Almost every day without an exception I get an email or gtalk chat requests with someone representing an SEO company in India.
While I am glad this big country has started to master the art of search engine optimization and offering it for outsourcing, the conversation usually goes in the same way every time.
So if you are an SEO company from India here are few tips before you approach me next time.
- At least have a website. Many of the very confident SEO companies I talked to did not even have a website as they were 'too busy serving their clients'.
- I will ask you to show me a competitive keyword you ranked your own site for. In many cases this is where the big silence occurs. Then some of the more agile will want 'just a minute' and start browsing through their keyword rankings. If you want to take care of my site I expect you to have taken good care of yours first. And you should not need to go through keyword reports to know what keywords you optimized your site for
- If you want to ask for $1000/month for SEO work, you need to have a money back guarantee policy
- Show flexibility in your skills, as I want to hire a company not software
So far I have tried around a dozen of companies which passed this simple test. I kept working with only one which on the top of the list has good manners and customer relations.
So does outsourcing SEO to India work?
I think India has one of the strongest IT sectors on the planet and a huge potential for outsourcing SEO work. However the companies in India still lack basic business skills in communicating with the clients in the West.
It is getting better but still be prepared to get burnt in more cases than not. At least in many cases you were not going to lose a lot of money (but this is changing too).
Suggested reading:
- Why are search results are so important today?
- SEO Case Study: From Zero to a Hero in One Month
- Organic Search Optimization Strategy for 2011
Posted in: SEO
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23 Comments
I'm not sure if outsourcing the work is so great for tasks like this. It's better to just use Seo Services providers who do the work for you, they will do good work, more work and way cheaper than when you pay a person to do it for hours...
Nice work! Being an Indian my self I am sure you can add these points as well:
1) The person who contacts should have a good English speaking skill. I myself, being an Indian face, this problem. People who Contact me, either have a broken English, or they just don't understand a word you say.
2) Have a good portfolio backed out with some promising testimonials as well. Not fake though, as I sure professional people can easily differentiate between a fake and a real testimonial.
3) Having a site is okay, but having well promoted site is like a cherry on the cake. So I'd suggest people to first build some good domain authority for their own business site before even bothering to contact a potential buyer.
An online community will not grow by itself. Getting the website up is only the beginning of the journey. Now comes the hard part—driving traffic to your site. There are a number of strategies that you can use to help build your client list. Companies have depended on the use of SEO businesses for years.
I get approached a few times every week from SEO firms in India. I have the same issues with them as you. No webs site to speak of and if they do, I just don't see them ranking that well in the search engines.
I know that there is some very good talent in India for SEO, but it is hard to even consider them if they don't present themselves in a professional manner.
We all hope that will change with time :)
Vladimir, care to share the one Indian company with whom you have continued to work with?
yep its seo-contentwriter.com
Very well written, I completely agree.
I am an SEO and that also from India :) but totally agree with your post.
Actually In India seo has become a money making business, SEO services rates has fallen below 80 dollars and many companies will work at that prices.
My comment, SEO really requires lot of strategy and hard work and it cannot be done for as low as $80 per month. But i don't blame Indian companies also because the customers also doesn't understand that SEO is a hard work and they go to the company who offers low rates.And at the end of the day, they get what they pay for.
Another thing which makes me feel bad is that most of the seo companies or better say many companies do not have a website and if they have they have just put it for name only. India needs to think to add value to SEO rather than making a bad reputation of Indian SEO in the world.
Well said, India SEOs should think more about the future.
"And at the end of the day, they get what they pay for.".....Tuche!!!
I have worked with many US clients, and some of them negotiate a price which is just not acceptable.
Usually, they say the following things:
#1- I have found another team who is offering your services at a lower price. Can you compete with them? (did you say "worse" quality also?)
#2- Please give me a "friend & family" quotes! (buddy, this is business relationship)
#3- Look, this is just the begining, we have more projects in the pipelines for you (reminds me there is a light at the end of every tunnel, which btw, is illusive)
And, here is the latest one:
Your quote would be great but for the ongoing recession (this was from a UK client)
Well, I can only blame some Indian SEO companies who are turned into virutal sweatshop.
I do SEO work in another poor Asian country, China. I think India is better for English language sites to submit to, but I'd prefer to say SEO should be based upon 90% page development and 10% backlinks/promotion to your site.
I beg to differ when you refer China is a "poor" Asian country. It is better to avoid such terms of judging nations based on their economy. Countries are not poor or rich by "wealth", but they are rich or poor in terms of "level headed" citizens who represent them. Be it SEO or BPO, the western world is dependent on Asian countries for cost effectiveness as long as it serves their business purposes. This is just a simple and natural phenomenon - so why risk ourselves with a cheap generalizaton! Let's that to the leading economists who understand global economies better, eh?
I would be careful calling China, poor. They are one of the richest countries in the world :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29
i would like to study SEO,For helping the west
Indians are hard working and perform the task efficiently. So I think they are the best choice for SEO.
I totally agree, for example if Vladimir starts a SEO company he has his blog to represent as a sample. Almost all post older than 3 months have a high PR.
Same for goes for mony back guarantee, If a person is spending a lot on SEO, he should feel secure that either he/she's gonna have results or the money back.
whyz every one behind SEO? while the smarts are making a shift to Social Media. It's faster and affordable ..
I'm just beginning to outsource some of this work to India, and so far so good. I hope it remains this way, but as you say, if it does not work out, at least its not going to break the bank.
Good stuff... I outsource my link building to India, but and do most other SEO work in house. I have a Pakistani company doing telemarketing lead generation for me. And I am dying to try a particular Indian company for PSD to WordPress conversion.
You should try Dev (Markupdude.com) . He is Good friend of mine and a man of good manners are customer relations. His works are really nice.
I think India is the best place in Outsourcing SEO services. Don't forget most of the countries trust only on Indian professionals.
I outsource very little myself, and I have yet to use anyone in India (except when I was Account Manager years back), but I keep hearing that the prices are rapidly increasing, and the quality rarely follows. Many people I know are now approaching other countries, and have been for a while. The biggest problem in my opinion, as you mention yourself, is the communication problem.
Although English is not my native language, as per working in the IT industry (in the West) it is sort of required, and when you have problems even communicating, the end-result is rarely going to be any good.
Some day I would like to take a fresh site, and totally outsource the external SEO, just to try it out. You fail to mention if it does actually work in your post? (For the one company that had good manners are customer relations.)
Yes it does work.