5 questions you’d better ask your SEO “guru”!

First off… I hate the word guru!

In my humble opinion, there’s no such thing as an SEO guru.  The fact remains that the Internet is a constantly moving organism.  What worked to optimize your website several years ago will not necessarily work today.  That being said, you want to be working with a group that acts as students of the web and consistently keeps up with the latest news, information and changes on the internet that happens every day. When we speak to potential customers, its seems we always hear the same questions and sadly, hear retorts of what others have mistakingly promised.  The bottom line take away from this is if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

How fast can you get me to the first page of google?

Many times I hear this and cringe.  When a potential client tells me that “so and so” said they can have them on the first page in a matter of days or weeks, I know it’s a half baked truth.  Most likely they are speaking of a pay-per-click ad knowing chances are the business owner they are speaking with may not know the difference.  Worse, they could be using something called “black hat” techniques that will only hurt the company in the long run.  Simply tell them the truth!  Search Engine Optimization takes patience and time. As the content within your site is optimized to match the services you offer to what your potential customers are searching for, your website becomes more relevant.  As your relevancy increases so will your rankings on the major search engines.

If you don’t know what Google’s algorithm changes are, how do you keep up?

If your being told that “they are leaked out on the web but we know how to find them”… or… better yet, “we have a very close connection with someone at Google”; you’d better be showing them the door.  The answer you should be looking for is “we are always testing and retesting our own websites to see what works and what doesn’t.  Most importantly we consistently attend conferences, share information, and belong to groups to stay on top of the industry. Education is the key to success.” (It doesn’t have to be those exact words but you get the idea.  )

How do you approach SEO? Can you give me an idea?

If the answer is “It’s really too complex to explain.  We just get the job done.”  Grrr.  What’s wrong with educating your potential client?  When you go to the doctor don’t you want to know what they’re going to do to you if you have a problem?  Don’t you feel more comfortable when the doctor tells you the good and the bad?  Tell them about the research that has to be done on their site to determine things like a proper title and description.  Explain the difference between good and bad inbound links.  Discuss Alt tags for images and  Improper domain canonicalization.  What about a sitemap?  These are all critical areas (among many others) that you need to know about.  Just explain them in layman’s terms just as your doctor would explain about your upcoming hernia operation.  (like my doctor just did to me… ugh.)

Are there any tools I can use so I can do my own SEO research?

If the answer is, “there are… but they are no good. We have proprietary tools that are foolproof.”  Another grrr!  The fact is there are plenty of tools that anyone can delve in to.  Free or paid.  We love it when a client wants to get involved with our work.  Google insights, SEOMOZ, Wordtracker, Google Alerts, (my favorite for competitive analysis on other sites)  and so many others.  A good business owner will know it’s not their specialty. Some just want to be a part of their own growth.

How do I know if what you are doing is working?

If the answer is, “You’ll receive a Google Analytics report monthly”.  Well that’s great!  What are they supposed to do with that?  If you’ve seen one (and I hope you have…) they’re not the easiest thing to decipher.  By all means make sure they have access to the report, but more importantly make it your business to discuss what’s happening in the report in layman’s terms.  Why a bounce rate may be high. (for example)  Explain what’s working and what’s not and explain what needs to be done to to fix it.  I should preface this by saying there are many times we’ve wanted to discuss analytics with our clients but they don’t always want to listen.  They’re getting conversions, traffic, and they’re happy.  At least we try.

There are lots of other questions such as blogging, video, etc that could be discussed.  Most importantly, understand if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.  Look for a team that wants to educate you.  You may not want to know it all but at least your advisor should be ready willing and able to share the knowledge.

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