Many Internet marketing firms will promise you affordable Seo management services. But, examine what they’re truly offering before you sign that contract! Let’s break the term down.
1) Affordable – what does the SEO firm REALLY mean by the word “affordable”? At Eckweb, we charge $135.00/month for our basic seo package and an additional $130.00/month for our social media package. We receive emails and phone calls from potential clients every day and some of these folks are already involved with another SEO firm. What are they paying? Anywhere from $800.00 to $3000.00 a month for their SEO management services. Now, how many small businesses can afford that, really?
2) SEO – what does the Internet marketing firm include in their SEO package? What do they consider SEO? You and I know that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about organic listings, incoming links, website architecture, website content and keyword research. Those are the very basics of SEO services. But, listen carefully to the Internet marketing firm and ask them directly, “What do you consider to be SEO?” You may be surprised to hear everything from PPC to article writing and nothing about keyword research!
3) Management Services – every SEO firm provides different management services, call 10 SEO firms and you’ll get 10 different answers. So, don’t be afraid to ask, “What do you include in your management services? – Exactly?” Just to give you a baseline, I’ll list the SEO management services that we provide at Eckweb.com for the affordable rate of $135.00/month.
a) Manual submissions to smaller search engines and directories. Your website will be indexed by the larger search engines, some sooner than others, depending on a variety of optimization factors, but the point is, no website needs to be submitted to Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc. But, the smaller engines and directories, they don’t have the sophisticated programming that the larger ones do, so, in order to get listed in those smaller engines and directories, the website has to be submitted, manually. The benefit of being listed in these smaller engines and directories is the link BACK to the website. Anchor text links are important to the algorithms of the larger search engines so you want them. And one way to get them is to be included in smaller engines and directories.
b) Monthly review of website logs and statistics. A report is generated every month to all our clients giving them a synopsis of their logs. How many visitors, where is the traffic coming from, what pages are doing well, which ones are not? And more. Comparing the reports month after month gives the website owners a view of how the website marketing campaign is doing.
c) New keyword phrases. It’s all about the Keywords!! Get the right keywords on your website and you’ll get traffic. The more keyword phrases, the more traffic. In order to market more keyword phrases you need more pages. Get anchor text links towards those keyword phrases and your website will rock! Each month we provide our clients with 3 keyword phrases that their target audience is looking for, but the website is not marketing. The client has the option to create new pages, articles, blog posts, press releases, whatever they see fit with those keyword phrases. We even provide a copywriter if needed.
d) Competition report. Every business wants and needs to know what their competition is doing. Whether it’s the store down the street, or the website that’s ranking higher for the same keyword phrase their trying to market. Every month we review one online competitor and compare it to the clients’ website. This gives the client information so they can make an educated decision on how to move the Internet marketing campaign forward.
e) Tips, Suggestions and Ideas – all this information is great to have but what good is information if it doesn’t produce an act? Reviewing stats, checking out the competition, etc. will do nothing for you if all you do is read the information and put it to the side. We take it a step further. We provide you with recommendations on what you could, should do as the next step in your Internet marketing campaign all based on the data we’ve collected.
f) Search engine ranking report. I think every SEO marketing firm provides this, it’s just a review of where the website can be found for the keyword phrases being marketed. These are reports generated by a computer program and they’re not always accurate because, the truth is, rankings change hour to hour. So, these reports are really just a snapshot of where the website was found the moment that the program was run. But, it does give the website owner an idea of where the website can be found.
So, there you have it. Now, at least you can compare several companies and determine whether they truly are providing affordable seo management services that fit your needs.
