Agencies or people that offer SEO services, yet have a site that scores poorly in free SEO tools like Website Grader and have dismal traffic rank in Alexa.
Web professionals who you Google and find they don’t have their own blog and a large digital footprint.
Marketing companies or individuals that do blog, but don’t inspire traffic, links or comments on their site.
Are you weary of these things? I certainly am.
What chance does a company or person that can’t deliver real results for themselves have of delivering real results for you?
SEO companies that produce results
If you advertise your business as an SEO company or offer SEO services, your own web properties need to be optimized, rank well and draw organic traffic. I don’t see how you can possibly prove yourself otherwise. Sure you can show client results, but those with the strongest understanding of the platform know the power of doing it for themselves too. This speaks to their deeper understanding of the web.
Marketers that are passionate web professionals produce results
If you want a talented web marketer as a team member and are looking at applicants, Google their name and see if their blog comes up on page 1 for it.
If you are serious in looking for a marketer who understands the web you should only consider those who blog or are proven social media power users.
Really it makes no sense anymore not to, these are the people that are actually in the conversation and know how to connect the dots for your brand or your clients on the web.
In fact, if I was starting a marketing team today, a requirement of being on my team would be to have a blog on something. It doesn’t even have to be marketing, just prove you are passionate about the platform and understand it.
It’s analogous to hiring a chef for a gourmet restaurant who doesn’t cook at home (the best chefs love to cook for themselves, it is a joy, and this is when they come up with some of their most creative recipes).
What are your thoughts?
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10 comments so far
I like your stuff, Adam.
Glad you found my blog - and I’m glad I found yours!
September 27th, 2008I agree with you but you might consider, that specially small companys might suffer from not enough time for their own projects. this should not be a excuse but it’s a given fact.
September 27th, 2008@paul - thanks, dig your site too
@bernhard - i can appreciate that, but it still doesn’t project well for an agency or person you haven’t worked with or heard about
September 27th, 2008I concur! A lot of people consider themselves as SEO experts and all that, but then their own sites do not even rank well on SEs. Irony at its best, I should say.
September 27th, 2008I would never hired such company. What for? Just do a little research and DiY is the way to go….
September 27th, 2008Hiring an SEO company that claims “they do not have enough time” for themselves would be like hiring a health & exercise coach who is obese.
Both of these things happen all the time unfortunately, and both are equally ass backwards! If you can’t do it yourself, why should anyone listen to you … and that goes for any subject that is based on a “skilled service”
September 29th, 2008Thanks for sharing this Blog, really liked this.
October 7th, 2008SEO Services Provider
I’m with Bernhard. I don’t think a SEO or marketer that doesn’t have time is like a health & exercise coach who is obese.
Unless it’s like a health & exercise coach who is obese but can still run a marathon and gets hot chicks.
And you gotta wonder about that . . . why prepare needlessly when you can be executing?
October 9th, 2008Trackbacks
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