Google Webmaster tools recently released a video and article providing advice on how to hire a useful SEO and prevent hiring a bad one. As advocates of white hat SEO practices and strategies, we felt that it was important to address the video and article presented by Google on how we incorporate SEO best practices into our business and how we service our clients. Let’s take a look at how SEO Melbourne aligns with the article and the advice presented in the video by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead at Google.
Corroborate Recommendations with Google
Video [1:50]
“Request that they (the SEO) corroborate their recommendation with a documented statement from Google, either in a help center article, video, or Googler response in a forum, that support BOTH:
- The SEO’s description of the issue that needs to be improved to help with ranking.
- The approach they prescribe to accomplishing this task.”
As a video from the Google help centre, this extracted statement will work in itself to form the flow of this post. Following from this statement, SEO Melbourne will now explore other key take-aways made from the article and video:
Don’t Buy Links to Increase Page Rank
Video [2:40]
“…we strongly advise against the purpose of buying links for the purpose of increasing page rank.”
In our post; SEO Cowboys & Their Bad Link Building Techniques we warn our readers to steer clear of any SEO company or agency selling link packages to rank websites higher. We understand how such a strategy is not only bad SEO practice but will also have your website removed from the Google index. In fact, we have even explained in another post how to build back links to the benefit of your website using white hat SEO strategies, which of course are the strategies we use ourselves.
#1 Ranking Guarantee
Article: No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Video [1:40]
“SEO’s need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”
As advised, we cannot guarantee a #1 ranking for your website, in less than four months. However, we can guarantee two things:
- Our website (payments.seomelbourne.com.au) ranks as #1 on Google for keywords, ‘SEO Melbourne’ & ‘SEO’.
- We do strive to get your website a #1 ranking on search engines but we do not guarantee it. We only guarantee a first page ranking within 6 months using 40% to 60% of keywords. Most clients we work with see significant increases in traffic and ranking, most obtaining multiple number #1 and #2 rankings.
Interview the SEO
Article: Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants/agencies that send you emails out of the blue.
Video [3:36]
“Conduct a 2-way interview with your potential SEO. Check that they seem genuinely interested in your business.”
As we rank #1 on Google for SEO Melbourne & SEO, our clients find us online and contact us through our website. There is little need for us to email potential clients in the hope of gaining new business. Additionally, after we receive an enquiry from a potential client through our website, we then set-up a meeting (or 2-way interview), which gives us the opportunity to get to know the potential client’s business better as well as an opportunity for them to ask us questions about our SEO services. We do not run a churn and burn model many of our clients have been with us for over 2 years this is unheard of in the SEO world.
Check References
Video [5:08]
The second step in hiring an SEO is to check references. If your potential SEO provider has prior clients, be sure to check their references.
We have worked successfully with many companies and have included a Results Page on our website to allow the public to view our results for themselves. On our results page you can see the companies we have worked with and of course, the results we yielded in working with them and important for ourselves. We also provide a results section in our proposals, which we send to potential clients after they make contact with us.
SEO Education
Video [5:46]
They’ll want to educate you and your staff on how search engines work, so that SEO becomes part of your general business operations.
Educating you on how SEO works not only helps your business, but also makes it easier for us to work together. We have gone as far as to have compiled a range of in-house SEO videos to educate you and your staff on how SEO works as well as the associated services. You can find the videos in our SEO TV section, as well as on our SEO TV Youtube Channel. It only works in your business and our business’s favour to be transparent and ethical.
Technical & Search Audit
Video[5:54]
Step three is to request a technical and search audit.
The fundamental part of our SEO service stems from what we call an Implementation document – otherwise described by Google as a Technical and Search Audit. This is a document that we provide to our clients that details our recommendations, strategy and creative content strategy which in turn directs how to optimise our clients website to achieve their website goals – which most often includes ranking higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). No changes to the client’s website can be made without the implementation document, first.
Video [2:50]
“Doing what’s good for SEO is also doing what’s good for your online customers.”
Taking the video back a few minutes, we would like to iterate that we wouldn’t have the results or clientele we have now if we didn’t implement ethical or white hat SEO strategies. There’s no reason for us to use deceptive black hat SEO tactics to manipulate search engines, as it will only penalise our clients as well as our credibility and business. On the contrary, implementing white hat SEO tactics and best practices as advised by Google is only going to benefit our business, our clients and ultimately, our client’s online customers.
If you enjoyed today’s video, check out SEO Company Melbourne. We provide excellent services and content for all things SEO. Explore more now!
