We have all been in the position at some time where we have had to choose a supplier to complete a project for us that we couldn’t do ourselves, maybe fitting a new kitchen or bathroom for the family home.

Before deciding on the builder, we normally check references and view different installations they have completed in the recent past to ensure they are up to the job.

Once we have shortlisted two or three builders capable of the work, then it comes down to price and personal preference. Sometimes the more expensive option is the cheapest as you typically won’t need to maintain it as often if the structure and building materials were of a better quality in the first place.

This process is a common sense approach to a solution but, for some reason, it doesn’t always translate to an online service.

Companies wanting to make the most of SEO and looking to appoint a partner should consider the following:

• Firstly, decide what’s most important for you as a company and how you want people to perceive you through your online presence. Do you need to attract visitors to your website, in which case search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial, or do you already have a captive audience so SEO is not such a big thing?

• Today, web development partners don’t need to be geographically local to you but keeping the team in the same country as you and within a reasonable drive is recommended. Visits are inevitable especially with larger projects

• Where should you host your domain name and consider the successful growth of your company? Nobody starts a business to fail so ensure that you will be able to alter the MX records of your domain so as you can point it to your own mail server once your business is ready. A mail server will sit on a larger network and will handle all email locally and is a much better option when considering backups and versatility

• Ensure that you have seen any possible vendor’s recent work and make sure they are not outsourcing your requirements. You need to know you’re talking to the authors so if changes need making they can do it quickly and accurately

• If driving visitors to your website is important to you, make sure they understand search engine technologies. You can test their abilities in this by checking many current results of their work in search engines and don’t rely on images or reports of what they have done in the past. SEO is a very important part of a web project and needs to be addressed right from the design stage to get the best from it. Applying SEO after your site has been developed could be a costly mistake

• Make sure you can afford the project budget and ongoing costs for additional work. For example, a content-managed website will allow you to manage your content and keep ongoing costs to a minimum but the initial costs will be higher

• So who do you trust? Find a web development partner with pride in themselves and good awards to their name. A partner who can provide qualified and varied results in search engines. A partner who can provide a content management system that will allow you freedom to create at a price you can afford. Most importantly, a partner who can help you grow as your business takes off.

Hopefully you will follow the steps above and find that entering into the online business can be a very profitable and fun experience.

For more information see www.seostartup.com [1]