How to know if a seo company is legit and would produce results?

[levalencia1]

Earlier  I asked this http://www.seomoz.org/q/seo-affordable-company

and 2 days later I was contacted by a person from a company called optimaltargeting

They are not in the seomoz recommended list of companies, but the ones in that list are more expensive.

I tried to do searches with their name and rip off or scam, and I couldnt find anything bad about them.

I talked with them over skype and they say they do white hat SEO, and linking is manually done.

They couldnt promise any results, NOR any estimate of new visits.  My visits are at 6k PER month, and I was thinking that a good seo company should be able to get to 25K in 3 months. 50K in 6 months 100K in 1 year. for my website (www.theprinterdepo.com)

Would you suggest me to go forward with this one?

[toddmumford]

It's not about traffic increases necessarily, and although traffic is great, basing results on that metric alone will land you in trouble.

You need to know, specifically, what keywords and keyword clusters will convert with your customer and resonate with your customer when they visit your brand.

I would look at the portfolio of any SEO company before proceeding with services.

I would ask for references.

I might check the local BBB.org to see if they are listed

I might check Google to see if they are well known, have results themselves, are talked about positively.

[Elchanan]

Just want to add to the above answers.

Very simple: Call (not email) their clients!

[wojkwasi]

Define your business objectives first - this should be based on some sort of conversion on the site rather than total traffic numbers. Then look for ways to get targetted traffic.

[MoosaHemani]

Good services usually charge a lot but if you think throwing money will give you traffic and sales and time isn’t a factor so I don’t think this will be a legit point.

1. This example might work here! suppose you are at level 2 and to move up to level 3, you need to answer 5 questions... you answered those questions and move up to level 3 but now to move up to level 4 you again have to answer only 5 questions but this time questions won’t be as easy as it was in level 2

similarly, when there is enough space for traffic to get in EPIC you can do that but as soon as you are on top of all major keywords and enough traffic is coming in, now if you need to increase the traffic, the work load will be double or even more because you have to be extra creative, be active on other inbound areas and many more…

So, to achieve your goal one need to research and set the timeline accordingly.

Also, Search Engine change a lot in the past 2 years, Panda Update, Penguin and more… within the last one year search engine changes a lot in their approach towards websites. It won’t be wrong to say that SEO 2 years back was quite an easy job as compare it from today!

[EGOL]

So do you have 100K now?

[levalencia1]

I am not a seo expert but I dont agree at all.

2 years ago we had a seo company, our visits were 8K, and they increased to 25K in 4 months.  SO this is not highly unrealistic.

Their job also increased sales by more than 50%.  The only caveat it was very expensive.

[TheGrid]

"a good seo company should be able to get to 25K in 3 months. 50K in 6 months 100K in 1 year. for my website"

That is highly unrealistic. It would be great if it worked that way though.

[My-Favourite-Holiday-Cottages]

I think first you need to work out what numbers are actualy important to you, and research what is realistic.

PA, DA, PR, Traffic, Bounce rate, all are rather poor measures of anything other then 'bigger abitary numbers' without context. They're things you use as part of working out your progress towards the important numbers, not usually as goals themselves.

If your selling something, measure sales. See what else the SEO company can suggets you can measure, and see if those goals sound realistic and if they are important to you.

For us, the type of traffic makes a world of diffrence. Just the number means nothing. We were getting more and more traffic of people seeking for a very specific items, but no traffic for the general. Goal based metrics help differenciate between 'traffic' and 'People doing X which brings Y Value'

[MoosaHemani]

Well the reason why I might say No are due to the following two reasons!

1. PR of Google does not update regularly so even if the contractor is working it might not help in meeting the KPI!
2. Generally moving from 1 to 7 in a year is even not doable target in my opinion

I think the target should be set which are effective for your business as well as for contractor! This can be:

-          1^st Page ranking from the head keywords in a year

-          Certain amount of increase in traffic and conversions.

-          Brand Value in different online medium that include social!

And similar KPIs that can be set after the detail analysis of the project from different angles!

[levalencia1]

Its probably better to have goals using different number? Like pagerank, mozrank and other numbers I can see ob seomoz pro account? Maybe its better a company who can do seo and conversion optimization at the same time? My pr is1. Increase it to 7 is it doable in 6 months? Or I shouldnt take this into account as a goal?

[MoosaHemani]

Pretty much agreed with your point! In my opinion, website owner should discuss the goals and expectations with the contractor and clear the stuff before getting started or else the investment will be a big risk!

[EGOL]

traffic is not a good KPI

Exactly.  An SEO could produce junk traffic in an attempt to reach a traffic target but if none of that traffic buys then it is a waste of effort.

But there is another problem.  The website owner might not sell at a competitive price or have a website that does not convert well.  There the KPI could be outside of the SEO's control.

What is doable?

There is a lot of traffic in the printer niche but there is also a lot of muscle. What is doable depends upon the keywords used and the existing competition for them.  That would take a lot of study and the results would be a guess.

[MoosaHemani]

My 3rd point about discussing the project in detail is for the same reason! because this didn't seems to be a do able target!

The other thing that is wrong in my opinion is that traffic is not a good KPI, but KPI should include the %age of goals increased (that may be leads or sales) may be Rankings, and other similar KPIs!

[levalencia1]

Why? They are too high? Not doable? What is doable for you?

[EGOL]

My visits are at 6k PER month, and I was thinking that a good seo company should be able to get to 25K in 3 months. 50K in 6 months 100K in 1 year. for my website

If this is your expectation then I think that you are going to be very disappointed.

[Aran_Smithson]

Can the SEO company in question produce any testimonials or can you speak with one of their existing customers?

[MoosaHemani]

Checking out for RIP off and Scam reports are great and if you didn’t find any even greater! But here are few things that you must consider before handing over a project to them!

• Community Contribution

If they are a company who understands the SEO of the 21^st century and if they know how Google is changing from time to time they must knew about the power of sharing content to the community and get most out of it!

Ask them about what and where they have shared the content with the community? If they didn’t have any valuable content that they have shared with the community then you must consider a change!

• Real Time Community Interaction

This is another thing that can’t be faked. Go through their Twitter and Facebook account and see how they are engaging with the community and especially influencers. If their personal company profiles are dead then the doubt is valid!

• Discuss the Project!

No one can guarantee results and this is quite common but do they discuss the project? And do they think that your goals are achievable (that you have mentioned here)? If not then they are not the ideal people to deal with!

But, if they have a sound content that they have shared to the community and if they are contributing real-time with the community and influencers in the similar niche and above all if they are taking interest and discussing in detail about your project then they are the ideal people to invest your money!

Best of Luck!

[jim_cetin]

the visits alone wont buy anything

a basic search wont bring you enough results too, you'll need to dig deeper (projects they've done, who's linking to them etc.)

your magento shop looks good and a quick SEO look;-) does show good results too.

I would recommend to look for SEM and/or portals who could bring you new customers, if not already done!

[Vivamedia]

One important thing to keep in mind is that you need to have a great connection between both parts. if you have a good communication, understand each other and make progress, then its good (even small SEO agencies can deliver).

I would suggest you to try a "pilot project", give them a shot and let them help you with one smaller problem that you have. Then evaluate.

• Satisfied = give them a bigger task and then evaluate again
• Not satisfied = try a pilot project with some one else

Good luck!