Choosing a Website Optimization Company That Rocks
With all of the changes occurring in Google with “over-optimization” and sites being penalized for having too many optimized backlinks, it is hard to determine who trust in the web marketing industry.
Many SEO and website optimization companies have been on the radar for sketchy practices that have resulted in their clients’ website dropping in the search results. This has compelled us to write a post on what to look for when choosing a website optimization company, and choosing one that rocks.
How Does Your SEO Company Build Links?
Relentless, overly keyword-optimized link building practices (although once effective) has killed many SEO campaigns for numerous websites. The tables have turned, and now a balance of backlinks is the key to attaining a sustainable high ranking in Google’s results. But what constitutes a balanced backlink portfolio?
Solid website optimization companies that have adapted to the latest Google algorithm change (namely “Penguin”) have evolved their link building strategies. Instead of building nothing but backlinks with exact phrase match anchor text, a diverse backlink portfolio is the formula for effective SEO results. This includes:
- A blend of do-follow backlinks and no-follow backlinks (perhaps 80% to 20%). This includes those seemingly worthless blog comment links, in conjunction with high authority backlinks from powerful domains
- Anchor text variations that include only partial use of keywords, rather than using exact phrase match all the time (also known as ‘partial linking’)
- Use of the URL or domain in the anchor text (one of the most natural links forms)
- Build links from only relevant content sources that pertain to the anchor text and its URL destination (also known as ‘contextual relevancy’)
When seeking a stellar website optimization company or SEO provider, ask them about their link building service and what sources they use. Companies that utilize very private and niche-focused blog networks are still generating great results for their clients. This is because the content on these blogs is custom written for relevancy, and links are built carefully using a blend of anchor text variations.
Additionally, good website optimization companies are will still employ old-school link building practices like blog commenting, directory submissions, and use of social signals. In short, building a diverse and very natural backlink portfolio is what you are looking for.
Does Your Website Optimization Company Offer Technical Skills?
Anyone can build links and write keyword optimized page titles and meta tags. However, only the strongest organic SEO companies and website optimizers offer technical expertise to pinpoint weaknesses and opportunities in your site’s back-end.
The HTML coding structure of your website must not go overlooked. Some self-proclaimed SEO and web development firms fail to consider the SEO repercussions of using code-cumbersome CMS platforms, or Flash-heavy web designs. The result of such negligence will lead to a slow loading site and inefficient crawling and indexing by search engine spiders. In essence, lack of awareness in a website’s back-end is recipe for disaster.
Ask your future website optimization experts what kind of technical experience they offer. If they provide content management systems software, ask them what CMS platform they use and do a bit of research on the SEO-friendliness of the software. Proficient website optimization companies will have it together, and will probably explain all of the details of their web development and/or CMS capabilities right then and there.
How Effectively Does Your Website Optimization Company Communicate?
This touches of various forms of communication. Does your website optimization company:
- write quality content for sites that respects both read-ability and keyword inclusion?
- provide detailed monthly reports that show rankings, website analytics, as well as insights and strategies moving forward?
- have a blog to keep clients and other interested readers up-to-date on the latest happenings in the industry?
- involve itself with social media marketing and other significant web marketing channels?
Effective communication is key for almost any type of agency. Get to you know your website optimization company as much as you can before making any commitments. If have mixed emotions or strange gut feeling about a certain company, it’s probably best that your cross them off your list of potentials.
This article written by Tyler Tafelsky, one of our SEO & Website Optimization Specialists here at Web Presence Group.
