"How do you know if you have a good accountant?" That was the question posed to me by a business colleague some years ago. On the face of it, it's a really simple question. But when you really think about it, how can you verify your accountant's work before it's too late? How can you be sure that he has saved you money, increased your net worth, decreased your future liabilities and provided you with the most tax advantageous position? Sometimes, you only find out with hindsight how good they were, and that can be extremely costly. Whilst this question has equal validity for a number of professions, the accountancy angle is one that often hurts the most, as it is relatively easy to quantify missed opportunities. The morass of regulations that are available for interpretation within the accountancy industry in the UK are the root of this question, as creativity is applied to minimise a client's liabilities. Due to the ever changing regulatory environment, it's a constant challenge for accountants to stay ahead of the game, to act in the best interests of their clients and remain within regulatory boundaries. In a similar vein, how do you know if you have a good SEO consultant? Fortunately, this question is much easier to answer as there are many simple steps that you can take to evaluate their performance. Marketing activities must always be managed and measured, thus by establishing some simple key performance indicators (KPI) you will be able to evaluate the success, or not, of your internet marketing activities including any SEO actions implemented. Even without running a basic analytics package such as Google Analytics, you can establish some simple measures. These measures should be based upon the site objectives. It can be as simple as generating a sales lead via a phone call or an email. To make life simpler, you can even set up dedicated phone numbers or email addresses to make it easier to monitor incoming traffic. Make sure that you know the performance values for a reasonable period before implementing the SEO actions, then you can simply assess the value of these actions to your business. But how many companies do actually monitor site performance, or measure the value they have gained from any specific campaign? In our experience, the answer sadly, is not very many. As a consequence, there are millions of pounds wasted in totally inappropriate campaigns and other activities. There's a plethora of "SEO experts" out there who will use all sorts of manipulation to persuade you to part with your marketing budget, as they promise to improve your rankings. Actually, rankings don't matter. The only important thing is that you get sufficient volume of relevant traffic to your site and once there, that these visitors are converted into customers. If your marketing strategy is correct and your objectives are clear, it should be relatively easy to see what is necessary to do on your site. If you don't have a clear strategy and you don't have any objectives for the site, then there's a very strong probability that you'll be wasting money on whatever your smooth SEO money extractor will be telling you. This is all about Internet Marketing, go back to basics and understand what is meant by marketing on the internet. So how do you find a good SEO consultant? In the same way that you'll find a good accountant. Do some research around the subject, there's plenty up there on the net from reputable sites. Truly understand your business and your customers. For instance, do you know how much a typical customer is worth to you and how much you're prepared to spend to get one? Have some clear objectives and talk to other business people that you know and trust. Don't fall for the slick sales calls or mass emails that land every day. Like good accountants, good SEO consultants won't come knocking on your door, they're already very busy.
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