How To Choose An Agency
And avoid the coming zombie apocalypse
Who Am I?
I do work at an agency (but I am not a zombie) Got on the Internet in 1986 at my school lab Working online with search since 1996 Paid & Natural Search – all aspects Worked in-house within e-Commerce, Publishing & High Tech At i-level worked with Orange, COI, NatWest/RBS, National Gallery,
CIPD, Fidelity, GalaCoral, NBC Universal, Readers Digest, Bayer & more
At Beyond have worked with Virgin Trains, Family Search, Amadeus, AMD, AmEx & more
Chosen as a founding Modern Muse, contributed to a book on promoting websites, top finalist “Female Social Media Guru” (not yet awarded)
One of the SEO Chicks...and I blog at MostlyAboutChocolate.com
How to Start...
http://www.buyzombie.com/2007/06/12/zombie-clothing/zombie-shirts/zombie-pwnage-t-shirt/
How to Start...
Establish what your goals are
What level of help do you need
How much do you know about search
What is your budget and is the ROI worth it
What level of competition is there
Are your goals realistic given your budget
Is there an internal champion for the work?
Co-ordination between all agencies is a must
Guarantees – We Haz Sum
Credit: Declan McCullagh
Guarantees – We Haz Sum
No guarantees possible in natural search
No “special relationship” possible for most search engines esp. Google
Paid search can cost more than expected
Paid Placement in Yahoo not a guarantee
Social media exposure and fans no guarantee of conversion
Yes, the DDA is important
What *IS* Possible Then?
Adjusting on-site elements
Keyword analysis/research
Technical audit
Competitor/Gap/SWOT analysis
etc
Link building through on-site baiting, competitions, advertorials/advertising, etc.
Analytics-based intelligence & adjustments
Lots... Just not special secret relationships
Link Farms
http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=400446&expand=false http://www.flickr.com/photos/fifikins/4719789589/
Link Farms
Links built on farms are artificial
Built too quickly results in penalty
Profiling results in penalty
Wrong kind of link results in a penalty
This kind of building requires an extremely expert hand – look for recommendations from people already using service (i.e. LinkFish existing customers)
Expectations
http://io9.com/5080787/harold-and-kumar-director-takes-a-bite-out-of-corporate-zombies
Expectations
What the agency might do
What reports you can expect
Link-buying issues
Analytics
Analysis
Link analysis & reports – what you can do to check
How To Check An Agency Out
NewMediaAgehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/44124466908@N01/3971755099/
How To Check An Agency Out
Paid Search? Member of IAB, Google AdWords certification
No official SEO industry body but do have SEMPO membership (voluntary)
Check search results on name & social media on name
Companies House in the UK, other business registration services through government elsewhere
Due diligence Professional Indemnity Insurance Non-disclosure agreements Ask: Number of years in business, company
turnover, staff levels, staff split, awards, etc
How To Check An Agency Out
Case Studies Public visibility of staff Question methodology – not always possible to be
transparent but lots Things like level of reporting
Client levels – do they have lots or few & are any long-term
Escape clause – make sure you have one Input – if it is a retainer establish exactly what you
are getting for your money Excellent resource from the IAB -
http://www.iabuk.net/media/images/IABSearchAgencySelectionChecklist-UK-Final_2956.pdf
What Can I do If They Screw Up?
http://zombietools.net/
What Can I do If They Screw Up?
How have they done so
Can it be specifically traced to a change they made and
Can it be rolled back and if so does it fix the “penalty”?
If not, and it is traced to a specific change they made, and you can prove it, that’s what PI insurance is for
Fraud = police involvement
But Remember...
http://newmediapop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/zombie.jpg
QUESTIONS?
Judith LewisHead of SearchBeyond
Twitter.com/JudithLewis
www.bynd.com
www.SEO-Chicks.com
MostlyAboutChocolate.com