So why choose a UK SEO firm or company? Does it really make a difference where an SEO specialist is based? Well, this very much depends on the type of job you want them to do and how you want to work with them. The truth is there are many different SEO firms out there based in many countries outside of the UK – but do they understand your business, your climate, marketplace, your customers and even any cultural differences? These are all fundamental points to consider before you make a decision.
One thing we have noticed over the last few years is the increasing number of low price SEO services around in India and the far east. We are not saying for a moment that all of these services are inferior to those from other companies in the UK, USA or Europe and we would certainly encourage you to get the best value you can. But do bear in mind that a lot of these firms are just about doing the basics of SEO and may not give you the targeted program you are looking for.
As we said earlier, this all boils down to value – what is good value and what does that actually mean. Well, good value should mean a good deal and good ROI. This means that you pay a fair price and you can justify that cost in 3, 6 or 12 months time. If you can look back after any investment and say “That was worth it” then that is good value.
Unfortunately, a lot of companies who say they are specialists are actually just doing the bear minmum. They rarely spend any time on getting you good external links and those they do get are on irrelevant sites outside of your niche and/or they are links that will only hold link value for a very short space of time. The reason for this short-lived value is due to the fact they have added links on sites with little or no authority. If they add the same article or content to multiple sites then most of these will get marked down for duplicated content and your link will be worthless. This is why it needs to be a more targeted approach.
On the internal side, a UK SEO company (or any for that matter) should adopt a very thorough routine when it comes to your site design, structure, navigation, on site SEO and internal linking systems. If they do not spend the time capturing information about your site, then how can they work on it effectively? The work they should be doing includes:
- Keyword research – any good UK SEO company should do this in detail
- Take a look at the architecture of your site – basically how flat your site is for visitors and search engines. This means how easy it is for both to find your key pages in as few clicks as possible from the home page
- Install analytics and webmaster tools to see diagnostics and crawl errors
- Use the same tools to see movements in keyword search positions
- Check on how your main pages link to each other
- Look at meta tags, keyword density and Header tags
These are just a few of the things a decent UK SEO company should be looking for. Working with the right one ensures a very profitable long-term relationship and a great boost to your website and business from an SEO and online marketing perspective.