subject: The Best Approach To Seo Consultation [print this page] As the CEO of your ecommerce company you should have a number of expectations from any SEO company that you hire to help you in your marketing efforts.
Analysis and Plans to Meet Goals
Every SEO company must analyze your companys particular situation and understand your business goals. You should expect to have a discussion of your companys mission your target market and your business goals. The SEO company should then develop a set of recommendations that are uniquely designed to help you meet those goals.
Communication with Principals
If you are a one man band for your company the communications path will be through you. If there are others in your company who may be handling the SEO liaison work you still need to be sure that you are involved in the communications loop. SEO strategies are fundamental to your success so decisions about them should not be entirely delegated to others.
You should expect the SEO company to establish a communications plan at the outset of their involvement. They should work with you to identify who should be communicated with how often and in what manner. They should also identify who will make decisions at specific levels of change or cost.
If you do not hear from the SEO company regularly take the initiative to find out why you are not in the loop.
Overall Site Structure is Important not Just Keywords
While most people associate keyword analysis with SEO work the keyword analysis is only a piece of the puzzle. The structure of your site is another key piece to high search engine page rankings. Your SEO company should be looking at your sites architecture e.g. navigation the site directory usage of tags and so on so that the site can respond effectively to the keywords that are being optimized.
Sharing and Teaching
Yes you have brought on an expert because you may not have the expertise. However, part of that experts job is to teach you the language and the art and the science of SEO so that you are left better equipped to handle your sites needs at the conclusion of the engagement. Beware of SEO companies that want to keep you dependent on them by keeping you in the dark about methods and rationale.
Remember the Goal is Conversions
Although you may have hired the SEO company to improve your search engine rankings you and they must always remember that search engine rankings are meaningless if they do not translate into traffic. Traffic is meaningless if it does not translate into sales. So, be sure that the measure of success you are using extends through the entire cycle to the right end point conversions.
Balancing Recommendations and Resources
You should expect the SEO company to understand that you may not be able to afford to implement all of their suggestions. You should expect the company to prioritize their recommendations in terms of cost and impact so your choices will be as clear as possible.