As entrepreneurs and SEO agencies we are looking for every advantage to attract clients over our competitors. I have been everywhere in the SEO world from entrepreneur, small to large SEO agency, to corporate sell-out (I love my job!). In this article I thought I would share what you can do to set your SEO business apart from your competitors and win the big accounts (or any account for that matter). As you read through this article ask yourself if someone looked at our company in this way could I answer each of these topics?

Keyword Research – Local and Global

Keyword research is one of the most vital steps in the SEO process. Any time I create research for a company, I always double check it and make sure nothing is missing. You can be sure that when investigating an agency I will look even more closely at how they perform keyword research. As an agency you need to demonstrate that you always go the extra mile with your research. When I worked at an agency I would first get some recommended keywords. I would then use the standard set of tools (Google Keyword Tool, Word Tracker etc.) I would then go through the keywords and look at the competition for each of the top traffic terms. On each search result I would then look at the competitors page and try to discover any keywords they were using I had not thought of yet. Once I had those new set of terms I would go back and do the research again.

This process is both boring and time consuming. However, if you want to set yourself apart from other agencies, adding more effort and detail into your keyword research is the first step.

Globalization is the next most important part of the keyword research. At some point there is a good chance we will want to expand our product offerings and services to the different locations within the World. I don't want to hire another SEO agency to perform this work so I always check on your ability to scale globally. I want to know that your firm can localize my keyword list to the specific regions I choose and make high level recommendation. For most SEO agencies this is simply not a possibility so I would recommend contacting specific translation/localization agencies to have in place when you pitch to any company. Besides being a great sales point/addition over your competitors you now can go global easily with any client.

I am going to check your external and internal Links

What types of links am I seeing? I know that a large amount of small clients will have no idea what a quality link is but you better believe the large accounts do. Whether you are pitching to a large or small account you need to demonstrate that you have great link diversity.

External Links:

When I check on the links an agency has built I specifically look for creativity in the link building. I don't want to check a page's links and see only articles or directory submissions. I want to see a link from an infographic or some sort of link bait and maybe some other out-of-the-box ideas.

If all you see is a huge list of low quality article sites and directories alone, you can assume they stick to the standard quantity low to mid quality index links. That's not to say you don't need link diversification, believe me you do but if that is their only link source you better look somewhere else. Therefore when you are trying to attract clients make sure you show this link diversity and really sell them on how you are different.

Internal Links:

As we all should know by now internal linking is important to the overall SEO process and sharing of link juice along with indexing. Therefore I will always visit Open Site Explorer and the physical webpage to look at the internal links within some of your client's pages. In most cases I will select one of you clients at random (based on looking at your page) and look at their structure. Once again I want to see a consistent internal linking process and the latest SEO techniques being used. As part of the internal linking structure I will also look at the taxonomy being used. If there is a problem with the overall taxonomy I want to know whose fault it is that it has not been fixed. Have you, the SEO agency made recommendations on how to fix this or what is the problem? Once again I am looking for every little detail of your SEO knowledge and how you operate.

I will test the manager that may handle my account

In a lot of cases a salesman will be pitching SEO services on behalf of a company. They are great at talking about the basics of SEO but I always want talk to the account manager who will be actually performing SEO on my account. You need to know that the manager handling your account isn't some crazy anti-social recluse. Here are a few questions you could ask to gauge their overall SEO level and interest in your project (also refer to Rand's test). I know some of these questions would require research on their part but how they answer on the call will give you an idea of the personality you are dealing with. For example if you ask a question that requires research and they make some crazy fact up, find someone else. Whereas if they are honest and inform you it will take a few hours to find an answer you may have a great manager on your hands.

What is your overall process for working with a client?

How do you report link building, can you provide an example?

What ratio of backlinks do you build? (Is your backlink building 30% article marketing and 70% directories)

How do you create backlinks? (Be specific I don't want to hear a combination of article marketing and directories.)

How transparent is your company with backlink building, hours billed, etc.?

• Once again I like to scrutinize everything. I want to see exactly what backlinks were built along with how long it took. If I see it took eight hours to create a Squidoo lens I am going to be pissed or have a really amazing Squidoo on my hands.

How does your company operate versus your closest competitor?

• I learned a long time ago in a sales class that you want to show you are different and better than your competitor, but you want to demonstrate that value tactfully. For example I would say SEOmoz is the best in the business at SEO tools, nobody can beat them. However, you won't get the level of personal service and response time from them as you will get from me. (I know SEOmoz does not do SEO anymore and this statement may not be true, just an example)

Tell me about Mobile SEO?

On a mobile device how does Google decide whether to display local/mobile results or normal organic results?

*If people are actually interested in more questions I will write another post. Otherwise I will just leave it at this.

Conference Presenting, Social Media, and Blog Posts - Get on my Radar

Ok let me first say just because someone speaks at a conference or has a great blog portfolio does not always mean they have amazing SEO skills. A gifted writer or presenter can easily fake SEO on paper. I know a few really extraordinary SEOs that have never written a blog post or presented at a conference. With that in mind presenting at a conference or writing competent blog posts certainly does help. There are a lot of people within all corporations and large accounts that are constantly tracking the blogosphere for latest SEO techniques. As an example whenever I read a great article that relates to our latest project, I always send it to my manager and my manager's boss etc. This simple article or idea instantly puts you on the radar of me, my boss, and their boss. If we are ever looking for an agency to fulfill this service then your article serves as a great reminder of why we should investigate you more.

Let's be honest clients will be influenced by the awe of an SEO who has spoken at Pubcon or posted a few articles on Search Engine Land. So to not leverage these resources as an SEO would be downright stupid. As a client I want to be wowed by the person I am working with, I do not want any doubt in my mind that this is the best person for the job. Whenever I have looked at agencies I always go online and Google the owners or managers name(s) to see any articles that have been written by them. Sadly if you Google me all you find is the actor Matt Smith (not me).

To illustrate the value of this idea take the example of a company called Seer Interactive. Honestly a few months ago I had never heard of them (my own fault). However, a month or so ago I saw a tweeted message of Wil's article on link building with broken links. While this topic is not new he presented some great information and a nice tool that made the job much easier. Instantly in my mind this company had value and showed me they had the ability to think outside the box with link building. That's not to say their information is better than every SEO in the world but it sure helps weed them out from the other million SEO agencies in my mind. (I seriously have no affiliation with Seer Interactive).

To be honest landing a large account is a lot of chance, good market positioning, and an excellent team. The hardest part of attracting a large client is being in that right position ready to launch when they come knocking. You will most likely only get one chance to land the account so you need to be ready now. That means you need to take a hard look at yourself and your firm and ask do we live up to the standards a large account would expect? If you can confidently state yes then you will be ready when the time comes to land the big SEO account. By the way I need to say that the ideas contained in this article are my personal opinion and do not represent the opinions of my employer, Dell. I hope you enjoyed that....

note: All links above added by Jen Lopez.