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The immense growth in the amount of time people are spending on the Internet, plus the rising cost of pay per click advertising has seen search engine optimisation become increasingly popular over the past 5 years. Many website owners today are investing in search engine optimisation which makes it harder than ever to achieve top rankings in search engines such as Google.

The traditional approach to search engine optimisation has been the process of selecting keywords, inserting meta tags and then building some links to achieve first page ranking results in Google. However, in today’s highly competitive online market this simplistic approach has been outdated due to increasing competition and the introduction of free tools such as Google Analytics which has made it easy to measure the impact of your SEO efforts.

On this basis Search Engine Optimisation should be considered as a strategy to drive qualified traffic to your website at the lowest cost. The definition of SEO success should be the amount “qualified natural search traffic delivered to your website” and not “rankings achieved”. There is no point being ranked in the Top 10 of Google if no-one is searching for or clicking on your search engine listing.

Are all search engine optimisation services the same?

The principles and promises of high rankings are all the same from search engine marketing companies however, like everything in business the results achieved from one company to another are considerably different. After all, search engine optimisation is a process of out-ranking another website, so your approach needs to be unique to be number 1.

When choosing a search engine optimisation you should ask the following questions:

– What are the traffic results the search engine marketing company has achieved for its clients?

– What SEO results has the company achieved for their own website?

– What is the company’s current client retention rate?

– What resources does the company have available to allocate to your project?

– What are the measures of success for your search engine marketing project?

– What % of the company is dedicated to search engine marketing?

Why outsource search engine optimisation to a specialist company?

The Internet is a serious sales channel today. Top rankings in Google and implementing a successful search engine marketing strategy can have a 6 or 7 figure positive impact on the profitability of your company. Asking your IT person or web design company to be responsible for your search engine marketing is a like asking your Office Manager to be responsible for business development and hitting sales targets.

Outsourcing your search engine optimization to a specialist company enables your business to cost effectively leverage the large investment that SEO company has made in developing its services. You can also access the intellectual property the SEO company has acquired from managing campaigns across their client base. These two factors alone make the business case very compelling for outsourcing your search engine optimisation campaign.

Last by not least when choosing a search engine optimisation company you should always negotiate a performance based contract, as this makes sure both parties work hard towards a mutually beneficial result.

Wishing you and your website online success in 2008

Ewan Watt
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/tips-for-choosing-a-search-engine-optimisation-company-288611.html