It's a first in the young search engine optimization (SEO) industry - the "Buyer's Guide to Search Engine Optimization & Positioning Services." The guide is striving to answer the question: Who should you hire, and how much should you pay? I'm not so sure it definitively answers the question, but it does shed light on our complicated industry and it gives an easy-to-read wrap up of the pricing and services of 24 companies.

The published guide, available for $119 downloaded and $129 printed, has profiled 24 companies to date and offers a password protected area for buyers to access profiles for an additional 25 companies. The guide is also serving as a great resource for simply learning "who's who" in the SEO industry (and we're proud to be included).

The report reveals that SEO prices range from $350/month to $350,000/month, and of course it also reveals that contracts are not all billed monthly, and the complication progresses from there. But buyers do get a snapshot of who is most and least expensive (indicated by $ or $$ or $$$ etc) and who MarketingSherpa.com believes is most credible based on their interviews and anonymous client reports (indicated by grades F through A+).

But the guide excels beyond being a buyer's guide by also being an industry educator, answering questions and educating consumers about SEO and how SEO services effect a company's bottom line. They also discuss the debate of doing SEO work in house or hiring the services out, and highlight what a company will really be paying for when hiring an SEO firm.

These features are great, but I feel the most invaluable section of the guide is the 14-point Best Practices Questionnaire, which gives companies 14 effective questions to ask SEO firms and then TELLS THE ANSWERS THEY SHOULD RECEIVE from SEO firms. The questions are of course valuable, but the guide to the proper answers is priceless. Especially considering that the guide takes the time to consider a few different answers a company could get from an SEO firm and what those different answers say about the firm.

We would recommend this guide to the following people:
* Companies considering hiring out SEO work.
* Companies who currently have an SEO firm doing work and are wondering if they're getting the services they deserve for the cost.
* Companies evaluating their own in-house SEO work and
wondering if their work is equivalent to what an SEO firm can do.

It's worth the cost. Check it out.
sherpastore.com

Article by Sage Lewis, founder and president of the web site promotion firm SageRock.com. He has been employed as an Internet Strategist and design/promotion consultant for 5 years. To subscribe to SageRock's marketing newsletter, send a blank message to sagerock-subscribe@egroups.com or visit the company's site at www.sagerock.com

No comments yet. Be the first one to comment.