SEO, Social, Online Marketing, Mobile, Local and Link Building Agencies & Consultants

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In this section I’ll share my thoughts on a variety of agencies. SEO, social and online marketing agencies are always trying to gain more business. In truth, most shops out there fall into the category of wasted money. Some are stand outs, and I’ll note them here. If I have any “must avoids”, I’ll note them and provide as much detail as I can.

In reality, there are often times when it simply makes sense to hire an SEO, social or online marketing agency. Regardless of your needs and budget, though, you should set your expectations early and hold the agency to the goals and commitments. If this means firing them early, do it. Don’t keep working with them; cut the relationship short, stop spending money for pointless service and move onto the next company or consultant. These are relationships you are establishing. And like any healthy relationship, there needs to be something in it for both parties. When that equation becomes lop-sided, it flat sucks.

I’ll try to note the main work an agency does, as well as note if they are a shop or consultant. Main categories will include:

SEO Agencies & Consultants

SEO agencies are usually pretty up-to-date and can usually provide solid returns on SEO work for clients…provided they know their stuff. There are a lot of SEO agencies and consultants these days, and not surprisingly, some are problematic. I’m not going to try to rate anything on the grounds of morality here, but if I’ve had good or bad dealings with the SEO agency or consultant, I’ll share the facts. Of course, since voting is enabled on the site, you’re free to cast your own opinion for the world to see.

Social Media Agencies & Consultants

Social media consults seemed to spring up out of nowhere. There is a vast army of people claiming to be able to help you manage and improve your social media needs. Some know what they are doing; most don’t. The ones I know and trust, I’ll call out here. Many of them grew into social media consulting as a natural progression from SEO consulting – social media being a great driver of links, which SEOs prize. Still, have a Facebook account does not a social media expert make.

Full-service Online Marketing Agencies & Consultants

These guys are usually the larger, established agencies with brands you may have heard of. They offer a wide range of services and are usually the first to say they can help you even if none of their staff possess the needed skills. Their main goal in life is profit. They are a business after all. This means you will need to be very careful to monitor the amount of work being done on your behalf. These guys tend to be expensive, though results from their work vary, so be very careful. Taking the approach of hiring a brand-name agency to manage your online marketing work and walking away is a sure recipe for wasting a ton of money every year. While the same could be said of special shops, when your monthly fees nudge into 5 figures, any inattention ratchets up the costs quickly. All that said, there are some solid larger agencies, so don’t despair.

Mobile Search Consultants & Agencies

Mostly this will be limited to consultants. Agencies are adding this to their service packs because it’s a fresh, new and another potential revenue stream. True experts have lived in the trenches and helped sculpt success for large and small companies alike. And because Mobile is but one area, in addition to a more traditional website for most businesses, looking for a stand-alone consultant is often easier to manage and sometimes even cheaper. Don’t let this fool you into thinking their work comes cheap, however. Expertise costs money.

Local Search Consultants & Agencies

With the advent of “local search” targeting, well, your neighborhood, essentially, the growth of local search consultants and agencies has flourished. They won’t likely go away any time soon, either, as the concept of “local” is huge with the engines. This truly matters to the search engines, as users frequently type queries into the search box and want the engine to figure out the relevance for results based on where the user currently is. Sometimes this work merges with work performed in the Mobile space, as the proliferation of smart phone sis driving non-home-based search volumes ever-skyward. All the same, like the rest of the areas, there exist experts and not-so-experts-who-claim-to-be. I’ll try my best here to provide some direction.

Link Building Consultants

Without links, your SEO efforts will only net a fraction of their potential value. Link building and link building consultants are in hot demand. Rightfully so, I think. Link building provides the base support for SEO work, as well as an influx of direct traffic. Link building experts are magicians, often able to conjure links from sites that simply ignored your emails. The net result of their work is substantial and gains strength over time. On top of that, their work is a direct long-term investment in your website. Best to partner up with someone who knows what they’re doing, too, because links from bad websites can hurt your efforts. Almost as bad, paying for links can land you in hot water with the search engines.