Small Business SEO Recommendations

[TimKelsey]

I work for a company that manages websites for several hundred small businesses. We do a good job with on-site optimization but don't do any link building for our clients.

Occasionally, clients are in desperate need of links and ask us for recommendations. I've had a tough time finding a balance between quality consultants and affordable prices. I understand that link building campaigns, in general, carry a hefty price tag, but of our clients can't afford any of the big name agencies.

We've also had a few of our clients get burned recently by bad link building and I don't want to point them in the wrong direction.

Does anyone have any recommendations for companies or freelance consultants that do good work without breaking the bank?

Thanks!

Tim

[TomRayner]

Hi Tim

Just to quickly throw my opinion in: I think you're of the right frame of mind to recommend a consultant.  Finding an agency that would build safe and valuable links on a small budget can be a very frought process, with several rip-off merchants out there.  Not to say all of them are of course, but equally if the clients' budget is not sustainable, the path of self-education could be a better one.

With that in mind, you may be able to find a number of quality consultants on SEOMoz's own recommended companies list: http://www.seomoz.org/article/recommended

Furthermore, I'd point your clients in the direction of some great educational resources. The beginner's guide to SEO from Moz remains a great document for all, while Jon Cooper's Link Building Course and DistilledU can also be a great investment.

Hope this helps you and your clients out.

[TimKelsey]

Thanks, Tom! We try to do our best with educational stuff, but a lot of our clients tend to feel overwhelmed or just don't have the time to do link building themselves.

I've recommended companies from the SEOmoz list, but they're usually too expensive for our clients. Maybe I just need to do a better job of setting pricing expectations when I recommend a company and explain that quality work comes at a premium.

[TomRayner]

It's always hard to gauge as consultants will always price themselves differently and on different grounds.

I can recommend a ton of others not on that list, such as Chris Dyson http://tripleseo.com/ Steve Morgan http://seono.co.uk/ and Ross Hudgens http://www.rosshudgens.com/ - it's always worth dropping them a line, get an idea of budgets/quotes and whether or not they have expertise, or even specialise, in small business SEO.

But like everything, you get what you pay for and what you get out of SEO is more or less proportionate to what you put in.

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Tim

I just stumbled over this post so it's a late answer, however, maybe worth throwing in my tuppence / five cents here.

I think we are pretty much at the point with all of this that if a small business client comes to you and asks for links then they likely have a bigger problem than actually just needing a bit of a boost for a few keywords.

If your client is thinking about buying links to simply do better in search then rather than just pointing them towards someone who may (or may not) do a good job the better advice would be pointing them towards a consultant who help them devise a real strategy. Buying links is not a strategy.

If I think about all of the clients I have worked with this year I don't think I have thought a single time - well, what you need is just a few more links. And, often, even when someone may come to us asking for us to build links, we more often than not try to look at ways to do something bigger and better.

I guess the point I am trying to make here is to ask the question - why? Why do you want links? What is the real goal? No business thinks we will make it this year if we can just get some more links so what is the real need here.

It's just too much of a can of worms to look at possibles but in many cases a well placed guest post on a highly visible site may generate more exposure and qualified click through traffic than the benefit that ten links may bring.

Some, stealthy placement on high ranking industry directories may help raise the profile and get more click through traffic again.

Some well placed citations and local SEO may be more than enough for many a small business or local business.

The possibilities are kind of endless but usually, links are not the entire answer and in many cases are not the biggest part of it.

Obviously, it all depends, but the point I am making is often, if they are asking for links, and you really want to give them some help, first ask them why and then try to direct them towards someone who can help them devise a real strategy that will drive exposure, referral traffic and likely a few bang-up links as part of the process.

Obviously, on the dawn of Penguin 2.0 (4.0?) having a strategy that is not built around getting more links is even more important than ever.

Not an answer as such, but hopefully food for thought! 
Marcus