SEO - What do they do every month?

With this post, I will surely piss off some people... probably a lot of people that take advantage of dentists' lack of knowledge about Search Engine Optimization and website marketing.

I'll get right to the point: There's no need for dentists to pay a monthly fee or sign a long-term contract for SEO services. Optimizing a website is essentially a one-time job. There is nothing that needs to be done on a monthly basis. Allow me to rephrase that: If anyone tells you they will be doing things every month to optimize your site, you should consider them suspect. You should ask them to tell you EXACTLY what they will be doing every month for that fee.

Here are some things to look out for:

"We'll submit your site to search engines." - TOTALLY BOGUS!

"We'll build thousands of links to your site." - Beware of having your website being put on "link farms." Very bad juju for Google!

Once your site is optimized, it's optimized... UNLESS you add new pages to your site. So, SEO costs should be on a job basis. The only reason to do additional on-site optimization is because you forgot to do it the first time (or learned something new).

That said, you will be hard-pressed to find an SEO firm to agree. In a recent article in Entrepreneur Magazine, Peter Kent (internet marketing strategist) said, "The SEO business is 80 percent scam." Finding an SEO firm that falls in the 20 percent will take some effort.

What do you do?

Ask for references.

Ask about benchmarks or goals to be met.

Ask about experience in the DENTAL industry.

Ask them HOW they will achieve your goals. And ask them to be specific.

Finally, I strongly believe an educated dentist will be the in a position to smartly choose an SEO firm. The Complete Website Owner's Manual for Dentists (clicky) will give you the CRITICAL knowledge to intelligently work with an SEO firm. You'll know what they're talking about. You'll know if your getting what you paid for. You'll also know how to determine if you're getting the results you set out to achieve.

Visit www.RevUpMyMarketing.com to learn more!