Karen Skidmore's Kick-Ass Blog | CanDoCanBe

How to Choose an SEO Consultant

Knowing about how SEO (search engine optimisation) is one thing, but hiring an expert who can help you with SEO is another!  If it is an area that you don't much about (and to be honest, most of us feel this way about SEO don't we?), it can be pretty daunting finding someone who you feel you can trust and who won't rip you off.

But out-sourcing your SEO to an expert can be the best business decision you can make if you are serious about your online marketing strategy, and having had a coffee with Sam McArthur the other day, I thought you would be interested in her latest newsletter article:  How to choose an SEO Consultant.  Over to you, Sam.

For many small businesses starting out in search engine optimisation (SEO), one of the first things they look for is an SEO consultant who can help them decipher the jargon and understand how their website can rank highly in the search engines. However, as with any service, what an SEO consultant offers can vary hugely from one person to another, offering different promises and outcomes which can make the process of choosing the right person to work with quite difficult.

So what should you look out for when looking to choose someone to help you with your search engine optimisation?

1. Transparent Service:  Any consultant you hire, whether they’re offering search engine optimisation or even financial services, should be completely open about what they’re going to do for you. This is particularly important with SEO as it will involve your website which you own. You need to be told what kind of access they need to your website, what changes will be made, what the main processes involved are so that you know when you need to be involved. The process works two ways and your consultant should be working with you at each stage of the process they outline to you. They should not hide anything from you or refer to any ‘special’ techniques they claim to use.

2. Guarantees: No consultant worth bothering with will make guarantees as to rankings. No one can guarantee specific rankings in the search engines as the way that search engines rank sites is information that only the search engines themselves have. Absolutely no one else has this information, therefore no consultant can possibly make guarantees. Don’t touch anyone who guarantees rankings of any kind. I would even be dubious if you’re guaranteed specific traffic figures as no one can predict how many people will click on your listings from the search results.

3. Access to Your Website:  Any one optimising your website will need access to your site (to your web pages), unless you are competent at making changes to them yourself or you pass this onto your web developer. This is important as the optimisation involves making changes to your web pages. If any consultant says they don’t need access then you need to question this.

Some companies send traffic to sites via doorway pages hosted externally from a website and can literally turn traffic on and off, therefore when you decide you no longer want to work from them, your traffic stops overnight. This is one of the many cowboy tactics some search consultants use and we’ve written about some of these previously in Marketing Karma. Other tactics used could even lead to your site being banned from the search engines, so you need to make sure you’re crystal clear about what work will be done to your site (as in 1 above).

4. Relationship:  As with many companies you work with, you need to build a good working relationship. People buy from people so make sure you have a good rapport with whoever you choose. This can be particularly important if things don’t go as smoothly as planned, then any differences can be ironed out more amicably.

5. SEO Success:  Your consultant should talk about conversions through your site, return on investment and how much you’re making from your online marketing. If all your consultant is interested in is rankings, then avoid using them. Any consultant worth their salt will be interested in the return you’re getting from any campaign, advise on how you can make improvements to your website to encourage more conversions, even advise on how your online and offline fit together within your whole marketing mix. Don’t trust anyone who has no interest in this as rankings are no measure of success!

Finally, there’s no harm in asking for references and case studies of other companies the consultant has worked with. You can then get an idea of the results the consultant has gained for them. Also make sure you know what is required from you so that you understand the amount of input you're expected to contribute and that you can actually commit to your part of the process!

For more information on dodgy SEO tactics, download our white paper on Cheap SEO Services (in pdf format)

For more information about Sam and to sign up for her email newsletter visit her website:  www.forty-first.co.uk

Are you struggling to keep up with writing for your blog?

It's one thing to get started with a blog, but it can a whole different ball game to keep one going.

I know that from many of you out there, keeping up with writing blog postings can be hard work.  And I know this too.

I have been writing my Kick-Ass Blog for over 3 years now (wow - that's quite a long time, now that I have written that!) and I also write blog postings for my new business www.TheTrainersTrainingCompany.co.uk

And it was only the other week that I have decided to leave my How to do Email Newsletters blogsite alone for the moment - there are only so many blog postings a girl can write in week, after all!

But the most effective way I have found to keep up with all my writing (that's 2 blogs needing about 3 posts a week and 2 email newsletters that go out once a week/fortnight - not to mention other articles for magazines & online forums) is to have a blast morning.

When you are in the mood for writing, you can write for hours can't you?  And it can be difficult to be inspired on the days that you are due to write.

The easiest way to maximise on these blast mornings is to make use of the future publish option.  Write your posts one after the other and set the date to publish each postings for a date in the future. 

