How to Choose a Search Engine Marketing Firm
Many marketing organizations are unable to stay abreast of the ever-changing search engine marketing landscape and thus, fail to take full advantage of it. And their Ad agency and web development teams just don't have the needed skills. There is good reason for this when you consider the skill set required to be successful.
The best search engine marketing firms will have deep knowledge and skills in three key areas: search engine and web analytics tools and technologies, best practices for search engine marketing, and operational experience developing and implementing corporate and marketing strategies. This diverse set of skills ranges from the detailed knowledge of search engine algorithms and software programming required to optimize a modern website, to the understanding of your business and the selling/ relationship skills needed to recruit the appropriate linking partners (to build up your web site's PageRank), to the most effective paid search and SEO marketing practices.
Some larger companies have built their own internal online marketing experts, but most companies can't afford this luxury, or they bring in expert consultants to handle particularly tough challenges. With or without the in-house capability, these companies build a partnership with a top online marketing firm like StratiMind that specializes in providing a comprehensive set of search engine marketing services.
Search Engine Marketing Firm Checklist
Before you hire a search engine marketing partner, here is a checklist of things to consider:
- Comprehensive SEM skill set with experts in all the search engine marketing tools, technologies and techniques.
To get the kind of results you want, hire a SEM firm with the demonstrated expertise in search engine marketing tools, technologies and techniques. Hiring SEM partners without the requisite programming skills is a great example of where some clients get into trouble.
Here is a short list of capabilities you should be looking for in a search engine marketing partner:
- SEM analysis and strategy development
- ethical search engine optimization (SEO), including HTML coding and hosting of test pages
- paid search program design (also called pay-per-click, PPC, search engine advertizing and sponsored listings)
- paid search keyword buying and campaign management
- web site architecture optimization
- link popularity program design and implementation
- search engine and directory submission services
- ongoing search position reporting and maintenance programs
- search ad copy design and optimization
- landing page development
- click-through reporting and ROI analysis
- lead conversion analysis, click-path analysis and optimization
- dynamic (database-driven) web site SEO
- Current knowledge of best SEM practices.
The search engine marketing discipline has gone through dramatic changes in the past couple years and continues to evolve rapidly. In choosing an SEM expert, be sure that they maintain a current knowledge of SEM best practices. The search engines are constantly upgrading their algorithms such that a technique that was important last month is no longer considered important, and vice-versa.
And keep in mind that not all SEM firms will have your best interests in mind. These so-called "black hat" SEO consultants employ unethical optimization techniques that are explicitly and implicitly prohibited by the search engines. And as a result, they put your web site at risk of being penalized by the search engines (which can be a real dissaster).
- Deep knowledge of search engine technologies and web programming
When optimizing your web site, many SEM firms will just give you reports and lists of recommendations, and leave the programming for you to figure out. Don't fall into this trap. You will want to be sure that your SEO partner is willing to implement any changes they recommend by actually modifying your HTML code. They should then host these modified pages on their own web site for you to review. This accomplishes a number of important things:
- you know that the recommendations can actually be implemented in a way that does not compromise the quality of the human visitor experience
- you get to review the trade-offs that will be necessary, and make rapid iterations to each page before you accept the deliverable
- you get your optimized web site much faster because you avoid the lengthy delays associated with your webmaster or IT department having to make the coding changes - and guessing at how best to implement them
- Extensive operational experience in senior marketing roles. There is simply no substitute for the wisdom and insights that come from building a corporate and marketing strategy and then being responsible for implementing that strategy while running a marketing organization. This kind of background will enable your SEM partner to think and act much more strategically on your behalf, and deliver the kind of "Wow!" results that get attention in your organization. Many traditional firms are built on a hierarchy model, where the top executives do the selling and the worker bees do the implementing. Don't settle for this "bait and switch" approach. Independent firms can deliver "all senior executives all the time" consulting at comparable prices because they don't have the fixed overhead of traditional firms.
- Results-oriented, collaborative approach. You will want to have a partner that is compatible with your style of working and is willing to roll up their sleeves and operate as an integral part of your team when necessary. Avoid firms that claim to have all the answers, or who promise to go away and come back with them - SEM is just not that black and white. There are dozens of tradeoffs at every stage of the process, and you will want a firm that can work through them with you safely and efficiently. You should also insist on establishing metrics for your SEO projects, and budgets for your paid search programs. While no search engine marketing firm can guarantee you a particular search position in the natural search results, you should be able to work with your SEM consutling expert to establish schedule milestones and basic improvement metrics in terms of position and CTR. As you gain more experience in your keyword space, you can refine these metrics together with your SEM partner.
- Track record of client success. You will want to work with a firm that can produce the results you are looking for, and the best way to judge this is by what they have already done for other clients. While most SEM consultants will gladly tell you about successes they have had, or hand you anonymous testimonials from un-named companies, it is always helpful to validate their claims and gain that more objective point of view by actually speaking to reference clients.
Where to Next?
Learn about How StratiMind Measures Up Against These Criteria
Request a Quote From StratiMind
Back to the description of StratiMind's Search Engine Marketing Services
Ready to talk to the experts? Call or email us to set up an appointment to discuss your specific needs, and join the growing list of satisfied StratiMind clients.
