Category Archives: YouTube

How to Hire an SEO

SEO Hiring Guide

What to Consider When Hiring an SEO Company

SEO is so much more than just digital marketing. It requires a fundamental understanding of the technology that powers the web.

Awesome SEOs Know How to Optimize Beyond the Website

The most effective SEO companies possess in-depth knowledge of website development, design, hosting and domain names and can optimize almost any website, regardless of platform or programming language. They not only are capable of acquiring valuable organic search engine exposure but maintaining it by strictly adhering to search engine guidelines and protocols.

A good SEO will try to prioritize what ideas can bring your business the most improvement for the least investment, and what improvements may take more time, but help growth in the long term. –Maile Ohye, Google

Research Digital Footprints, Clients and Social Media

The difficulty is, how do you hire an SEO that is up to the task? Like any other type of business, researching the basics is a good place to start.

Checklist: Research Tips for Hiring an SEO Company

  • Since the web is their mainstay, Google them. A little searching should give you a decent first impression.
  • Visit their website and take a look at their portfolio. Does it look like they service your type of business? Do they have actual, verifiable clients listed?
  • How many years have they been in business?
  • How much experience does the consultant or SEO company staff have?
  • Do they use/update their own website?
  • Do they have a social media presence? Are they active?
  • Do they suffer from “jack of all trades master of none” syndrome AKA offer too many services?
  • Do they have website design and development skillsets? A solid SEO should be able to optimize nearly any website platform, CMS or custom build.
  • How robust is their optimization? In addition to on-site, off-site and technical SEO, they need to be able to optimize website hosting, domains and analytics.

Organic and Paid Search

SEO consultants, agencies and companies that specifically provide SEO usually offer paid search (Google Ads) and auxiliary services like auditing and website migration management. Which makes sense, as SEO and PPC are the primary methods for reaching audiences on search engines.

Stand-Alone and Ongoing Services

Most reputable SEO organizations offer a mix of stand-alone services like auditing and consulting as well as ongoing service options.

What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company

Ideally, hiring an SEO company that meets the following standards is a great place to begin. You’ll want to talk with them at least once before they prepare a proposal for service in order to provide them with the relevant information they need to conduct market and competitive research.

Checklist: General SEO Company Hiring Standards

  • Has been in business a few years (at least 2-3).
  • Has experience in your industry.
  • Has experience optimizing your website platform/CMS type.
  • Has a public portfolio with links to actual clients.
  • Provides local and national SEO.
  • Provides customized weekly and monthly reporting with ongoing service.
  • Provides daily critical issue monitoring with ongoing service.
  • Clearly distinguishes between implementation and recommendation service types.

SEO Hiring Process Expectations

Requesting a proposal for service is typically the next phase initiated after narrowing the field of potential SEO organizations or consultants you are interested in hiring.

SEO Proposals

Once you have connected with a prospective SEO company they will most likely respond with a few simple questions that will assist with conducting research. To create an effective proposal, the SEO will need to know about your services and products, competition and most importantly – your expectations.

SEO proposals come in many flavors, the most common are for ongoing service, project management/consulting and conducting website auditing. Some SEOs will require contracts, while others will not.

Jtree Insight: We generally take the approach of not wanting to force anyone to conduct business with us if they don’t want to. This just means we utilize a monthly agreement for providing ongoing service instead of a multi-month contract.

Hiring the SEO Company

After reviewing the proposal and asking the SEO any relevant questions it’s time to make your decision. You can usually expect to be signing either a contract or agreement of some type which will entail deliverables, timing and costs before service launches.

Search engine optimization organizations are just like other businesses in that if they look sketchy, they probably are. Paying close attention to tips and basic standards when hiring an SEO should greatly increase the likelihood that you will be hiring a pro.

How to hire an SEO Google Video





Google’s Maile Ohye shares her advice for hiring an SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) to improve the searcher experience on your website.

Guide Information

Jtree is a Portland and Boise based SEO company that has managed SEO for organizations throughout the US since 2009. Our intent with this guide is to assist and educate those that might be interested in hiring an SEO company for their business. Please contact us with any questions.

Jtree Light Side

Geeks Rejoice – You Can Now Star Wars Optimize Your Google Experience

Google recently teamed up with Lucasfilm and Disney for the Choose Your Side Star Wars experience. Where your favorite Google products become force optimized based on which side you choose, light or dark. Choose Wisely.

The Force is Hidden Within

In addition to skinning your Google apps with Star Wars-themed visuals, delicious easter eggs have also been carefully placed throughout. Check out your Google Maps Street View marker or open up a new Chrome tab to find the first of many.

And, there’s this cryptic tweet from Google:

 
Try searching Google for “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away,”.
 

Google’s Matt Cutts About Getting Snookered by Slimy SEOs

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam Team and primary SEO liaison, recently published a YouTube video about the biggest surprise his team experienced in 2012.

Note: Prospecting for an SEO? Then, this video is especially important…

His response came as somewhat of a surprise, albeit a very pleasant surprise, but not completely unexpected. Cutts’s advice about no free lunches is critically important to remember when listening to SEO companies pitch their services.

There is also complete agreement with Mr. Cutt’s advice with regard to buying backlinks from people called Dog Fart Jr. and Blackhat Assassin, just… no! 🙂

YouTube Linked Annotation Result

YouTube Testing Linked Annotations with Pilot Group

YouTube is currently testing a new feature with a pilot group of YouTubers that allow annotations in video clips to be linked to a page within an associated website.

YouTube presently allows linked annotations to a YouTube Channel, Video, Playlist and subscribe option. If the pilot is successful, users will be able to link to any page on the associated website set in YouTube settings. Linking to any other website aside from what was set as the associated website is prohibited.

Here’s How It Works (and to see if you are part of the pilot group)

Within your YouTube settings select the ‘associated website’ option. Enter your website URL in the box provided.

Getting Started with Linked YouTube Annotations

Getting Started with Linked YouTube Annotations

Now that the associated website has been set, choose a video in the video manager to add a linked annotation. Use the edit drop-down next to the video to select the annotations option.

YouTube Linked Annotations Edit

YouTube Linked Annotations Edit

Once the create/edit annotation screen loads, either create a new annotation or select an existing. Select the checkbox for ‘link’, then choose ‘associated website’ from the options. And finally, add the URL of the page located within the website previously set as the associated website.

If ‘associated website’ is not one of the available options, you are most likely not part of the pilot group.

Adding a Linked Annotation to a YouTube Video

Adding a Linked Annotation to a YouTube Video

Once you’ve entered the URL for the link, save and publish the changes. The new linked annotation should look something like the one displayed below.

YouTube Linked Annotation Result

YouTube Linked Annotation Result

No word yet on if or how much link juice/authority will pass from annotated links. However, this could be an opportunity to further integrate website offerings with YouTube content.

Plus, giving viewers the option to obtain extended or supplemental information about the video they are watching benefits not only the viewer, but the website as well – regardless of any link juice issues.

The majority of the pilot group of YouTubers that have linked annotations enabled were sent an email from YouTube notifying them of this. Still, it might be worth it to check for yourself.