This post is being written on Tuesday this week, but I will set this to come out on Friday morning.  And when it gets published, it will be picked up by my facebook, plaxo, ecademy and twitter accounts and pushed out to my newsfeeds there.

When this comes out I will be having a coffee with a buddy of mine at the local farmshop coffee shop.

So, cheers and make the most of your future publishing date option.

Do home business owners need to be worried about the global recession

So, you don’t need me to tell you what is happening in the global markets, do you?  You just need to pick up a newspaper or switch on the TV to get the latest headlines about what is happening to the economy.

But what does all this mean to you - a self-employed professional or home business owner.

The important word in all of this is “Confidence”.

There is no doubt that some of your potential (and even some of your current) clients and customers are battening down the hatches.  They may be watching what they are spending and possibly cutting down on their budgets.

But to every down there is always an up.

I know of one trainer who has work scheduled until middle of next year - she focuses on helping companies through redundancies and provides out-placement services.

I know of another good friend who is suddenly looking at properties and making silly offers on one bedroom flats to have a few buy-to-lets up his sleeve for when the housing market goes back up.

Now, I’m not suggesting for one moment that you all decide to re-focus your businesses and become out-placement experts or go crazy with mortgages you can't pay! But now is the time to look carefully at what you offer and make sure it is desirable to your target client in the current climate.

And if you are confident about this re-thinking and confident that what it is you offer will make a difference to particular businesses and individuals out there, then there will be a greater chance that those businesses and individuals will make sure that their is a room in their budget for what you offer.

Keep your confidence high.  Take note of what is happening but remember to listen out carefully for the opportunities out there.  There are plenty out there for the taking.

Running a business without goals just slows you down

If you running your home business without any goals, you are slowing yourself down massively.

Now that my half-marathon is over and done with, getting myself out running again is hard work. I got out there this morning for an hour and I felt great.  But I lacked a sense of purpose.

What was I doing it for?

And it is the same principle for our own businesses.  If you don't have a focus or goal to aim for, then what you end up doing during the day will just slow you down.

Without goals, your busy-ness ends up as faffing.  And you have no direction to your day or your week.

The quickest way to get your business moving ahead at a rate of knots is to make sure you are very clear on where it is you are heading.

And if you need help in working out this clarity, get in touch. I may be able to help you with that ;o)

What we achieve depends on what we believe

For those of you who don't know, I ran a half marathon on Sunday.  And very proud of my time I was too  -  2 hours 19 minutes!  But training and running this race reinforced to me how important our beliefs are in ourselves when it comes to achieving our goals.

Because I had run a half marathon already - albeit 20 years ago when I was at Poly! - I knew physically it was possible.  I ran a 8 mile run as well as a 10 mile run in my training which again reinforced my belief that I could run this race and finish without stopping.

Running past the 10 mile mark on the day was a real mental push for me, because I knew I was running further than any of my training.  And for the last 3 miles I was pushed along by sheer will power.  At the end of the race I felt like collapsing and knew I couldn't run any further.*

Many people have congratulated me on my run (and sponsored me too, hint hint www.justgiving.com/karenskidmore!!) which has been amazing.  But a few have also commented how mad I must have been to do it.  "The furthest I have ever run is 4 miles" one friend said to me.

But what we achieve depends on what we believe.  I was no fitter or slimmer or healthier or stronger than the friend who made the 4 mile comment.  The only difference between us was that I believed that I could run this half marathon and went out there and trained for the day.

I am reflecting on my business once again and I think there are some things that I need to start making happen :)  What about you?

* But I bet I could have if I believed I had to run another mile or two to complete the race!

 

A Woman who runs her own business & does the housework - no way!

This is one is for all you ladies out there who not only run your own business but are also responsible for the shopping, cleaning and ironing.

I was speaking to a very good business buddy of mine today (she will remain anonymous - but you know who you are!!) and she was telling me about her awful weekend.  She was so behind on all her housework duties, that she threw her husband out with her 2 children to go & enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  Whilst they went for a walk and had a relaxing family time, she spent 2 hours scrubbing toilets, ironing shirts (her husbands!!) and finished off with a manic rush around Sainsburys!

"Why don't you have a cleaner?  Or someone to do the ironing? Or at the very least, shop online?" I asked.

Her answer?  A cleaner felt indulgent! 

Are you caught in this trap?  When you have a business to run during the week, do you find yourself justifying your time spent doing the cleaning?

When a cleaner or ironing person shouldn't cost you more than £7-13 an hour - work out how much your hourly rate is when you are running your business.  Do you get paid £7-13 an hour for delivering your services or products?  Thought not!

It makes perfect economic sense to me.  The answer is hire a cleaner immediately.