Cosmo Quiz: Should You Get In Bed With An SEO Agency?

I’ve spent the past 5 years in-house and over that period, I’ve never hired an SEO agency; however, I’ve been pitched more times than I can count. Additionally, I’ve been exposed to hundreds of SEO agencies through my work with doctors and lawyers.  During that experience, I’ve seen the spectrum of some really great work […]

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girl-bed-computer-smallI’ve spent the past 5 years in-house and over that period, I’ve never hired an SEO agency; however, I’ve been pitched more times than I can count.

Additionally, I’ve been exposed to hundreds of SEO agencies through my work with doctors and lawyers.  During that experience, I’ve seen the spectrum of some really great work to some abhorrently shoddy SEO practices.

Over this period, I’ve become increasingly convinced that SEO should be an in house function for two primary reasons.

First, SEO touches many departments. It is extremely difficult to outsource anything that requires interdepartmental cooperation and coordination.

Second, given the potential for long term disaster through the implementation of black hat tactics, I’d never outsource an SEO function unless I knew exactly what the agency was doing. And if I knew exactly what it was doing, I could probably either do it myself or hire someone to do it.

However, I’ll acknowledge there are certainly valid reasons to outsource SEO beyond needing an agency to throw under the Google bus when you get caught buying links.

It may be lack of resources, lack of  expertise, or a short term project. Additionally, hiring a true expert may be helpful to validate your SEO strategies, or give  the warm and fuzzy feeling knowing your are in good hands; but I personally believed you’re wasting a lot of potential budget that could be better used in house.

quiz2

Here are some of the questions I’d want answered before engaging with an agency, all packaged in a nice Cosmo style quiz:

Experience

Have you ever worked in porn, pills, or poker?

  • No (+0)
  • Yes (+2)

Are you still working in porn, pills, or poker?

  • No (+0)
  • Yes (-4)

Did you recently work for JC Penney?

  • No (+0)
  • Yes (-10)  OK – now I know that’s just mean, but knowing tactics they’ve used for previous clients can be very telling.

What is Mayday?

(This is a good question to asses being connected to industry changes and some industry longevity as Mayday happened almost a year ago.  There are lots of variants of this.)

  • A celebration of spring that includes dancing around a pole OR an international distress signal (-4)
  • A May 2010 Google algorithm update that impacted long tail traffic.  (+2)

Do you use any of the following words in your Twitter ID:

  • Visionary, Evangelist, Maven, Guru, Expert, Ninja (-1)

Have you ever spoken at SES, SMX or PubCon?

  • No (-0)
  • Yes (+1)
  • Regularly (+2)

Define the word Grok.

(This is a question to assess old school geekiness. There are many variants of this, such as “Tell me about the best episode of Battlestar Galactica.”)

  • Huh? (+0)
  • Something along the lines of:  “To understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us as color means to a blind man.” (+1)
  • Can identify the etymology of the word as originating from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.  (+1)

Reputation

Like it or not, some of success in search is what you’ve worked on and who you’ve worked with in the past and who you know today. The best of the best all tend to know each other and still share their learnings among a small group.

Are you BFFs with Bruce Clay, Greg Boser, Vanessa Fox, Michael Gray, Oilman, Rae Hoffman, Lisa Barone, Jill Whalen, Jessica Bowman, Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan, Todd Malicoat, David Mihm, Marshall Simmonds, or Stephan Spencer?  (Yes, I’m sure there are others who should be on this list . . .)

  • Yes (+1  per)

Are you BFFs with Matt Cutts?

  • No (+0)
  • Yes (-4) – anyone bragging they can leverage their relationship with Matt to help your SEO is full of it.
  • Yes and here’s a photo of him smiling in front of my company’s booth at an SMX conference (-10)

Did you ever work for a search engine?

  • No (+0)
  • Yes (+2)

Their Pitch

The way the agency relationship is structured, how they pitch you, the questions they ask and the data they want access to can tell volumes about the agency’s quality.

What exactly are you going to do?

  • Specific (+2)
  • Vague (-2)

Anything in the pitch related to “automating content creation” “widespread syndication” or “link networks”?

  • No (+2)
  • Yes (-4)

Can you guarantee to get <insert search term> to top 3 on google?

  • No (+1)
  • No and focusing on individual ranking is probably a bad mindset. Here’s why . . . . (+3)
  • Yes (-4)

Do you get paid based on your ability to move <insert search term> to the top 3 position?

  • No (+0)
  • Yes (-3)

How long is this engagement?

  • Month to month (-4)
  • <6 months (-2)
  • 12+ months (+2)

How do you measure success?

  • Ranking reports (-4)
  • Traffic (+1)
  • Quality Traffic (+3)
  • Financial/business metrics (+6)

Did they require access to your analytics account?

  • No (-4)
  • Yes (+2)

Did they require access to your Google Webmaster Tools account?

  • No (-2)
  • Yes (+2)

And the final question was suggested to me by @valejo via Twitter:  “What is your competitive advantage versus me?” This is a primary question for any type of consultant.

If someone can’t answer that question convincingly, you’re most likely better off doing it yourself.

Score Your Results

<0 –  Skip

These “consultants” are so new to the game they think Farmer is someone in overalls.

0-14  – Avoid

This group knows enough to be dangerous – dangerous to the long term existence of your site. A guaranteed quick trip to Google’s garbage pile. Make sure you don’t correspond with them from your gmail account.

15-19  – Maybe

A potential fit, but you’ll most likely have to ride them hard to ensure your business objectives are being met.

20-24 – Good Fit

Members of this group are few and far between. They can talk to you across the entire spectrum of SEO – from technology to marketing to business.

> 24 –  The Experts

Unless you are a Fortune 100 brand or the US Government, you can’t afford them, but you probably don’t need them. If you are Fortune 100, you are foolish to hire anyone else.

Stock image from Shutterstock, used under license.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Conrad Saam
Contributor
Conrad Saam is the founder and general manager of Mockingbird Marketing (formerly Atticus Marketing), an agency delivering advanced online marketing exclusively for the legal industry. Previously, he spent 6 years running marketing for legal Q&A site Avvo -- which went from concept to market leader without spending a dollar on advertising (they were really really good at SEO). He's the author of The FindLaw Jailbreak Guide and hated by legal marketing vendors and social media marketing consultants who fleece their clients.

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