Seoteric’s approach to search engine marketing has been a breath of fresh air for the business owners and managers we have worked with. From our experience, SEO companies tend to be secretive in their practices and not give out much information on exactly what services they are providing. Some mask this as selling results and not services, but we feel very differently about it.

I recently read an article on SEOMOZ about this same issue. In their article about “what they would change about the seo industy” they pointed to the lack of professionalism. I agree that professionalism is a big problem, but I also think it is an issue of not having enough transparency in the services provided.

We are currently working with a client who has been frustrated with the seo services they are receiving from another company. They presented me a whole package of complaints from poor communication, not understanding the business goals, not enough reporting, and not understanding exactly what the company is doing and what they are paying for.

From what I have gathered, SEO companies (not all but some) tend to feel that if they give away to much information then they will in some way give away their business. This could be from fear that companies will do it themselves, or potential clients will see what the seo company really does and not want to hire them.

The solution seems quite simple when you think about it. If companies really wanted to handle SEO themselves, they could easily find the information on the internet to do it. There is so much published information that you can put together your own SEO campaign if you really wanted to. It will take more time, but it is possible. I tend to think that if a company is going to go that route, they will do that before contacting a company to do it for them. If a company contacts an SEO firm to handle the SEO for their business, then they are already in one sense saying “we don’t have the time to devote to this, but we see the value in it.”

You also have to look at the different types of business owners out there. Some will be ok with not knowing the process as long as they gets the results they want. Others will want to be involved in the whole process and know exactly what their money is paying for. Before a proposal is put together, you have to understand what type of business owner or manager you are dealing with.

For the sake of transparency, I tend to give as much information on our strategy as possible, from what text or information we need to change on the website all the way down to where the incoming links will come from. I also do a lot of keyword research and match keywords to their business goals, and prove on paper the search volume and value of the keywords we chose.

If you are afraid of giving up too much information when proposing an SEO strategy, don’t be. Think of SEO as any other service industry with results. If you hire a consultant to come into your business and look for ways to increase profits, are they going to not tell you what they did, and just show you how much they saved you or how much they increased profits? No, they are going to show you everything they did and how to manage the changes they made. SEO is not much different than that. Yes, they do receive long-term benefits from seo, but so do companies who hire other types of business consultants. The goal is to empower your clients. That is the main reason our number 1 motto is “Your Success is Our Success.”