Which 3 Make Our List?…And How Are They Measured?

Choosing a local SEO company for your business seems overwhelming at times, how can you decide which to choose? For us, we gained hands on experience with 3 of the best…this is what we found:So, first up, we spent some time trialling Web.com

Web.Com – Local SEO Experts

When it comes to web.com, they will list your business in many newspapers, directories, and so forth. Pricing wise, they are reasonable, and no more than the industry rate, at around 25 pounds per month. When it comes to their product, they score a decent 8/10.

Customer Service

From the very beginning, we were put in the capable hands of a rep by the name of ‘Caroline’. She was very helpful, even often going beyond the expected, in order to deliver great results. All in all, she went above and beyond. Would this be the same with other team members? The customer service dived, when we decided to end our trial. We received a phone call from one of their staff attempting to pin blame on us, the clients. It was quite a shock to see this hostile attititude, given the earlier great experience.This significantly soured an otherwise efficient experience. Clearly, there is a training need that should be addressed.The ending significantly affected the rating we would give them for customer service, so, instead of 8/10, the overall rating slips to 5.5/10.

The aforementioned list of citations is impressive, as is the ability to amend your business details via a Listings Management C.M.S. The Results, at least initially, were exactly what we were hoping for.However, there is an issue with the fact that changes to the business details were sometimes slow to be updated, if at all. Despite repeated complaints on this issue, some of these amendments did not go into effect. Because of this, the rating for results is 7/10

Our Rating 7/10

Business Magnet

The premise of Business Magnet is very good. Create a business page that has relevant keywords strategically placed in order to appeal to search engines. When you combine this with excellent design, based on the website colours, the product, at least in concept, is very good. 9/10Customer ServiceInitially, the customer service we received could not have been better. The consultant was open to negotiation on pricing and features. However, he promised a ‘dofollow’ link to our site. Passing authority to our site, was, after all, why we gave them a trial.When the product was delivered, checks revealed that the links were ‘nofollow’. Perhaps, it was an error. Perhaps, they hoped we would not check.However, it was good that we checked. So, we decided to push a few buttons and see how they would deal with this under pressure.The response we received was much below the standard we expected. Attacking to Defend is not a great customer service policy, in our opinion. 2/10

The fact that Business Magnet are widely known is testimony to the fact that they do have a great product.However, we found that our next company, Approved Business, offers a similar product, featuring the same benefits, with much less issues.

Rating 8/10

Approved Business

Approved Business offers a great service. The only drawback is less of the so called magnet keywords, and design is not based on the clients’ website design, as was the case with Business Magnet.

Customer Service.

So far, the customer service has been entirely up to expectations.We have no issue with dealing with their friendly, and knowledgeable staff. And, unlike Business Magnet, they are able to take card payments, thereby offering clients a superior ease of use.

Our Rating For Customer Service: 9/10

The Results Are In!

One of the advantages of using this service is that they email blast ‘expert articles’ to their email subscriber database. The concept behind this is to drive traffic to the website. Whilst this has not had any noticeable change in website traffic, the concept is sound.

The only other issue related to results is that the parent website could have cultivated higher domain and page authority, thereby increasing the SEO value to their clients.

Overall Rating For Approved Business 7/10

Choosing An Agency For Local SEO

When it comes to a local SEO service, time is precious. After all, the reason we hire someone, is that they save us time, and offer superior results.

Various agencies offer to take the task on, thereby freeing up time for more pressing issues. In our brief trials, we found Approved Business to be the one that we have stayed with. We did not continue with any other company.However, your decision is your own, and individual results may vary.

We recommend doing ‘due diligence’ when choosing your SEO company.However, when making a decision as to which way to go, advice can be invaluable, so we hope that our review of some of the options that you have will help you to make a wise, and profitable decision.