months to a year or an arrangement that sees money flying out of your account quicker than you can get the wallet back in your pocket?

Hold on!

SEO does take time to have an impact.  Sometimes you can be looking at anything between a three to six month lag; what you do today could be coming to full fruition thirty to sixty days down the line.  You will need to be patient but that’s no reason to get yourself trapped into a long retainer type relationship.

Do commit fully to your SEO but do have thoroughly agreed goals and work schedules so you know exactly what it is you’re getting.  There’ll be nothing worse than getting six months down the line and thinking you’ve not got value.

Asking you to produce a list of your own key phrases

Be worried, be very worried if you get asked to just supply your own key phrases and they’ll optimise your site for them!

Successful SEO will understand where the sweet spot for your website is within search engines; it will essentially be where there is sufficient volume to drive traffic to your site and where the competition for that key phrase makes it realistic for your site to rank well for it.

To understand and to optimise your site for this sweet spot takes research and understanding.  If they’re asking you simply give them a list then your SEO won’t work because it’s likely to be optimised for the wrong words!

Talking technical jargon and lack of transparency

It’s a technical area so there are technicalities to what it being done.  You won’t need to know all of these but what you should know is what work they are doing, how long it takes and what it is geared toward.

You probably won’t understand the internal workings of the combustion engine but you’d not leave your car in the garage for three hours without asking the question!

No clearly defined goals

Get goals and don’t let them be wooly! Fix them and make sure they are realistic. 

For more information on how we go about helping businesses rank higher for the key phrases that count please give us a call on 01566 784860 or drop us an email at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

We’re always happy to chat things through with you and to help.