Many products and services are available online these days, and the consumer is often spoilt for choice. He or she normally tries to make an educated choice before buying said goods and one of the most commonly used method is the search engine.
There are many different search engines on the web and Bing, Yahoo and Google are often the most used ones. They employ various techniques and algorithms and present out a list of the products/ services in their ‘Results’. A user normally checks out the top few sites on the result page and tries to make a decision on that. Those sites present at the lower end of the list are most likely ignored. Now this can be a major loss to the businesses.
Many businesses often hire a Search Engine Optimizer. SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Optimizer and these firms assure you that they will put your site at the top of any Search Engine result. As with most things, there are ethical and unethical companies out there and its up to the hiring firm to do their homework before they decide on whom to hire.
One of the companies offering this service is results first seo who claim to be the leading firm in the field in New Zealand. With a website listing out the companies working with them, testimonials and accreditations, they offer the client a 90 day guarantee to appear on the top of any search engine result. If they fail to keep up their word, the client is allowed to hold back payments. This firm offers its services in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
How to Hire the Right Firm?
An article in Forbes offers us a quick insight on what the client should look at before hiring an SEO.
a) The client needs to assess his strengths and weaknesses and decide what he needs. The goal should be clear with a clear cut time frame. One or many targets may be set.
b) The client has a choice of many firms and the firm closest to him need not be the one suited to his needs. He needs to consult with a few discreet and make a strategic choice.
c) Case studies and references should be presented by the company in question and familiarity with the product/ service field is a good to go.
d) Background info on the company along with past experience can be a good factor at decision time.
It is easy to get scammed by an Optimizer firm, which may lead to the company’s website being removed from search engines or shut down altogether. All depends on the SEO techniques used. Initially, search engines used a basic algorithm of keyword count to determine the ranking of the site. This was used or rather abused by many SEO which just loaded up the pages with meaningless repetitions of the word with no regard to content. Another deceit was tricking viewers into reaching the target page through deceptive links. This is called shadow domains. Even though search engines have now refined their search algorithms, fraudulent companies manage to circumvent most of the rules and get a higher ranking of their pages. These are a few of the black hat or unapproved techniques which can be punished if found. Another effect is that such sites rarely hold onto their ranking for long. On the other hand, white hat techniques are approved and are a part of a good site design. They generally follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines and have a long term stay through site performance alone.
Thus, it is important for a client firm to know what kind of strategies are being used and if these said strategies are actually legal.
