Description
Outsourcing Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
We are seeing more and more smaller businesses (less than £5m turnover) who are unhappy with their SEO provider, but find themselves locked into a 12 month contract.
Whilst a major part of our business (and client base) is SEO, and we wouldn’t definitively argue that 12 month contracts for outsourced SEO are a bad thing. The time is right to make caution for entering into a 12 month contract with a new SEO business partner.
With the recent Google updates: Panda and Penguin (Note: Matt Cutts, Head of web spam at Google) many businesses have seen their search rankings drop. It seems to us, and many industry experts that the Google trend of introducing these updates at certain points through the year will continue.
With this in mind, business owners need to be mindful of engaging with an SEO partner who insists on a 12 month agreement/contract. Post Google Penguin 2.0 update (May 22nd, 2013), many smaller businesses we are seeing would like to make a swifter exit with their SEO partner – only to find they are locked in for another 9 months!
At eapb we work on the basis of a maximum 4 month or quarterly agreement for SEO. This remains the case, with a guarantee of no increase in fees for the first 12 months. This way of working also incentivises us to work harder at proving our worth to your company, more quickly. In addition every eapb SEO agreement includes a 30 day cancellation notice period, if you feel for whatever reason we are not delivering.
Outsourcing to a creative, professional SEO company is a smart move. There are dozens of such companies across the UK. With the knowledge of the above, be (how can we best put it?) slightly cautious of the 12 month SEO contract lock-in.