Top Companies for SEO

January 5, 2010 7:47 pm admin SEO

As we start 2010 there appears to be an upsurge in companies saying that they’re good at all things ‘web’.  Some say they’re the best at SEO, others say they’re the best at PPC, and then there are those that say they’re the best at social media.

One company emailed us saying that they were top of Google UK for the phrases ’search engine marketing’,  ’pay per click London’, and ’search engine optimisation London’.  That sounds good on the surface but such claims open companies up to closer scrutiny.

While we wouldn’t take it away that they are in fact top for those phrases, we would take issue with their claim of ‘Being number one for each in Google.co.uk demonstrates we are the best in search’.   So let’s look at this a bit deeper – two of the phrases include the word ‘London’ and the other is ’search engine marketing’ (which, although a good result to get, probably isn’t the first phrase that people think of when looking for search engine optimisation companies.  No, they’re more likely to be searching for something like ’search engine optimisation’.  If you type that phrase into Google UK a completely different company is top and the ‘best in search’ company doesn’t show up until page 2 of results.

So, top marks for being highest for ’search engine optimisation London’ but reduced marks for thinking that people wouldn’t think “so what about if we take ‘London’ off that phrase and see where you are?”.

Of course, there are so many phrases related to SEO that people may type into Google, and few companies would try and optimise for too many of them.  The point here though is that while it’s great to get top positioning in Google for certain types of phrases, to broadcast to people that you’re ‘best in search’ is quite daft when you’re not top for the most obvious phrase, which is ’search engine optimisation’.

In most business types companies/people can say they’re the best and sometimes it’s difficult to prove.  For those providing SEO and PPC services though, the evidence is there for all to see on page 1 of Google and it’s a brave company that makes claims about being the best if there are holes in their online visibility.