SEO company recommendation

I know I can do it myself and I have been for the last 2 months but I've neglected a lot of other stuff. Plus I'm doing it quite badly.

My company is just starting out and I need someone to give the SEO campaign a push start then maybe 6 months time I can pick it up again.

So anyone used a company that provides good value for a small business that they will be happy to recommend.

Ive used the following company in a previous business venture and they got me ranking top of google organic rankings within a few months - http://www.i-netco.co.uk/

Mention Mark from MM Associates put you in touch if you do speak to them.

How can they be good at seo when they can't write proper English on their own site?

http://www.i-netco.co.uk/our-services/seo-newcastle/

Pass, thats a different website to when I used them.

How much did it cost you?

I can highly recommend Cybernautix, members here too

Such a confusing world.
I've contacted numerous companies, and a worthwhile package starts off at £500 a month

Is there a SEO budget calculator or an advise website to advise me how much to spend on this without trying to sell me anything?

how do these work? how can you pay £500 a month to be up top? dont all these other companys with money to spend like that just follow suit and if so how can you be sure to come out on top?

I dont think they can be 100% sure you will be top.

SEO is a minefield and a ever changing space. Always has been and always will be. This is a quick reply so may be a bit rough and is my opinion after years of working in or around the industry. All of the below are some of the gotchas to look for there are more of course not all SEO's are created equal.

If you have done some yourself you will have realised the amount of time it takes and the skills needed to do it right and know what it is worth to you & your company.

A SEO calculator would be impossible to put together I would have thought, too many variables. Strength of competition, skills and experience of the SEO. Overheads of the company, you will get better value but less security from a home based SEO than a company with large offices in city centres. You are paying for that fancy office & the sports cars in the car park!

Set a realistic budget & expectations and see what you can get for it, then if the results you get are good up the budget.

If they are giving you prices without doing some research then alarm bells time.
No two keywords/sites are the same and can take a huge amount of work or a little.

If they have solid pricing then alarm bells time
As above by solid pricing I mean set pricing a rougn price is ok, but some have solid pricing structures. Packages are setup to suit them not to help you.

If they won't at least give you a clue of what they will be doing then alarm bells time
They won't usually give you details but should at least give you a idea.

If they are guaranteeing results then run like hell.
The only people who can guarantee results are the SE's NO ONE else can. & is the reason that there are so many bad SEO's out there.

If they mention backdoors/shortcuts run like hell
Those that are found don't last long and the sites that use them get dropped.

Realise that they may or should be wanting to make changes to your site, unless it is bang on. Some people get real arsey about that.

Also they should be talking to you about conversion optimisation. Waste of time ranking #1 on google for cheap air fairs, getting 1 million hits per day and selling 1 ticket!

Be wary off Seo's doing performance based, (where you are contracted to pay once the agreed requirements are met. i.e keyword ranking pos 10-7 = £x, 6-4=£x, 3-1=£x for 12 moths etc..) they will rush to get it there which can and has lead to problems.

Hope that helps you find the right person.
SEO is a skill that takes a lot of time to learn and keep up to date. The tools you need can be expensive. It is not about spamming links with regurgitated content.
You need solid foundations for the longterm, unless your business model is one of rank the site and sell!

A good SEO will understand other related tech and be able to help you out in all related areas.

Of course speak to as many as you need to until you find someone you are comfortable with.

Eeeek went on a bit long there! Sorry

What type of keywords are you hoping to rank for? If it is something local then it isn't too hard. I have helped lots of local people here in Northampton (I always told them don't expect anything for the first 6 months). I always offered my service to them for free and they pay me if I got them where they wished to be. I certainly wouldn't pay any company that promised top ranking it just isn't a possible promise to keep and since the Google Panda update it has got a whole lot harder.

Thanks staffy, very helpful.

I am totally avoiding any companies that guarantee me a top place. But most do insist that spending approximately 500 for a month for 6 months would get me onto the first page for 2 keywords. Which in turn would make adding extra related keywords quicker to optimise.

What they offer is usually a minimum number of monthly links, directory listings, guaranteed directory listings, forum posting, profile links social website linking etc.

the keywords I need are extremely competitive, even locally (I am in London) but rivals are all pretty small companies. I'm not competing with large corporations. so the domain authorities aren't usually high which makes the SEOs feel i could have successful campaign.

but nearly all quotes I've gotten from reputable SEO companies are solid pricing. All are happy to discuss exactly what they're going to do for me though, so i don't think I'm being conned by the ones I've contacted but the packages do vary so each one is trying to sell me why there package is more suitable for me. Which is confusing for me.

what are the keywords you are looking for?

Glad to have helped a bit.

As mentioned above recent changes in Google have meant that the spammy ways aren't as effective as they used to be, which makes it harder in some respects but better in many ways. One thing that caught my attention in what you said above was forum profile links and targeting only 2 keywords (if that's what they meant).

My advice would be to go with the one that feels the most right to you? As it is a fair chunk of change when you are starting out but to the bigger SEO's it is small change.

Yeah I agree with that. Forum profile links are .. low power. They're just a link. Just like a footer signature on a forum - very little influence.

Yeah that's a company called micrositez-seo.co.uk.
Top when searching SEO UK.

They claim if I go for more than 2 keywords it is spreading myself too thin for a startup campaign.
Whilst another company called supermango (top when searching SEO london) will provide 10 keywords.

So better to get really high on 2 keywords, than average on 10. Is that not how SEO works? Or will having additional keywords not add a lot of work load because I'm guessing it is the link building that is time consuming.

I do need to do more reading on the matter before forking out something close to £3k, or more, on it.

Better to go for 2 than 10.

Because most business will be in the top 3 positions, some business on page 1. Lower than that - almost nothing.

So it's better to be at the top on 2 keywords, than on page 2 or 3 for 10.

There are many takes on this, as no one knows exactly what the SE's are looking for. We can make good guesses on tests that we run. Since the last changes in Google things have changed in more ways than many realise. Or our my testing shows.

The main thing with link building campaigns is to look natural and build them to look that way. A site suddenly getting loads of links in a short period all with the same keyword in the URL isn't natural and will raise alarm bells.

Also on page stuff and conversions are more important than rankings. You can get large amounts of traffic to a site and still have crap rankings. But if that traffic isn't doing what you want it's a waste of time, effort & money.

There definitely are no straightforward answers. I'm sure these SEO companies have people who know what they are doing, and doing or advising what they think is best, but each one seems to be going at it in a slightly different way.


Conversions is a whole different thing though isn't it?
Of course I have to work on that, but I would need a separate web designer wouldn't I?

There is a very fine line which crosses over quite a lot to be honest between design, conversions and SEO. Rankings alone will not get you what you need, so it is in the SEO's best interests to help you. Afterall the more success you see the more you are likely to recommend them or spend more.

Although some companies don't think that way.

To be honest most of the SEO companies will have in house developers, copy writers etc.. or have contacts who they outsource to.

It all depends on the market, product offered as to how far to take it and how much to spend. But I think you know that from what you have said already. You can probably get it to a good enough (for now) standard with some research and common sense. But is your time better spent running your business?

The only company I would point you to and that seems the best fit would be http://www.boom-online.co.uk/ I did some work for them 18months ago before I was taken ill. (over it now). They were ok then but like I say that was 18months ago. Ask to speak to Rob (he may remember me) and tell him Phil (from Stoke) sent you. He is pretty decent & should give you good advice, i'll email him and let him know you might be calling, if you like. (Before anyone says anything, I am not employed by them or affiliated with them).

Unfortunately I am unable to PM you on here or see your email address in trust to talk a bit more as I don't have the post count.