Web Optimization Questions

My families business is going to have our website rebuilt and the company also offers Web optimization for $350/month. Does anybody have a business that has used an SEO company to maximize the visibility of their website? What are people's thoughts on these types of companies? Is there certain types of businesses that benfit more from these seervices?

I am not sure if these types of services really work that well for our type of business. We are a warehouse distributor for Heavy-Duty, industrial, marine and fleets. We specialize in rotating electrical but carry a lot of different things for fleets and equipment. Most of our business is done to fleets, minucipalities and other und users but it isn't like joe customer working on his 95 integra calls us. I am not sure I actually want Joe customer with a 95 integra to call us as we specialize in more heavy duty products instead of automotive.

Would a business like ours actually benefit from this type of service? Do these types of services work at all or are they just a scam? Do you think having a good website built up is going to be sufficient?

Thanks

Brett Yates
Blanchard Electric and Fleet Supply

Brett

That is a lot of questions. I would never go with a company that called you out of the blue personally. Do a seach for SEO companies, or search engine optimization and see who comes up first. If they are top three they obviously know their stuff. Also, you'd want to figure out what terms you want to show up in teh top 3 results for. Do a search and see what kind of competition there is. 350 a month is pretty cheap so I'd be a bit wary. Do customers find you online right now? If so, how? If there are very few search terms that you want to rank for then google adwords might be a less expensive way to do it.

Waste of money. 350.00 one time maybe. SEO is like fortune telling - if it works they take credit for it, if it doesn't they blame Google for changing the game on them - either way you still pay. Good SEO is part of the site design. Google give weight to all kinds of things like how long has your site been around, backlinks, etc. Since you're not really looking for consumer business from India and Belarus, even more reason to not drop 4K plus a year. Just make sure your site is linked in to your professional organizations and associations, and trade links with your customers, suppliers, vendors, etc.

I did a website for a buddy of mine that owns a public warehouse here in Dallas back in 2005. He stays on page 1 of google for his target terms and we haven't touched that site in 5 years - although we're finally looking at an upgrade this year.

Big D pretty much summed it up well... If your site needed optimization changes, a one time fee of $350 would be completely fair. For the kind of site you have and how you use it, $350 per mo would be a waste. In addition there are major rule of thumbs for SEO, it's really not a magic trick. Good site design, relevant information & good use of keywords, and finally good linking with relevant other sites will take you far.