Buying SEO Services
So, you have a website and everyone you show it to thinks that it is fantastic. You are getting some visitors, but nowhere near enough so you perform a Google search to find out where it ranks.
You can’t find it anywhere!
Does this sound familiar? If you have arrived at this blog post then the, chances are you’re trying to solve this very problem. Welcome to the world of SEO 
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Search Engine Optimisation is the ongoing process of optimising a website to make it easier for search engines to find and index.
Can You Optimise Your Own Site?
Of course! Here’s how to do it for free.
Ensure that your pages are crawlable and indexable, by search engines. Make a list of around 20 keywords or key phrases that relate to your website, and write a page on each. Create a site map pointing to each page, and link all your pages to the site map. Finally, build links.
Also read SEO Basics.
Should You Optimise Your Own Site?
Optimising your own site requires a substantial time investment. It also requires a desire to learn technical aspects of search engines and website building.
If you have the time and the desire to become a web ‘techie’, then fantastic! If not, there are many professional Search Engine Optimisers who can perform the SEO for you.
What To Expect From an SEO Company
An SEO Company will modify the content and links of your website, in an effort to improve your search engine rankings.
While it would be nice to be able to pay an SEO Company to get you to number 1 in Google for a popular search term SEO doesn’t work this way. The search engines rank sites based on top secret indexing algorithms. What is more, even if SEO Companies knew the criteria, it may not help.
For example, Google is known to place weight on links that have built up over a long period of time, rather than hundreds of links appearing overnight.
Also, the indexing algorithms are constantly changing. What worked a few years ago may not work now.
An SEO Company will constantly tweak existing content, as well as adding new content, with the aim of ranking pages for topic areas related to your website. The more content you have on your site that the search engine is able to see, the higher your rank and the more traffic you’re likely to obtain.
A good SEO company will also try and get links pointing to your website, as links are a big part of Google’s ranking criteria.
Over time, you should expect not only more visitors, but also a better quality of visitors. I.e. More of the visitors to your website will be actively looking for your product or service and not just ‘browsing the web’
Some Warnings
Unfortunately, there are some rogue SEO Companies out there, who will take your money without providing any tangible results. They will often try to bamboozle you with jargon and meaningless metrics. So here are some of the things to watch out for:
Targeting the wrong search terms
If no one searches on a particular phrase, then why spend time and money increasing your ranking for it?
Why not define goals based on your business metrics. Do you want more traffic from search engines? Do you want more conversions? Ensure the terms you’re ranking for translate into measurable business advantage.
Overly-Aggressive Tactics
Search engines take a very dim view of aggressive tactics, which can result in a site ban. Your SEO company should follow published search engine guidelines, if in doubt, ask them if they do.
Guarantees
There are no such thing as ranking guarantees, especially if the SEO Company implies that they have any form of control over the search engine results, or that they know something that others don’t. They do not.
Closely examine any guarantee given. A worthwhile guarantee is one where the SEO Company guarantees to achieve results based on your business requirements.