Getting SEO Cold Calls? 5 Questions You Should Ask Vendors During Your SEO RFP Process

This week’s blog post is contributed by Shannon Rogers, Senior New Business Executive at Web Ad.vantage (and all-around nice guy!)

As a web marketing sales person I get a lot of eye rolls and exasperated sighs from the people I meet at networking events.  One time I actually confronted the eye roller and asked, “why are web marketers held in such low esteem?”  To which he replied, “I get calls from you guys all the time promising to revolutionize my business in just 60 days with this magical thing called SEO!”  It seems I had hit a nerve.

This post is just for you, the business owner frustrated with the sea of SEO companies offering to change the world but never delivering. You have to focus on your business and cannot take the time to learn to speak search engine, which is why you hire a firm like us.  But how can you tell if the firm du jour calling you out of the blue is one that can be trusted?  Is the eager salesperson on the phone legit…or just repackaging Grandpa Jones’ patented snake oil?

We’ve put together the top five questions you should be asking SEO vendors during your RFP process:

1. How are your company’s search engine rankings and what is your personal marketing strategy?

   I’m not suggesting that you only use an SEO firm that ranks in the top 5, because let’s face it—there are a lot of us out there. What I am expecting is that this salesperson can tell you where they are and what they are doing to improve their rankings, what tactics they are using, and how long they have been at it. Not only will his answers clue you in on his level of knowledge about SEO, but it will give you some other points to ask about in case you are new to the subject.

2. What is your link building strategy?

   Inbound quality links are a major part of successful SEO. Many would say links are the cornerstone of getting your site to page one. Notice the emphasis on quality. Are they using an automated solution just requesting a link exchange from anyone with a website? This kind of “reciprocal” linking is bad news because by linking to a site you are essentially adding your stamp of approval to that site. While “I approve this message” may be great for politicians, what if the unknown site you just exchanged links with gets penalized by the search engines? Oftentimes this vote of faith comes back to bite you and suddenly your rankings begin to drop. Quality links should be related to your business and from vetted sites. Would you buy a cloud computing software solution on the recommendation of a teenage girl who blogs about her thoughts on the latest “Twilight” movie release?

3. Do I have to do anything or will you do all the work?

   We are all service oriented companies and we want to make working with us as easy as can be, but SEO is hard work and revolves mostly around content. If your cold callers insists that they will take care of everything then more than likely all they are doing is some title tag and metadata manipulation that may cause an initial spike in rankings, it will quickly fizzle without solid, relevant content being produced on a regular basis. Who knows your business better than you? Who else would you trust to write about your latest product or service? A quality SEO firm will make recommendations on how your pages should be structured or the architecture of your site so as to optimize for certain keywords. Usually these recommendations are things that your team needs to implement because only you know your business. We will write up the technical aspects and tell you where to put it, but you need to tell your customers about your next great idea.

4. Have you ever gotten a site penalized by the search engines?

   OK, I’ll admit some weakness on this question. I am a salesperson and I often like to torment other salespeople. I’m the guy who revels in telemarketer calls to see how they approach a prospect and then grill them about their service all the while offering up objection after objection. At this point in the call, your cold caller feels he is on a roll. He has illustrated knowledge of the tactics and industry and has gotten to toot his own horn. Now hit him between the eyes and knock him off balance. If he answers with a quick “no” then ask him again. We all try to avoid penalties, but it happens and that is how we learn and improve our tactics. I’m not talking about blatant, shady tactics here, but what you want to find out is what things consistently drag down the rankings of their customers and how are they addressing these points.

5. Can you tell me about some of your successful clients and can you give me case studies?

   This is a great way to close off the call even if it is going great. We are all busy and have our business to run and can’t spend all day on the phone with a salesperson. If you have time to keep talking, then ask him to tell you the story of their latest client success. Be wary of only very recent and new customers. SEO takes a long time to get right and case studies that show longevity and the ability to manage a campaign are much more valuable than the story of that first 3 month spike in rankings. Having the salesperson send you case studies gives you some time to do your own research. Look up the company. Where are they ranked? How long have they been a customer, or are they still a customer? Ask to speak to someone as a reference. It’s not unheard of that a company chooses to remain confidential but I think this is extremely rare. We embark on an SEO campaign to gain visibility so why would a client want to remain nameless.  Don’t fall for this one!

There are many more questions that come to mind, but I think any company that can get through these five questions without raising your mental red flag is worthy of investigation. If you are still impressed after looking over case studies, then set a follow-up meeting and discuss the process with this salesperson. Good SEO starts with research and an understanding of your business. It will be enlightening to see how this prospective firm plans to garner that understanding. Good luck with your vetting efforts, and remember all of us are salespeople to some extent so be nice!

1 Comment »

1. [...] Rogers with Web Advantage put together a good list of questions to ask SEOs who cold-call you.  If you can find SEOs who can answer these well, they may very well be worth [...]

   Pingback by How To Determine Quality of SEO Services | Tulsa Marketing Online Blog — November 24, 2009 @ 5:51 pm

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