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SEOSearch Engine Optimization encompasses a wide variety oftechniques in which your website can be better tracked anddisplayed by Google (the largest search engine). Throughcomprehensive management your site can have the largestchance of succeeding.

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With the recent Google algorithm changes,content generation, publishing, and bloggingare the keys to ranking a site and drivingtra�c. Through careful management, yourbusiness can reap the bene�ts of constantcontent.

Social Media Marketing is an important part of any business,large or small. As social media develops, businesses are �ndingnew and innovative ways in which to sell products and attractcustomers. Can you a�ord to ignore a possible revenue stream?

VIRGINIA SEO

Picking a SEO Company

The Right SEO Company – How To Hire Onevirginiaseo.org /blog/how-to-hire-the-right-seo-company-for-your-website/

Chris Dill

Why Your Website Needs SEO and How To Hire The Right SEO Company

You have built a business with your bare hands. Realizing that you need help can be tough to swallow.

At Virginia SEO, we are often called into meetings with small business owners who know they need help in the SEO front. Moreoften than not, these business owners have no idea WHAT sort of help they need. Often they know what the acronym SEOmeans, but they have a false impression of what SEO entails. Getting started as a small business owner on a topic that you arenot comfortable is tough. We often have to “hand hold” a client through the process, and this can really be a ton of fun. Wethoroughly enjoy SEO, and sharing it with people (especially small business owners) is great.

What Is SEO, Really?

Search Engine Optimization is a lot of things. It is optimizing your website structure, images, and code. It is speeding things upand removing errors. It is keywords and title tags, descriptions and image attributes. It is blogging and content generation, socialmedia integration and sharing, etc. etc. etc. We could talk about this stuff for literally hours without touching the same things.

Here is a great video from BlueHost, which explains the basics of SEO in a very easy to digest manner. I strongly recommendwatching it if you want to learn more about the basics!

Conversion Is Key

But what SEO really is, in its most base form, is conversion. Converting friends into readers. Turning readers into subscribers.Turning subscribers into customers. Turning customers into sales. Conversions are not just sales oriented, they are goaloriented. Let’s say that your website is for a non-profit whose goal is to inform the world about injustices going on in another partsof the world. That is not a sales driven goal, but it is still a goal- and converting people into subscribers so that they hear pressreleases and articles and news is what SEO is about.

How To Hire A SEO And Not Get Suckered

A SEO is a company or person with your interests at heart. They arenot in it for anything other than to help you- it is a service basedbusiness. A SEO brings expertise, advice, and skill to an equation,but they have to listen to you. A SEO is not an expert at YOURbusiness, so by working together with an SEO your endeavors havethe best chance for success.

If you go into a meeting with your SEO and they don’t listen to you,run the other way. If your SEO company does not work your ideasinto a marketing plan, they are not a good fit. If your SEO companydoes not meet with you and explain exactly what they are doing,they are a bad fit.

Cross Reference – Check The Data

We find another great tactic to find a good SEO company is to crossreference the company with another SEO company. For example:

I would like to hire SEO ABC and I ask them to send me a free report. They comply, and that report contains an action listof items they will do.

I will send the report to another SEO company and ask them what they think about the report.

SEO Lessons

A Second Opinion

This is not a surefire way, but it will give you a second (if biased) opinion. They might point out some items, which you can takeback to SEO ABC and ask for them to explain. I recently had this exact thing happen- a SEO company told a client they wouldsubmit their site to Lycos and a couple of other “search engines” that do not even exist, much less matter.

Even though you as the business owner might not fully understand the items mentioned by your SEO, ask questions! Ask them toexplain exactly what they are talking about, in easy to understand terms. If they can’t, or get impatient, or tell you they use“secret” algorithms, they are not a good fit for your company’s SEO needs.

Meeting Your SEO Objectives… In One Meeting

When you meet with your newly hired SEO, clearly explain your objectives to the SEO company. Tell them that you will beevaluating them, and that you expect them to explain things to you in lay terms. Ask them to explain not only what they will initiallydo, but what their long term goals and plans are.

Short Term SEO Goals

Short term goals include the actual optimization and planning:

On-page optimization

Content optimization

Keyword discovery

Directory submission

Search submission

Social profile optimization

Content strategy

Short term planning (marketing budget, AdWords, Facebook Advertising, etc)

Long Term SEO Goals

Long term goals need to be much more defined and should align with your goals, conversion goals, and business model. Look fora plan that takes into account your company information, plan, and market. I recently met with a client who told me that their longterm goal was to build a newsletter list and begin mailing out a monthly newsletter. This is a great goal, and when I outlined long-term goals for the company I included that: adding a signup to their website, offering free content after a sign up, funneling blogposts into a sign up, etc. Building their customer base is important, but also important is building their list, because that is a goaloutlined by the business owner.

The Bottom Line.

The point we are trying to make here is- you have built up aprofitable business. You are savvy, and you know what you aredoing in the business arena. Don’t let a SEO company come in andtake advantage of you because you don’t know the lingo or market.Sit back and make the SEO work to convince you of the value oftheir services. Don’t commit right there, even if you make up yourmind to use the service. Do competitive research and check prices.

These are all basic business functions and exist when evaluatingevery product. I see all of these basic principles fail when businessowners get flustered- and that is when a black hat SEO can move in.And that just ruins it for the rest of us, to be honest.

Photo Credit

Dusted Office by David Wall

So You Want To Learn Google EH by Atom Ray

Chris Dill

SEO Expert at Virginia SEO

Christopher Dill is a Christian entrepreneur who loves web design, marketing, and anything on a computer.He is the creator and author of The Dill Design, a local Virginia web design company . He also designed and runs Virginia SEO,which is a SEO/SEM and marketing company. By using both design skills and a marketing plan, he can offer his clients an end-to-end solution which can help a small business succeed.Chris is currently finishing up his Master of Information Systems at University of Phoenix, and works by day as a Senior NetworkEngineer. Chris' hobbies consist of technology, computers, and cutting-edge software.

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