SEO Consultants: FAQs and Misconceptions
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If you are looking into the possibility of hiring SEO Consultants to boost your search position and generate new business opportunities, then you’ll need to quickly familiarise yourself with the basic SEO facts. To that end, we’ve come up with a handy list of FAQs and common misconceptions about SEO and SEO Consultants.
So, what does SEO stand for?
Search Engine Optimisation.
Oh, that makes sense. And what is it, exactly?
The process of changing your website so that it appears higher up the list of ‘hits’, or search results, for particular terms that people are searching for on internet search engines. For example, if you were a flower delivery company based in North London you’d want your website to appear high up in the returned search results when someone put ‘North London flower deliveries’ into Google. SEO consultants recommend and implement changes to your website that will cause Google to return your website sooner when the relevant search terms are put in. The kind of changes commonly used include: putting better, more relevant content (text) on your site for the terms you’re targeting; increasing the number of links that lead to your website from sites with a high ranking; improving the structure of your website and the way that pages and objects on those pages are labelled.
What, is it just for Google?
Well, other search engines too, to a lesser extent. At the time of writing around 90% of all internet searches in the UK are performed via Google, so SEO consultants focus their attention on the market leader.
That doesn’t sound too complicated. What’s all the fuss about?
At first glance it does seem quite simple. The problem is that the exact method Google uses to return search results (the ‘algorithm’) is a secret, so no SEO consultant knows what it is exactly and is trying to divine it through a process of trial and error, learning as they go. Not only that, but Google’s algorithm keeps changing – methods that worked previously to create a high search position may not work after the next update and a new tactic will have to be found. So not only are good SEO consultants operating on a base of prior experience but also have to stay right up to date with any innovations and changes. Add to this the fact that all your competitors are trying to do the same thing, jostling to be the first result returned, and it’s not hard to see how great complexity can arise from an apparently simple premise.
How much do SEO companies charge?
That depends on a number of factors: how experienced and in demand the company is; how big your list of relevant search terms (‘keywords’) is; how much improvement you want to see in your search engine performance. The work that SEO consultants do is fairly highly skilled and very time consuming. The better results you require, the longer it takes. If you want guaranteed first position you’ll need to choose a good company and pay a premium. If you just want to get enough of a foot on the SEO ladder for your small business website to generate a few more leads a week, you’ll spend less but you’re still looking at paying a minimum of around £100 per month.
Can’t I just get a quick once-over for my website?
Not only does Google change its algorithm frequently and with no or little warning, but your competitors might also be using SEO techniques, which means in time they’ll edge you out of your position. To be truly effective, search engine optimisation needs to be an ongoing process.
Common Misconceptions about SEO Consultants
- I’ve heard you can fool Google to get a higher ranking and that companies who do this are cheaper.
Google’s purpose as a search engine is to present the most relevant results to the user i.e. the sites with the best content related to the user’s search terms. Because it does this via an algorithm there will always be ways to ‘fool’ it, to kid the algorithm into thinking that your site is relevant when really the content is pretty useless (one early tactic involved putting long chunks of text, including repeated keywords, on a website in the same colour as the background. This ‘invisible’ text would be read by Google’s robots as if it was normal text). SEO consultants that try to find these loop-holes are known in the industry as ‘black hat SEOs’. However, Google’s Terms of Service require that you adhere to their code of non-deception of users and their methods of detecting what they deem to be bad behaviour is continuously improving. If they catch you your site could be suspended or even banned altogether. It’s a good idea to find out what your prospective SEO consultant’s attitude is towards SEO best practice.
- I want SEO but I don’t want to change my website.
Search engines are primarily concerned with the content on your website. If you want to start placing higher in search results you’ll probably have no option but to increase the amount of quality information on your website, which will probably mean making significant changes.
- Pay Per Click is better value than SEO.
That all depends on how your business works, who your competition is and how people are searching for your products/services online. If you’re trying to break into a hugely competitive market and have no hope of outspending your competitors on SEO you might want to poach the odd user via Pay Per Click as this allows you to manage your spend very precisely. But this is a short term strategy. Why would a user who finds your site via Pay Per Click ads actually stay to read your site? Why would they buy anything when there are ‘better’ sites offering similar products? Any SEO work that you have done that genuinely makes finding your website a better prospect for users can only help to improve user experience, which in turn can only mean that more of the people who visit your site will actually end up as customers.
