Few firms 'offer SEO services only'

24/09/2008

Recent research has found that only a small proportion of companies that offer search engine optimisation (SEO) focus specifically on this service.

Vertical Leap analysed a sample of UK businesses and found that only 12 per cent offered SEO exclusively, the rest provided clients with web design, email marketing an other online services, reports e-consultancy.com.

Experts at the site suggest that these results highlight an ongoing "dilemma" for clients about whether they opt for a specialist company or a "one phone sorts it all option".

Matt Hopkins, the company's managing director, commented: "For me, the impact of this study is that many different companies are listing SEO as only one of their many services. But are they really capable of delivering the service?"

He noted that delivering effective SEO required tailored skills and experience and expressed his doubt that companies offering a range of options could deliver this.

In related search marketing news, Google has announced that it prefers that firms do not use rewrites to change dynamic URLs to static looking URLs.