At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we know that every site has unique features and individual needs. That is why our campaigns are adjusted to fit the specificities of individual sites.

If a site is a showcase for goods and/or services then it makes sense that it should try to offer excellent value for money. However, taking part in a ‘race to the bottom’ will not be profitable long term. Therefore it makes sense that quality is central to what an online firm delivers, day in, day out. If a site bases its appeal squarely on high quality, it should not be afraid of reviews. If it gets a positive review it may get more traffic from users and it may also benefit from the reference in the competitive struggle for rankings in the search engine results pages. Even a mixed review may be a boon, because users may be interested by the evaluation and will appreciate its likely authenticity. Reviews may also bring links and link acquisition from relevant sites can be very beneficial.

The question, then, is not whether reviews are positive or negative for a site. The question is actually how they can be sought in an ethical fashion. This is something which can be discussed with a specialist search engine optimization firm. Getting a review of your products and services on a relevant review site is not always straightforward, but it can be accomplished. Once one review has been obtained, it is often a bit easier to get another. Blogging and guest blogging can raise your profile. Reviewing other sites in a positive fashion may also be of assistance. One recommended technique is to link with a suitable review site. However, links should be used in accordance with the advice of an experienced expert.

Some firms have received and understood the idea that good reviews are good for their business. However, their enthusiasm has tempted them into faking positive reviews. To avoid users detecting their malpractice, some firms have established review sites to house their own fake reviews. They have then mixed up highly positive reviews with some less impressive ones. Despite their subterfuges, such firms have often been caught out. If their services do not match their reviews, customers are likely to cause problems.

Trying to get your site reviewed is good SEO, but trying too hard or being less than straightforward can be a big mistake.

It is far more desirable to approach a specialist with some knowledge of their subject, and in SEO, that is not too difficult to do. Even so, there is a distinct possibility that when your SEO company’s assessment of your site comes in, a lot of the information on that assessment won’t be expected. A good search engine optimization company will be able to answer your questions, and you can discuss any optimization concerns with our experts at www.seoconsult.co.uk. It can also be a good idea to know what to look for on your site to estimate the SEO work to be done.

1. Assess your pages. The things you should be looking for on your pages include the amount of content you already have, your existing link profile, any disputes with the search engines you’ve had in the past, and your current site structure. It can help to draw up your site structure on a page to check for clear paths. Use some of the free online search engine optimization tools available to give you a head start on where your current site is in terms of SEO.

2. Sort out your desired outcomes. It’s a good idea to look at your current desired outcomes for SEO, and any outcomes you’ve aimed for in the past. Having made some attempt at optimisation in the past is something that should be taken into account in your current optimization attempt. Your previous work could either help your current campaign, as there will be an established good history with the search engines, or it could hinder it if the work wasn’t done well.

3. Sort out areas of concern. If everything was going swimmingly with your site, it’s unlikely that you would be approaching an SEO consultant. Make a list of the problems you think need to be addressed.

These three steps won’t enable you to prepare an SEO plan yourself, but should help you to get an idea of what needs to be done.

Before you start your assessment, it’s important to consider the time factors involved in SEO. Although it might take you only a few hours to review your site, SEO professionals can take between 30 and 70 hours to properly assess a site and build up an optimization plan. The time required will depend on the size of the site, and the kind of work involved. A small site is generally considered to be anything under 1000 pages.

Most SEO companies work on several sites at once, so it’s important to allow a suitable period for your optimization. Although a company may estimate that they’ll take 30 hours to assess your site, they are likely to require a period of weeks to get the results back to you. This needs to be allowed for in your schedule.

“Internet Activity Is Up
A significant 76 percent of respondents reported that they’re relying more on web-related activities, especially with regards to marketing and sales. Of this group, 42 percent revamped their website or increased SEO activity. Others are using more email marketing and utilizing social networking.

Bottom line: the low cost of internet activity is moving many companies to market more aggressively online.”

What this means is that the SEO industry is a whole lot luckier than many industries that have been severely affected by the flagging economy. However, this doesn’t mean that those in the SEO industry should take it easy but see this as an opportunity to be more aggressive in selling their SEO services with savings and value as the main pitch. Note though that while businesses are upping their SEO efforts the fact that they are looking for good value SEO will mean that SEOs will also have to up their game since competition will even be more stiff. Clients will be looking more into tangible results. Value isn’t just about lower costs but how much results can be squeezed per dollar. So show that you can deliver the results clients need and you can be sure that this economy won’t see you fold.

