I have been to marketing meetings in Bangalore or Mumbai and I always hear the same thing: "We will get you on the first page for 50 keywords." This sounds really good when you are looking at a presentation. Six months later most businesses find that they have spent a lot of money and their website traffic is still the same. There are SEO agencies in India but it is hard to find one that can really make a difference to your business.
The problem is not that these agencies do not have people working for them. They are not thinking about SEO as a way to grow your business. If your agency is sending you reports that show how well you are doing with keywords but your sales are not increasing then you are seeing a classic example of how SEO is not being done properly.
Getting to the top of the search results for a keyword that nobody uses to buy things is a waste of money. It makes you feel good. It does not help your business.
1. They focus on the keywords.
Of trying to get to the top of the search results for keywords that nobody uses to buy things they should focus on keywords that people use when they want to buy something. For example ranking high for "what's marketing" does not help you sell your software but ranking high for "enterprise marketing automation pricing" does. These agencies care more about how many people visit your website than about whether those people buy something.
2. They sell you a package that is not tailored to your business.
SEO is not like buying vegetables, where you can just buy an amount of something for a fixed price.
3. They create content that's not helpful to people.
We have all seen blogs that're just full of keywords and are hard to read. Search engines are now looking for content that's helpful to people and if your content is not helpful it will not be ranked high. If your content does not solve a problem for your customers Google will not keep it at the top of the search results.
4. They do not think about the side of things.
SEO is not about words it is also about the code that makes your website work. Many agencies do not have people who understand how to make a website load quickly or how to use codes to help search engines understand what your website is about. You can have the content in the world but if your website takes too long to load people will leave and you will lose sales.
5. They are not honest about how they build links to your website.
Some agencies use tricks to get links to your website. These tricks can get you in trouble with Google. Real SEO is about earning links from websites by creating content that is helpful and by reaching out to other people in your industry. It is not about buying links or using tricks.
6. They do not think about your business.
SEO is not just about getting to the top of the search results it is about helping your business grow. If your agency does not ask you about your sales or your products they are not thinking about how to help you. Most agencies fail because they do not work closely with your business to understand what you need.
7. They promise results that're too good to be true.
SEO takes time. It is not easy to get to the top of the search results. Any agency that promises you results is not being honest with you. The best agencies will work with you to create a plan that will help you grow your business over time.
To do SEO well you need to have an understanding of how to use technology to help your website, how to create content that is helpful to people and how to understand what your customers need. It is not about getting to the top of the search results it is about building a website that is valuable to people.
If you are not happy, with your SEO results you should stop looking at how well you are doing with certain keywords and start looking at how many sales you are making. If the two are not related then you need to change your SEO strategy, not the keywords you are using.