Shanna,

Your instincts are great! Any reputable SEO firm has enough to do without contacting people cold.

And, purchasing a listing on websites isn't really SEO. With SEO, you're doing things to get ranked naturally by the search engines. So, if the company is billing this as SEO, they're a bit confused.

I'd pass on this one, too.

Hope this helps,
Kathleen

Dear sreimer,

The most important thing about great SEO for you is the service you're providing and the geographic area you're providing it in.

If all your business comes from local clients or customers (meaning, if all your revenue comes from within a 50 to a 100 mile radius), local search results are going to offer you the best bang for your marketing buck.

If you're based in Albany, NY and ALL your business comes from within 75 miles, SEO visibility in Peru or Florida isn't going to put jam on your bread.

Here's the thing: local customers and clients seldom search by ZIP code. They do SOMETIMES, but mostly, they search by problem and locality (or vice versa). The search by the thing they're looking for and the place they need it in.

So, because I live in Princeton, NJ, when I need a plumber, I'll search for:

Plumber NJ
Best plumber in Princeton NJ

and so on.

We search by neural associative criteria: we search by what we're looking for, where we're looking for it. This process is ostensibly a CHAOTIC process because it's carried out at the whims of individuals.

Search engines search based on LOGICAL PROGRESSION, (what, where; this, that). You'll see far more targeted traffic when its coming from specific sources IF the sources those searches are coming to your site from are seeing a solid alignment between the thing they're searching for and the solution you're offering.

If you're offering cages for exotic pets and your pages ON the sites in question are optimized for the most frequently searched for terms (in headings and in page content descriptions) those people looking for the exact term "cages for exotic pets" are going to see ALIGNMENT between the thing they're looking for the solutions you're offering.

A really good SEO service will tell you this and they'll help you manage everything—for a fee, usually a good one.

it's only in recent years that Google's wised up and started pouring tons of money and research into something called latent semantic indexing, which looks at more subtle connections between search criteria. But that's another story.

An associative criteria-based search means that people search by key phrases that include "best X in Y"; "top A in B"; "XYZs in ABC", and so on where the first set of letters are the services being sought out and second set of letters represent the service's location in terms of state, town, city, county, and so on. As seen in the Princeton plumber example above.

Search requires specificity. Specificity requires alignment. Alignment generates congruency, and its the congruency when connected to the solutions sought for through the search and provided in the guise of the result, that drives the sale.

The more your on-page visibility is aligned with those most highly searched for phrases, and the more those phrases connect with local search results on FREE local review pages (such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Google Places, to name just three), the higher up in the rankings your name visibility becomes. Why? Because those review-based sites are seen by Google's algorithm as having higher credibility and therefore, as having higher authority.

If the sites your salesman talked about are all PR. 1 or PR 2. sites (PR=Page Rank), but Yelp and Google Places are all both PR 7s (they are, I checked), then the higher ranked PR sites and the better back-linked sites that your name is attached to will always ALWAYS attract the higher rankings, which takes you up the search engine rankings with them. More so if the sites in question are listed on the Yahoo Directory, which costs $299 PER YEAR, per SITE. And even then, there's a nonrefundable application fee of ANOTHER $299 just to APPLY to be listed.

Ask your SEO salesman if HIS company is listed on the Yahoo Directory. A really good SEO company ought to see the fees of being listed on the Yahoo Directory as part of doing business. Why? A Yahoo Directory listing equates to INSTANT authority. SEO-wise it equals INSTANT pull.

Now, if you can link all those Yelp and Google Places reviews BACK to your website, and if you can then have a sales path on your site that's wide, direct, free of clutter, and benefit-rich in terms of the desired and preferred outcome for your ideal buyer, you're golden.

Generally, with all online services that promise the
wind the stars, and the moon for a monthly fee: BUYER BEWARE.

Before signing any long term commitment, ask for solid social proof. You need to see what they've done for other businesses and then you need to talk to those business owners and you need to ask what they put in in terms of time, effort, and money, and what they got out (and are getting out) in terms of traffic, conversions, sales, and returns.

If other people tell you that yes, they're using the services of this company (whoever the heck they are) and that they, as CUSTOMERS are DELIGHTED with their results, then consider a limited trail, perhaps up to 90 days. Just to kick the tires and test the shocks ... so to speak.

If, on the other hand, other people warn you to take your business elsewhere, "Ride, little pony, ride!"

A good SEO company will offer you a free or limited time trial of up to 30 days before you have to put your hand in your pocket.

A solid, well-run SEO company won't balk at offering testimonials. In fact, a good SEO sales person ought to include them in his or her presentation. And FYI, every element of a dog and pony show of that kind ought to ONLY ever be aimed at generating and sustaining long term, proven value for the customer. No exceptions on that rule, ever. It's the value to the customer that drives the sale and that signs the deal, NOT the pitch or the shine of the salesman's shoes.

Finally, that feeling you've already expressed of "Hmm. Somehow, here doesn't fit right!" That's your gut feeling. It's there to protect you and to save you from a world of pain, angst, crap, self loathing, and buyer's remorse.

If after ALL your due diligence (which y'all ought to be carrying out anyhow, and which you're on the right end of, otherwise you wouldn't be posting on this forum), if after ALL that you STILL smell a rat, my best advice is to walk away.

If the salesman hassles you and keeps calling and won't take a polite "No, thank you!" for an answer, you'll KNOW you made the right choice.

If after all this you're still up the SEO creek, do a little searching of your own. Use simple key phrases on Google (and other search engines) for the terms:

"SEO in [ name of your city]"
"Best SEO in [ name of your city]"
"Top SEO in [ name of your city]"
"Business SEO in [ name of your city]"
"SEO for business in [ name of your city]"
"SEO for businesses in [ name of your city]"

But do these kinds of searches WITHOUT the quote marks. Make a note of the services, names, and individuals that keep bobbing to the tops of those searches because THOSE are the people you need to be working with.

Ask them the same kinds of questions: names of previous and current clients, rankings earned and over what period, what it'll cost you, how often, and what you get for your monthly fee. Then talk to those clients and see what they have to say. If those people as customers are as happy as clams, you might be too.

The world of SEO is full of so called experts (I make no claim to be one of them), many of whom don't know their rear from a hole in the ground.

For your online visibility, you need rankings that will sustain your business profile over time and across a range.

If the company you're not sure about can't prove to you that they can and have done great things for other people and that can and will do great things for you, month-after-month, you know what to do.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Princeton, NJ, USA