4. Lots of Savings – For many businesses this is the factor that really comes to play when deciding between hiring a professional SEO or doing their campaign in-house. Though some might think that this should not be a factor to consider, while it might be true for bigger companies (don’t be such cheapskates!), those with really low budgets can’t really be blamed for trying to cut costs.

There are some “professional SEO firms” out there that might offer their services at very reasonable prices (read: dirt cheap) but you should be wary of such firms. If they claim to have plenty of experience and do top-notch work how come they don’t charge according to their abilities? In the end you might be better of spending money on an internal team (or yourself) who will do the job just as well as those “professional SEOs”.

3. Learning from Your Mistakes – Mistakes are inevitable especially in the field of SEO where much of the factors and the weight of each factor is not really known even to the experts. Since search engines treat their algorithms as top secret material (and why not?) SEOs end up having to do much guess work to find out which really works or not. Of course since professional SEOs have been at it sometime amateur SEOs have the benefit of the resources they give. However if you’re going to do your SEO yourself you will find that your standing in SERPs will quickly teach you if your methods work or not.

As you learn from your mistakes you will realize in time that the experience gained is indeed worth the effort. Who knows? Maybe after several years you’ll turn out to be very good at it and become a professional SEO yourself?

2. Responsibility – Although you have absolute control over your SEO campaign its flip side is that you also carry the burden of sole responsibility for the campaigns outcome. In case of failure or problems you won’t have anyone to blame but yourself. If you have an in-house team doing the job finding out who is responsible is also a lot easier. Pointing fingers and blame-shifting is less likely since everyone’s responsibilities are clear cut.

In another light since the SEO campaign being done is for your very own company then people working on the campaign will take their responsibilities to heart since they have a personal stake in seeing the SEO campaign really work. This is especially true if you alone are doing? the entire SEO for your website. This makes a whole lot of difference because a person who feels personally responsible for something will surely go to greater lengths to ensure success.

1. Absolute control – This is one of the major advantages of using an in-house SEO, especially if we’re talking about YOU doing the SEO yourself. This means changes can be made the instant you make a decision. This results in time savings in a way since you won’t have to wait for your decision and vision to be communicated properly, mulled over by your hired professionals, and confirmation to be sent back to you before they can even start making any changes.

Even if you have to collaborate amongst yourselves it is much easier to call an in-house meeting than making arrangements with an outside firm. With an in-house SEO team you and your team can do what you want when you want to.

Aside from this there’s really no one to question your decisions, which could make any changes even longer to be implemented.

For the past several posts we’ve highlighted the advantages of hiring a professional SEO firm to handle your SEO campaign. For the next posts we will now talk about the advantages of an in-house SEO.

By in-house SEO we mean to say that you don’t need to hire additional people to develop and implement your SEO campaign for you. For a small business or a personal site that aims to go big this usually means that you yourself will be the in-house SEo. That means that you get to do SEO hands on and that regardless of your experience and knowledge or lack of either or both you will be doing your websites SEO on your own. For a company with a larger workforce (especially if you are an IT company) this usually means that the SEO campaign will fall into the hands of your employees or subordinates who have more experience and knowledge in the field of SEO or at least a skill set that’s better suited to learning more about doing SEO.

6. Efficiency and Time – Perhaps this is one of the greatest advantages of hiring a professional SEO. Due to the vast experience of professional SEOs it follows that they are more efficient in dealing with things and as a result can and will save you a lot of time in terms of project planning and implementation. SEO IS very time consuming and if someone inexperienced handles your SEO campaign you can be sure that either you won’t be able to follow your desired timetable or that if you do your timetable will be much longer as opposed to the one you could have followed if you use a professional SEO.

Note though that by professional SEO we are talking about the real professionals here. There are a lot of SEO firms that claim to be professionals when in truth they are just start-up firms who don’t really have the experience nor expertise to be called professionals. So be choosy when you do hire an SEO to do the job for you and make sure you actually hire a real professional.