Search Engine Optimisation - Choosing an SEO Company

SEO Articles by Cornish WebServices

Disclaimer: The views on SEO expressed in this article were current at the time of publication, and unless stated otherwise are the recommendations or views of Cornish WebServices SEO team.

How to choose an SEO company

A good search engine Optimisation Company should not need to advertise their services through PPC advertising, but should appear naturally high in the search engine rankings. Therefore avoid any SEO company that advertises through PPC listings.

Ideally we would recommend choosing any company that appears high in the rankings for words such as 'search engine Optimisation'. However some of the companies in the top few places are using short term 'unethical tactics' that are frowned upon by Google. These risk being dropped from Google. If a company uses such tactics on their own website, then we advise not using them as you risk your website being removed completely from Google.

The best choice is therefore a search engine Optimisation Company that appears on the top few pages of the search engines AND guarantees only to use ethical techniques.

Other deciding factors might be:

Will the SEO Company give client references or example websites?
Are you tied into a long contract? Good SEO companies will not need to do this.
Does the SEO Company have an established track record? We are surprised how many 'SEO companies' have a large portfolio of websites with little or no Google PageRank.
Does the SEO Company have long standing SEO clients?
How well does the SEO Company’s own website do, and do they handle their own SEO? It is strange that some of the "top" SEO companies actually outsource their own SEO.
Who does the SEO work? Many 'top SEO companies' outsource this as well. In 2007 some 'top SEO companies' are spending over £2,000/month on outsourcing their own SEO.
Has the company's own website ever been banned from the search engines? To find this out type the company name followed by words such as 'banned' into Google. If an SEO company lets its own website get banned should you trust them with yours?
Have previous clients experienced problems with your potential SEO 'experts'? To find this out type the company name followed by words such as 'problems' into Google. Some comments may be unfair, but a lot of negative criticism should cause concern.

Our SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Services

Cornish WebServices only use ethical SEO techniques. We do not advertise our search engine Optimisation services through paid advertising, but successfully rely on visitors from the major search engines and from recommendations for all our search engine Optimisation work. We were one of the first UK companies offering search engine marketing, and continue to manage our own website in house. Our website has never been banned from Google, Yahoo or MSN search engines.

View one of our actual SEO ranking reports to get an idea of the long term consistency of results we expect. We have been continuously optimising websites for some clients (in competitive markets) since 2003, with top 3 rankings for main keywords on Google and Yahoo.

Or read about some of our long standing SEO client examples - good quality SEO work leads to long standing clients.