Small business owners want their websites to appear in the first page when potential customers are searching online. Paying for ads is one way. The other is to use Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It's unlikely for busy small business owners to do it themselves, because they do not have the expertise OR time. So most SMEs find SEO agencies to help them (1) get to and (2) keep them on the first page. Looking for the right SEO consultant can be a daunting task, if you do not know what SEO is all about.  You would think that the last a small business owner wants, when getting expert SEO help, is to be overcharged. That's not the worst, bad SEO can ruin your web-presence, sending your website into Google oblivion.  As a Marketing Strategy Consultant, we usually have to help our clients select or work with SEO consultants. Here are some of the red flags, we ourselves will watch out for when selecting SEO consultants to work with, as well as questions you can ask to sieve out the pretenders from the real consultants.  Brendan Yong is a duct tape marketing consultant specialized in marketing automation based in Singapore. His company Empathi Solutions helps Asia-based clients build Marketing Systems to Grow Predictable Revenue using Infusionsoft CRM as the primary marketing automation tool To find out more about Empathi Solutions visit us @ https://empathi-solutions.com/about-us/ We love to share our knowledge to you! visit us to read more articles @ https://empathi-solutions.com/blog/

1. 5 RED FLAGS FOR SMALL BIZ OWNERS
WHEN HIRING SEO CONSULTANTS

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WHY SMALL BUSINESS
HIRE SEO CONSULTANTS
•Want to be on page one to Potential Customers
•Alternative to paying lots of Ads
•No time or expertise

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PROBLEM: HOW TO HIRE
THE RIGHT SEO
CONSULTANT
• Don't know what SEO is or Can Do
• Fear of being overcharged
• Don't know if the SEO consultant is really competent
enough

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5 RED FLAGS WHEN HIRING
A SEO CONSULTANT
1. They Don't have a Coherent SEO Strategy
2. They Spam Backlinks and say They can Get you to
Page One Fast
3. There is no process for regular updates &
Performance Review
4. They Charge too Little
5. They have an irregular Client Pool

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THEY DON'T HAVE A
COHERENT SEO STRATEGY
• SEO usually involves:
Website Audit: load speed, mobile responsive, backlink penalties
Competitor Keyword & back-links research: look for long-tail or less competitive
keywords to rank
On-Page and On-Site Optimization: meta tags, schema markup, anchor text,
internal links
Off-Page link building with Good Content vs Quantity
Local Search, Citations and Reviews Building

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QUESTIONS TO ASK
ABOUT SEO STRATEGY
"Can you briefly tell me what's your
recommended SEO strategy for my business?",
"If I have Google penalties, how do you resolve
them?"

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THEY TALK ABOUT BUILDING
HUNDREDS OF BACK-LINKS AND
GETTING TO PAGE ONE FAST
• More is NOT BETTER
• Google does not like unnatural link-building
• Google algorithm looks for low-quality content
• Get to Page One FAST is not always achievable
• Spamming SEO articles, comments may work for a while
• You have to overcome incumbent competitors who have
more back-links
• Question: "Do you guarantee that I will be on 1st page?
How?"

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THERE IS NO PROCESS FOR
REGULAR UPDATES &
PERFORMANCE REVIEW
• "How would you measure success?", "What metrics do
you track?"
 Traffic, Keywords ranking, Conversion
 "What reports will I receive regularly?“
 - Updates of what actions they took, problems they encountered, how
to solved them
 - Reports of backlinks built, blog or forum comments, articles
distribution list
 - Reviews of performance statistics, feedback
 "What tools do you use for SEO?"

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Trends CHARGE TOO LITTLE
• Typical overheads: each articles range from $20-$80
• Single project for on-site/ on-page audit, optimization usually
$4,000-10,000
• Retainer for building backlinks and reports/update can range
from $500-$5,000
• Reference: http://seogoodguys.com.sg/why-seo-expensive/

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IRREGULAR CLIENT POOL
• "Who are your longest active clients? How long?"
• SEO is an on-going battle with Competitors for keywords
• Requires articles, link building, optimization all the time
• Good SEO Consultants should have long-time clients

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FINDING A GOOD SEO
CONSULTANT
• Track Record & Case Study
Systematic Process, with Regular Reports/Updates
Charge Reasonably
Good Coherent Strategy
Can relate to other marketing strategies like Social Media,
PPC etc.

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Thank
You