4 Great Tips for Choosing the Best SEO and SEM Company

By now, you’ve heard about the importance of implementing search engine marketing (SEM) into your marketing strategy. But if you’re not well versed in the tactics of online marketing, you’ll probably opt to hire a company to do this for you instead of trying to tackle it yourself.

Hiring an experienced SEO and SEM company is a great way to ensure that this task is placed in the hands of professionals who know what they’re doing and how to do it effectively. But how do you know which company to choose?

The rise of Internet marketing has spawned a great number of businesses claiming to be the expert in SEO and SEM, and if you’re not careful, you could end up placing your company’s web presence in the hands of the wrong company.

When it comes time to choosing an SEO or SEM company, make sure to use the following tips to help you make the best choice.

1. Experience
Even though SEO and SEM haven’t been around forever, it’s still important that you choose a company that has years of experience in the field. These companies have worked with clients in varying industries, have survived the algorithm changes by the search engines and have learned what works and what doesn’t. Make sure that you’re choosing a company with solid roots and not one that just sprouted out of the ground.

2. Search Engine Ranking
If you want to hire a company that will give you the best results, you should choose a company whose tactics work on their own website. If an SEO or SEM company that you’re considering does not rank on the first two pages of a search engine search, you’re better off forgetting about them. If a company can’t even increase their own visibility, what do you think they can do for you?

3. Reputation
SEO and SEM cannot be created, implemented and generate results overnight. These tactics can take months before they’re marinated enough to show their progress. For this reason, you want to make sure that you’re hiring a company with a  great reputation.

If the company has a bad reputation, you don’t want to partner with them because you’ll be stuck with this bad partnership for an extended period of time. Instead, make sure that past clients are pleased with the company, and also make sure that their values align with yours.

4. Price
Price is always a deciding factor. If you simply don’t have the budget to hire the best of the best SEO/SEM company, then don’t. There’s no reason to go bankrupt trying to climb higher in the search engines. Instead, always make sure you know exactly what you’re going to get for the price you’ll be paying, and always get this information in writing.

Choosing the best SEO and SEM provider can be a time consuming task, but it’s important that you thoroughly research and interview your options before making your final decision. The success of your online campaigns depends on it.

Caroline Jones

About the Guest Author:

Caroline Jones is a marketing professional specializing in metrics-based SEO strategy.  You can read more of her work at Viral Mom.