SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

How to spot the “Snake-oil” SEO Salespeople

SEO has gained a bit of a reputation in recent years of being a lot of smoke & mirrors and “money for nothing”, and quite rightly so in our view. Unfortunately, there are a number of companies that have sprung-up over the last few years who will happily promise the earth, take your money, and then not deliver.

So, how do you spot these companies?

There are usually a number of tell-tale signs. These are:-

1. A tele-sales team with a well-written script and all the objection-handlers on-tap.
A lot of these companies are highly sales-focused, and are usually the ones offering SEO at a very low cost. Our advice to anyone thinking of engaging an Agency, would be that you need to meet the people who will be doing the work face-to-face.  So many of the “snake-oil” sellers either don’t actually have any SEO experts, or they just farm your job out to a sweat-shop on India.  At Immedia Creative, you will be speaking to and dealing with SEO experts right from the off.  All our SEO work is carried-out by in-house specialists (not sub-contacted to India or anywhere else for that matter), and you will be assigned a Project Manager who will be your primary contact point.

2. Beware the man who promises the world!
If anyone promises you “guaranteed page 1 of Google” or anything similar, the alarm bells should be ringing in your ears.  No SEO agency can guarantee to achieve any specific position or ranking on Google or any other Search Engine. Not only does Google keep its search ranking software and algorithms highly secret, but they deliberately do not want the world to know how they score web pages, specifically because they don’t want people artificially taking advantage of their scoring system. At Immedia Creative, we simply promise to do the best we can for your website, using tried and tested white hat SEO techniques, and provide you with monthly reports and regular feedback on progress.

3.  Ask what you’re buying and exactly what they’re going to do for you.
If they can’t or won’t tell you, simply walk away.  Any SEO agency worth it’s salt will be happy to tell you exactly what they will be doing to help your website’s search presence, and will be happy to openly discuss this with you. The first step that we take with any new SEO client, is to carry-out a thorough SEO audit of your website. We will then go through our findings with you and explain exactly what actions we recommend taking and why.

4. Watch out for the “It’s all very complicated, and you wouldn’t understand it” syndrome.
SEO is not magic, it’s not something mysterious, and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s actually a very logical, common-sense subject, which requires planning, hard work, and patience. At the beginning of an SEO campaign, we will explain clearly to you how Search Engines work and what  you should expect to see.  We will also explain what your potential customers are looking for, and the steps that we will be taking to make your website as “search-friendly” as possible.  We’ll also highlight opportunities for actions that can be taken outside of your website to give your site the highest possible chance of success in the organic rankings.

What are Panda, Penquin, Hummingbird, and Pidgeon?

They are simply Google’s nicknames for it’s major algorithm updates.

Every so often, Google makes major changes to the way that it sees, scores, and ranks websites.  Sometimes this is due to to changes in technology (such as the move to tablet and mobile), but more often than not, these updates are to close loopholes and remove unethical “black hat SEO” practices being used by those trying to cheat the system.

Penguin for instance, dramatically changed the way that Google looked at and scored inbound links, and had a large negative effect on websites that used “link-farming” to force-optimise the site, Panda was focused around scoring high quality and engaging content, and Pidgeon (the most recent update), looks more at the “local” and “mobile” aspects of search, boosting sites that show great integrity in their location-based marketing and mobile-friendliness.

Google keep the exact details of their rules and algorithms secret, but do give us hints as to what they are looking for and what they will penalise. Our role is to keep on-top of these changes and to make sure your website is as compliant and “Google-friendly” as possible.

UK-focused SEO  for UK-focused Businesses

Our focus is solely on UK-based optimisation, for companies wanting to gain visibility and market-share of the UK market.

All of our SEO experts are UK-based. Our SEO tools are specifically setup for UK results. 100% of our work is focused on optimising your website for UK Search Engines, such as google.co.uk and bing.co.uk.

We do not use overseas contractors, as we have found that their software, training, and knowledge is usually based around practices that do not fit with the UK market. This combined with a lack of understanding and appreciation of British language and culture, can mean that although the graphs and reports look impressive, the real results are often disappointing and the phone still doesn’t ring.

Our UK SEO Packages

Local UK Search Package – from £195/mth

Our Local Search package is ideal for businesses that typically trade locally (such as retailers, bars & restaurants, garages, and trades). We will focus on gaining the maximum visibility for your business for searches which include your town or city.

REGIONAL UK Search Package – from £390/mth

Our SME package is designed for small and medium-sized business who operate regionally, and require a presence across the whole of a region (such as Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Greater London, etc.).. This package also includes optimisation for local searches.

NATIONAL Search Package – from £650/mth

Our National Search Package is designed for business that want to market themselves on a National level. This package is significantly more “far-reaching” in the ways that we carry-out the SEO and the platforms that we use, which allow us to broaden the number of keywords and phrases for optimisation and get to a geographically wider audience. This package is perfect for UK-wide Retail and Entertainment Chains, Online Retailers, Product Manufacturers/Distributors, Business Service Provides, and IT/Software Resellers.