In a tough economy, search engine marketing is an essential part of your company’s marketing mix, since the returns are quantitatively measurable. You can optimize your site and watch your organic rankings increase, driving more traffic to your site. You can launch a pay-per-click campaign and monitor the click-through rate and conversion rate that the campaign generates. You can track leads, sales and revenue as they increase due to your search marketing efforts. You can directly measure the return on investment from search and observe its positive impact on your bottom line.

Although we all understand how vital search marketing is, hiring a firm can still prove to be a challenge. It’s hard to know who to trust and who will generate the best results for your business. We have some suggestions below as to how to evaluate vendors by looking at their business experience, their search marketing philosophy, the way that they structure their accounts and the services that they provide.

Your vendor should:

Business Experience

o Be a seasoned veteran, having survived through different economic times. Any firm that is too new has no proven history of adapting in this quickly changing environment.
o Belong to multiple professional organizations, (i.e., SEMPO, AMA, Google Advertising Professionals). Your vendor should be on the cutting-edge of what is happening in the industry.
o Attend and/or present at nationally-recognized search marketing conferences (i.e., Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies).
o Provide references and examples of results from previous clients. Any vendor should have numerous success stories and be proud to share them.

Search Marketing Philosophy

o Perform search engine marketing in the ethical “white hat” way and follow the search engines’ Terms of Service and Webmaster Guidelines. Short-term gains can be made using “black hat” methods, but eventually the search engines will catch up with you and your site will be penalized.
o View SEO and PPC as long-term, ongoing processes versus short-term projects. Again, gains can be made quickly, but if they are done at the expense of doing things the right way, they will be temporary.
o Decline to work with any of your competitors during the course of your business relationship. You should trust that your vendor has no conflict of interest and is working towards your success and your success only.

Account Structure

o Provide a good value and pricing model for your search marketing programs. Any vendor should clearly state what you are paying for and where your money is going. They should be clear about any additional support or add-on costs associated with your programs.
o Provide dedicated account managers with experience in client service and marketing. Your account manager should become your partner and educate you about search marketing.
o Have access to professional copywriters and/or web developers should you need them. Any outsourcing of work should be explicit and agreed upon by both parties.
o Include an extranet that allows for 24/7 access of all correspondence, documents and deliverables.

Service Offerings

o Offer services including search engine optimization (SEO), search term research and strategy, pay-per-click campaigns (PPC), ROI analysis, search engine reputation management, optimized press releases and articles, and link building.
o Measure and report on metrics such as organic rankings, PPC data (rankings, impressions, clicks, click-through rate, average cost per click), website traffic, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and return on investment (ROI).
o Include written analysis of the results and recommendations with each deliverable. The data should be clearly presented and provide actionable items for you and for the vendor.

This set of guidelines will help you navigate the search marketing industry as you seek the right fit for your business. By no means is the above a comprehensive list of requirements though. No website is static; you cannot simply put a website up and say it’s done. In the same way, your relationship with your search marketing provider needs to evolve just like your company and website does.

By: Stacy Sutton Williams

About the Author:
About The Author

Stacy Sutton Williams is the Founder and President of Prominent Placement , a full-service, award-winning Atlanta search engine marketing firm, formed in 2001. An expert on internet marketing solutions, Stacy is sought after nationwide as a regular speaker on search engine marketing, and is frequently published on the subject. For more information on Prominent Placement’s approach, read about our search engine optimization services.