Search Engine Marketing Consultants

By Author: John Tang
Total Articles: 507
Comment this article

Search Engine Marketing Consultants, as the term consultant implies, provide analysis, guidance and usually implementation of Search Engine Marketing strategies and procedures. However, the definition by itself does little justice to the important areas of emphasis that you must look for in a true SEM Consultant.

Have you ever asked for and received a quote for SEM services? If so, you probably were not dealing with a true SEM consultant who is driven by results your results. Providing a quote for SEO or SEM services truly cannot be provided as if you were looking to buy a car or an HDTV or even a service like a Doctor or Lawyer. There are many questions you have to ask the prospective SEM Consultant before you can ask about cost and really understand what it is in fact you are getting.

If you are interested in SEM and an SEM Consultant, then you should first seek and get a true consultation. At a minimum, here is the information during the consultation phase that must be researched extensively before any serious consideration can be given to price:

1. Keyword Research - this must be at the core of ...
... any SEM consultation. The consultant should ask and you should be prepared to provide the major keywords that you feel are the most relevant and targeted keywords for your website. The consultant must further research these keywords to determine many factors including popularity, competitiveness, keyword derivative phrases etc.

2. Competitive Research - testing of the keywords and mining the competitors that are already on page 1 of the major search engines. Analyzing their websites to determine the strengths and weaknesses of their site.

3. Website Analysis - examination of the website to evaluate the internal structure of the site as well as the visible content to determine what must be done to the website internally to bring make all pages search engine friendly. In other words, insuring that each page of the website is properly structured and easily informs the spiders of the description and detail of the web page.

Without this research and the essential information resulting from the research you cannot begin to accurately and precisely craft an execution plan for a successful SEM strategy. However, with excellent research processes and procedures combined with the basics of consulting i.e. asking questions and listening, the SEM Consultant and ultimately you will understand what needs to be done and why.

Once the research phase is complete, pricing can now be quoted and agreed upon as the basis for the numbers is now a matter of the data / stats derived through the research phase. Further an implementation plan and schedule can be agreed upon based on this very same information.

Communication however is still critical throughout the process. Without exception, CONTENT is always an essential component of successful SEM. Fresh, relevant content must be implemented as an ongoing piece of the process. So, client and consultant need to communicate regularly whether the client or the consultant actually provides this content. Regardless, the content needs to be further optimized and targeted based on keywords before it is ready for onsite and offsite implementation.

Reporting is the other form of communication. What is the progress of the program? Are we meeting expectations? How are the keywords ranking? Are the ranking keywords resulting in visits? Are the visits resulting in CONVERSIONS? Well-designed, sophisticated and regular reporting must be a part of this continuing ongoing client-consultant relationship.

Search Engine Marketing Consultant can mean different things to different firms. It is important that you understand the length and breadth of the services being offered. The following are all essential elements of SEM Consulting Services:

a. SEO - Search Engine Optimization
b. PPC - Pay-Per-Click Management
c. Copywriting Services - Emphasis on Content
d. Conversion Strategies and Website Design
e. Multimedia Integration
f. Link Building
g. Social Media Optimization
h. Social Bookmarking Optimization
i. Submissions and Indexing

Ask the right questions of the SEM Consultant so that when you get the price quote you can evaluate it most accurately.