I get to talk to a lot of smart people about how to improve their site’s search marketing performance. And I read a lot of industry news and opinions on SEO, from both the SEO agency side and from the client side. Plus, there is such excellent research on trends and patterns, from MarketingSherpa, eMarketer and the like. It’s great to be in a hot industry.

One of the trends that gets contentious is one where we see traditional advertising agencies somehow acquiring search marketing “expertise” overnight. I’ve always contended that search engine MARKETING is what SEO is all about–and that PPC is just search engine ADVERTISING. Agencies should be able to do a good job at PPC, because that’s a world they understand (although writing classified ads is not the creative activity that justifies their high fees). On developing a robust strategic information architecture, writing page content that cascades into the site, drawing the search engine spiders along and establishing authority on choice keyword phrases? Not exactly the forte of a hot creative shop.

On the other hand, you have clients expecting their inhouse marketing team to add management of the site optimization process to its job description, without adding staff. Reworking your website’s content, or developing a new site with SEO web design in mind is not a part-time, when-you-get-to-it project. And, it’s probably not something your in-house writer or your design firm can do as well as an experienced SEO agency. However, most sizable companies do their SEO internally, because of the nature of developing content and the requirement of working closely with the web team. And probably, they recognize that the ad agency isn’t a good fit for this type of work.

MarketingSherpa reports that the typical traffic increase from in-house SEO is 38%, and that it’s 110% when clients use an SEO agency. As an agency that turned its B2B marketing expertise into a focused SEO agency six years ago, we know that there are a lot of subject matter experts required to do a good job on the varied range of client sites. It’s this experience and actual mastery of the work that makes our results better than DIY, but it’s not always clear to clients what to expect from SEO.

That’s why we do such a thorough audit, competitive analysis and deep keyword research. We put it in writing, and we scope our projects based on the specific competitive environment our client is struggling in. We’re very specific about the site optimization plan, and what else needs to be done to be competitive. Most importantly, we collaborate and partner transparently with our marketing colleagues on the client side. We want you to understand this stuff, to learn how to do it well, and to help your company thrive in the online marketplace of information, quick comparison and immediate consideration that has turned your sales department into order takers.