Seo Company/freelance Recommendations?

[mja1906]

I co-founded and manage a small responsible tourism company in Northern Thailand. I am looking for an expert/company that offers SEO services so that my page can rank at the top of search engines. Any recommendations for such companies out there?

I'm sure there are lots, but looking for a reliable company that is low cost and can do the job

Do any other business owners out there have experience with employing SEO services in Thailand? Any SEO sucess stories and how its helped your business?

Thanks

[Bartman]

This is a Thai company run by a British Guy.

http://www.deckchair-asia.com/things_done.php?wh=seo

Have not used them myself but have heard good things...

[Crushdepth]

I am looking for an expert/company that offers SEO services so that my page can rank at the top of search engines.

Suggest you have a look at the Google webmaster guidelines. Most SEO basically equates to good web design and are simple things that you (or whoever made your website) can do yourselves. SEO will not place your site at the top of search rankings. It is unlikely to give you anything more than a small improvement (unless your existing website is absolutely awful).

The most effective thing you can do is actually just to provide high quality content or a useful service on your website, and it will naturally gain rank on search engines. Getting other highly-ranked sites to link back to yours is also a big plus (see the webmaster guide).

Any company that claims to be able to work miracles through SEO is outright lying and to be avoided, and many do irritating things like hire hordes of webslaves from developing countries to randomly spam forums with links to your site, thereby incurring the wrath and ire of your prospective clients and screwing up your business (while 'improving' its ranking).

[huma79]

Crushdepth is right - for the most part avoid these SEO companies. Instead, use that money to hire a professional web designer who knows how to create a google-friendly site and is willing to constantly update it. It will take time, but it will work. If you go the SEO route, you'll likely see no real improvement in RELEVANT search results, and worse, your company reputation may suffer and you could even be banned from google altogether. If you do decide to go the SEO route, have them guarantee a specific goal in contract before they receive the full payment. However, I seriously doubt any SEO company would do this, because they know it would be impossible to guarantee.

[MrHammer]

SEO can do a ton for rankings, but it takes time. Don't expect major results in less than 3 months.

It's a myth that if you create good content then Google will find you. Your competitors will be building backlinks.

SEO also creates a stronger brand and internet presence. There's tons of other ways to promote your business online as well. Google maps is one.

Your success depends on your chosen keywords. Naturally 'responsible tourism chiang mai' will be easier to rank for than 'thailand tourist'.

TS, if you are interested I do know a SEO firm operating out of Chiang Mai, should be reasonable and you can actually visit them. If you are interested, send me a pm as I don't want to spam.

[Somtamnication]

PR takes time, a lot of time. A lot of it is up to the spiders finding your site and doing their little algorithms. I would not expect your PR to significantly improve in under 6 months. Doing sneaky things like adding keywords colored like your background page so they do not show up and some other tricks, will get you banned from Google in no time.

Regarding SEO writing firms, avoid DECURRO.CO.UK like the plague. I did work for him months ago and the once a week paycheck never arrived for me nor others. He does not pay his writers anymore. But has time to travel around Thailand, as of December 17th. He is based in Surin and UK. He does request writers on TV from time to time. Wonder why?

[RedCardinal]

It's a myth that if you create good content then Google will find you. Your competitors will be building backlinks.

Actually content has become even more important now than ever, esp. as Google filters out more and more low quality links.

If you create great content and promote it you will get the "right" links to rank very well. Simply put yourself in the mind of users at all times, and build for them.

[Crushdepth]

It's a myth that if you create good content then Google will find you. Your competitors will be building backlinks.

One of the reasons why good content ranks highly is that people naturally (and voluntarily) publish links to useful or interesting things. The number of sites that link to yours strongly affects your ranking as it is taken as an indicator of relevance. Links from highly ranked sites are worth a lot more than links from unpopular sites, and 'link farm' pages are next to worthless.

So competitors with lousy content and useless services may be building backlinks all day, but odds are they'll be doing it by exchanging links with other low-quality sites that don't actually improve their ranking, or they'll have to pay advertising fees to high profile sites for the privilege. Google's ranking mechanism is a bit like natural selection. It resists attempts to manipulate the system because the natural behaviour of internet users/webmasters is such a huge force compared to the puny advertising budgets of small companies.

The worst thing that can happen is that your business gets a number 1 rank in Google - but its a story about how awful your company or website is.

[klikster]

Listen to RedCardinal and Crushdepth. Links for the sake of numbers won't get you very much. Good and well-written content will .. and it will get indexed .. and pretty quickly. Google spiders most of my sites on a daily basis. It is a matter of what page.

One recent thing I read over at webmasterworld is that Google is considering page load speed as a positive factor in their algo.

Forget any SEO that makes promises about page one. Some may have a trick or two, like long-tail phrase searches .. but some of their temporary tricks can get you a "950 penalty".

[chuckygobyebye]

The comapny I work for does very good SEO/SEM.

You don't actually want SEO, what you need is someone who can look at your site and advise on how it can best complement your business. That is, make sales or sales leads. A company that only does SEO probably can't advise you on which keywords to optimise for or how to structure your site into a sales funnel. We had one client who came to us from another SEO company because, although her traffic had gone up, her sales had actually gone down.

Also, if your market is anglophone, make sure you use a native speaker.

[MrHammer]

If you have good content then yes eventually you will get some links, but most important is originality. Half the internet is copied and rewritten stuff. My question is: Do the TS have the writing ability to create content that makes people want to link? If he can't, and few people are gifted writers, then he will need to hire a writer. If you want a decent writer, then that will cost you quite a lot. And then you wait.

On the other hand the TS could be writing 5 x 250 word articles a day on his chosen keywords and submit to the big article directories. Then autosubmit spun versions to 200 more. Using this strategy I have outranked much more established sites. And I am not good at SEO at all. The TS will also get visitors to his website trough the articles.

But maybe better skip the whole SEO ordeal and invest in a good Adwords book or hire someone to run a campaign. Then when someone in an internet cafe seaches for 'responsible tourism Thailand' there will be an ad in the sidebar. Very targeted.

And don't forget posting helpful answers on the LonelyPlanet forum with a signature linking to your site.

In other words, many ways to promote a business online.