Is your SEO expert ripping you off?

There is a nice conversation running in a LinkedIn group called On startups – The community for entrepreneurs. The conversation is titled: “Is your SEO expert ripping you off?”

Interesting, as I often wonder the true value of SEO because :

• If your competitors are doing it too (likely), are you both paying for something that doesn’t generate a competitive advantage?
• Nobody outside of Google actually knows how their algorithm works.
• Getting IT people to do marketing is just scary as they forget people have lives offline.
• Every web developer in the world has hopped on the SEO bandwagon.

Anyway four techniques mentioned for monitoring your SEO effectiveness (the bang-for-the-buck-o-meter).

•  Monitor your keywords monthly on Google to see whether you are actually paying for movement in your ranking (obvious). Don’t just search on your business name as that’s almost pointless.
• Find out who links to you. Google takes into account the number of “high ranked” sites that link to you. A link from Craigslist can instantly boost your rankings, while a link from Bob’s House of Junk has no effect. Type “link:www.churchillclub.org.au” into Google to have a look at who links to the Churchill Club.
• Ask your SEO expert for a monthly report. Get a baseline report of where your website stands before optimisation began, then request regular (monthly) reports detailing ranking movement.
• Use a third party service such as Authority Labs.