Is my SEO company worth it?

Are we paying our seo company too much?

[tuftey]

Hi,

I have been lurking on this site for several years. I have been running a few sites over this time on a self-employed basis, but have decided to move back into the 9-5 daily grind (my work ethic wasn't up to being self-employed, I was a great boss, but a rubbish employee).

I started yesterday for a small company (in a competitive field) who have been employing a reputable SEO company. My first task is to see if they are getting value for money, something I have no experience with.

The company is getting paid a monthly fee for consultancy and link buying. They seem to have done a good job with the site design, but the cost of link buying seems steep. IMHO the quality of links is poor. Their other methods of link building seems to be article and directory submission (not the most innovative tactics).

Am I being over optimistic about what you can get? And what sort of questions should I be asking about there SEO activities.

Thanks in advance,
Tuftey

[edited by: engine at 5:40 pm (utc) on Jan. 3, 2008]
[edit reason] Specific figures removed [/edit]

[LifeinAsia]

That sounds ridculously steep to me if all they're doing is getting links for you. For that money, I would expect them to be managing a decent PPC campaigh with Google and/or Yahoo.

Starting in the middle of their work makes it hard to do any before/after measurements (unless there is data from before), so the best you can hope for is going forward.

Presumably, there should have been some sort of agreeement as to what results your company should expect to get for the money. Or did they just blindly hand over a wad of cash and hope for the best?

Going forward, you and your company need to determine exactly what results you want to accomplish from paying someone for SEO. They should be as explicit and measurable as possible. "More links and more traffic" in not good; "At least 25 new links/month from quality and relevant PR5+ sites" is a bit better.

Without knowing more about your company, it's hard to say more. But bottom line is that you should get at least £X (the amount you're paying them) of VALUE each month. You (and your company) need to precisely define what constitutes that value (can be difficult) and figure out how to directly measure that value from the SEO work (can be even harder). Also, since SEO should be a long-term vision, many of the effects may not be immediately apparent or measurable, although some can be.

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 5:49 pm (utc) on Jan. 3, 2008]

[tuftey]

I think the company is not happy about blindly handing over cash, hence the reason that i have been brought in.

The cost for links has increased incrementaly over the 6 month contract as more links have been bought. The company are involved in all aspects of the SEO, including keyword analysis and site design. I don't know how much links are worth or the cost of a good consultant.

The market my company is in is very competitive and I think it would unrealistic to expect immidiate results. I think they have covered all the bases with the site design which leads me to think they are capable. I think at the moment the added value would be the increased site visibility with a view to the long term and not yet high rankings.

Thanks for the reply,

[edited by: caveman at 5:43 pm (utc) on Jan. 15, 2008]
[edit reason] Specific figures removed, again. [/edit]

[vincevincevince]

The price range you indicate seems very reasonable for a SEO company with a good track record. The question which remains is whether they are achieving positive ROI, and that should be the only deciding factor.

Try to find key metrics both before they started their work and now; these should include the number of new customer leads through the website per month and the value of business from website leads per month.

Essentially, and assuming figures are sufficiently large to draw conclusions, you need to ensure that projected over another year, the additional income is more than the fees paid to the SEO company.

I would caution you must strongly against suddenly dropping them. Those paid links which have been built up reliably and slowly may be one of your biggest assets, and something which you couldn't afford to lose and rebuild yourself.

[tuftey]

Thanks for your reply,

My main issue is the value of the links that have been bought. The deal should be a 15% commision on the cost of buying links, however having contacted some of the people we are buying links from the value of the links seems to <imply a much higher commission>. This leads to some tricky questions for the company and i will know the situation better once i have confronted them with the difference in the value of links bought and accounted for.

[edited by: caveman at 5:46 pm (utc) on Jan. 15, 2008]
[edit reason] Please, no specifics. [/edit]