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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Steps to Launching Your Own SEO Company By: Moe Tamani

Though there are many SEO companies being set up nowadays, not all of them have been set up the right way. You might be surprised how many SEO companies set up lately are on shaky ground because:
a) their brand name lacks any brand recognition;
b) the SEO professional in charge (namely, the owner) lacks recognition in the industry too;
c) and the owner has no idea how to change the situation to make it better.
So what are the factors you need to consider when putting up a sound SEO company?
Here are some ideas:
1. Acknowledge that you are at a disadvantage, being a newcomer to the industry.
2. Check how much of a budget you can afford to put up your business and keep it running for a reasonable length of time. You may have to forego paying yourself any wages at the start, just to keep your business afloat during that period. You also have to consider what expenses exist that you have to pay for, and which ones you can do without for the time being.
3. It is equally important to rely on a strategy for getting clients immediately. This program of action will require anticipating how you can foster growth much longer down the line. This means you have to know what correct marketing tactics to use to promote your business and get clients to trust you with their projects.
4. You really have to build a name for yourself because in the online world, a good name is always your best marketing tool. So think of investing into building name recognition as well as brand recognition as an investment into the future.
5. Try participating in SEO contests. These help you hone your skills against your peers while being able to put your name out there for people to learn (and hopefully recognize later on as your reputation precedes you.) Oh, and you might win prizes too but that’s just a bonus. Look around in forums and by doing simple searches online to find out when and where these SEO contests are to be held.
6. If you lose the SEO contest, use the situation as an opportunity to find out what the winner did to win. Then learn from this.
7. Do write very good articles to post on your site. Good articles are informative and benefit your readers so that they remember who you are. This requires being able to balance the need to provide a service with your articles but letting the clients know they need you for the real service or product. You might have to give away some valuable data though so that the public knows you’re for real and not just any other SEO Company like the others.You need to bear in mind three pointers that will help you come up with good articles that will also help you get better search engine rankings:
1. If you do intend to write articles about SEO for the public to read, remember that your usual web-page size articles cannot possibly encompass everything about the field in that minimal space. You do not intend to write encyclopedic articles anyway, just articles that provide tidbits of information that will help you get noticed among potential clients.
2. You need to stay abreast of what is happening in the SEO world actually. Even the most knowledgeable SEO professional probably missed out on some new developments that could prove crucial in the future. The information you mastered today could become obsolete just one day more around the corner because the fact is, many new ideas are being developed and tested online. You need to have the discernment to weed out which of these ideas are pertinent and usable and which ones are out of date and need to be discarded.
3. Remember that time is money for your clients. The reason you get hired to be their SEO professional of choice is that your clients are quite busy people who just lack the time to do the SEO stuff themselves. Your clients also probably know where their talents lie and where you are pretty good at. So stick to doing what you know and then try to impress on your clients that you are the best pro for the job.Sometimes, even the most experienced SEO professional has to attend SEO conferences so that they can let the world know that they are ready, willing and able to do the work.Note too that each conference has its own nuances and type of contacts available for you to learn about. Though you may have to get used to the differences between conferences, each has its own value to your business.