What is SEMCompare?
SEMCompare simplifies the process of comparing search engine marketing firms by providing unbiased user-generated reviews and custom quotes from select providers.
How can SEMCompare help me?
With 90% of web traffic originating from search engines, maintaining a successful search marketing strategy is important to any company looking to sell on the web. This is why businesses turn to Search Engine Marketing firms to take care of the process for them.
Choosing a quality SEM firm, however, can be an overwhelming task. With hundreds of companies and limited information online, consumers thus far have had few resources at their disposal when comparing various offerings. SEMCompare gives you the tools and resources you need to make an educated choice when selecting a company to manage your search engine marketing efforts.
How do I know that the reviews posted on your site are legitimate?
We take all possible measures to ensure the reliability and legitimacy of reviews submitted to our site. There is absolutely no way for a company to “buy” their way into getting good reviews or removing poor reviews on SEMCompare.
The following measures are taken to verify legitimacy and reliability of reviews:
- We use IP tracking to ensure that any users submitting multiple reviews get automatically flagged for investigation. That means if an SEM firm attempts to post multiple reviews for themselves or their competitors, we will look into each and every one of them before approving it to go live on the website.
- If any reviews appear to be suspicious, we will conduct further research on the identity of the reviewer and their website. If needed, we will go as far as contacting the individual to verify the validity of the review.
- If the reviewer is found to be affiliated with an SEM agency in any way, their review will be removed from our system, and they will be banned from submitting future reviews to the site.
We realize that no system is perfect, but we are commited to working with our community and our visitors to continuously improving our platform. If you ever have any questions or comments, please contact us.
What form of Search Engine Marketing should I pursue?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
When you type in a keyword on Google or any other search engine, the results that come up on top are usually what we call “natural” or “organic” search results. This is because these results are not paid for - rather the search engine determines these to be the best matches for that keyword. Search Engine Optimization providers structure your pages for the best chance of placing well for results relevant to your business. SEO is usually long term strategy, so a user should not expect immediate results, rather substantial improvements over time.
Pros – SEO is the most effective way to generate substantial traffic over time. The long-term potential is very high if you start listing well with popular keywords.
Cons – A successful SEO strategy can take time and there are no set guarantees. There are a lot of factors to keep in mind and the search engines themselves are constantly changing. There are no means of buying your way to the top of a natural search result.
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PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
When you do a search on Google you will see results on the right-hand side called “Sponsored Links”. These links are paying advertisers. They pay on a per-click basis, anywhere from $0.10 a click to $50 a click based on the quality of that particular keyword. For niche markets, prices can get incredibly expensive. A PPC Management firm will help you minimize your expenses and maximize the quality of your leads for these types of listings. Pay-Per-Click is ideal for an advertiser looking for immediate results, and complete control over where their advertising dollars are going.
Pros – PPC services offer immediate results and instant traffic. You know exactly where your advertising dollars go, and only pay as you go.
Cons – Each new visitor will always cost money and keyword bidding always remains extremely competitive.
>Read Reviews >Get Custom Quotes
What questions should I ask when comparing companies?
Selecting the right search marketing agency is important because you are choosing a partner to market your business. We’ve put together a list of questions you may ask when reviewing various SEM firms:
- What types of techniques do they use to achieve rankings?
- Does this company respect and pursue ethical SEO strategies?
- Can they show sample clients and provide ROI information? Can references and testimonials be provided?
- What are some of this SEM company’s top accomplishments?
- When can one expect noticeable results?
- What volume of traffic increase is reasonable to expect?
- What are different contract lengths and options?
- Does this company offer other services to supplement the SEO portion?
- Does this company use a template or custom approach?
- Does this company do link building?
- Does this company have web development expertise?
- What kinds of web site changes can be expected? Will they be visually noticeable?
Of course, there are many more questions that you may have. Feel free to contact our staff if you need further assistance.
