Search Marketing - Sorting Quality From Spam
SEO is a very competitive. Everyone is chasing the number one position on Google – and for good reason. But how do you choose an online marketing firm that you can trust to deliver results?
The paradox of SEO is that it is both easy to measure (traffic increase, bounce rate reduction, conversion ratios etc) - and yet it is an area where you can be bamboozled by statistics.
Sadly the search marketing field it attracts a lot of ‘cowboys’. You will have received emails from SEO providers that warn you that your website is not ranking well, that they have done an in-depth analysis of your site and would like to offer their advice.
Take that unsolicited spam with a large pinch of salt.
These emails are mass produced. Even though they specifically mention your web address, they have “scraped” your contact details using an automated wen program.
In one particular email that a client asked us to comment on, the sender provided no specific information about their business, the information was all very generic. We advised the client: “They haven’t visited your site, let alone carried out an assessment, and send this exact same email to thousands of others. You’ll also note the poor language and grammar, and the fact that their own website that they provide a link doesn’t actually exist.”
For a company stating that “Apart from SEO we also provide Website Designing and Development, Mobile Apps, Internet Marketing, ecommerce solution, etc……” to not have their own website rings alarm bells loud and long.
The Unsubscribe link was a Gmail email address. In other words, they were using “unsubscribe” as a way to confirm the email address, rather than unsubscribe it.
An ethical digital services company won’t ever send you unsolicited spam emails of this sort, as it’s in direct contravention of the Australian Spam Act 2003.
Do the research yourself and identify some credible Australian agencies to approach. Here are some considerations to bear in mind:
- At Boylen, we ask you to begin with the end in mind. In other words, not only do we ask “What are your goals?” but we also ask “What do you want your website visitors to do?”
- That way you are not only measuring how many people come to your site. You are measuring what they do. You are also measuring what they don’t do, which is just as important in conversion campaigns.
- The other crucial point is to talk to the team that will actually do the work. If you can’t, this is a red flag. If you can but you don’t understand what they are telling you, that’s a sign that they don’t understand your business and nor do they understand you. Move on!
- It’s one thing to get your site to the top of search engines. It’s another thing to get the right traffic – buyers rather than ‘tyre kickers’ – and to entice the visitor to click where you want them to click.
- Content is critical. Google insists on quality content that is updated. Can you talk to the people that will write your content? Have you read examples of their work? Have you run it through the free version of Copyscape to check that they haven’t plagiarised (stolen) it from another website.
