5 replies to this topic

[websage]

I was reading a recent press release that KeywordRanking.com is the largest SEO company.

<snippet>
WebSourced, Inc.'s (OTCBB: CGIH) KeywordRanking.com division, the global leader in search engine marketing, has been listed as the largest search engine optimization (SEO) company in the world by MarketingSherpa's "Buyers Guide to Search Engine Optimization Firms".

In a survey of 120 search engine optimization companies from around the world, KeywordRanking.com emerged as the largest company in the industry with 54 full-time, dedicated SEO employees and more than 1,050 actively managed optimization clients. The guide, in its third edition, also noted KeywordRanking.com's impressive client list that includes NBC, RealNetworks and Alaska Airlines.

Commenting on this achievement, KeywordRanking.com's vice president of search marketing, Andy Beal said, "We are delighted to receive validation that we are the world's largest search engine optimization company. We have seen fantastic growth in this industry over the past couple of years and it shows no sign of letting up". Beal added, "As search engine optimization evolves from a boutique industry, more and more companies are becoming less satisfied with boutique SEO firms. They appreciate the resources a large company can bring to their online marketing campaign."
</snippet>

(I added the bold)

I was wondering if size matters in this business and if so, how?

How many of the people here represent boutique SEO firms? Do you agree with Andy Beal's statement?

[SearchRank]

I wonder what "boutique" means.

I don't think "size" necessarily matters as much as the "quality" of service that you offer. There are only 7 of us here at Searchrank and our active client list is currently at 110.

Our small size has not hindered us from obtaining large clients as we have done and are doing work for companies like Bell South, Intuit, Dynomax/Rancho, City of Hope, Oppenheimer Funds, etc.

I do think that sometimes with a large company, your pricing structure gets out of reach for smaller to medium size businesses. Consider that the vast majority of businesses are in this size range and you'll come to the conclusion that there will always be a need for smaller SEO firms whose pricing remains affordable for them. Therefore I cannot agree with Andy's statement that "more and more companies are becoming less satisfied with boutique SEO firms." As a matter of fact we have picked up clients that had the opposite opinion. They felt they did not get the service they were looking for because the company they were with was just "too big."

If you are good at what you do, and people find out about it, it does not matter what size you are, people are going to want your services. There are indeed many benefits to working with smaller companies, mainly that you get more personalized service. Large companies have a high overhead and therefore need lots of continuous income to keep them afloat. I remember after the .com crash that alot of large design and marketing firms struggled because of their overhead.

Therefore if your grow your SEO firm to the size that WebSourced has, that's great. But there will always be a place for the little guy as well. There always has and there always will.

[websage]

I do think that sometimes with a large company, your pricing structure gets out of reach for smaller to medium size businesses.

Very good point! I think this is universal issue for any consulting business. My wife used to work as a consultant for McKinsey, the strategy consultancy, and their fees were so out of reach of the medium size businesses. It of course, did not mean that SMB do not need high-quality consulting services.

I agree, it is all about the quality of the service you provide.

On the other hand though, perhaps it is fair to say that a 1-person firm has a more limited potential than a 7-person firm.

I would be curious to hear opinions from both sides of the size-spectrum.

[samt]

I work for a small company, so in addition to being the web-lady, I do all kinds of business stuff too. I do a lot of purchasing, or a lot of purchase reasearch really, finding places to buy goods and services from. Cost usually isn't a big factor, since I view money spent on less-than-the-best is usually money wasted, so once we've decided to buy something, we jump right in. Usually the biggest company isn't the most expensive... larger volume makes lower margins do-able. And I'd ALWAYS rather deal with a small company. We do deal with some phenomenally large companies, and it's just more difficult. We'll have half a dozen different reps for different aspects of the relationship. Or even worse, you end up in a situation where you just go to a 'call center' and get one of those <censored> automated phone systems, and when you finally DO get a person, it's never the same one twice and they never have any idea who you are. I'd way rather deal with a small business, where the people know who I am and what I need, and there's more of a personal interaction.

[SearchRank]

On the other hand though, perhaps it is fair to say that a 1-person firm has a more limited potential than a 7-person firm.

It all depends. If the 1 person firm has resources where they can outsource work to dependable sub-contractors then they can broaden their resources and potential. We used to do this in the beginning and still can if needed. We maintain relationships with people who we can sub-contract work to if needed, mostly in the web design/development arena.

True if you are a 1 person operation and a big client comes along and want you to do SEO and PPC for 1000 keyword phrases, it might be too much to handle. However, if you are a 1 person firm, better not to take on such a large project, especially if it takes up a good amount of time because if you ever lose that huge client, it could hurt you. However, if you have relationships with people or companies that could help with this large client, you can take it on and make a profit all while not draining your resources.

I really cannot remember ever losing a bid on a project because our company was too small. It usually always revolves around $$.

[Paul J]

I'll add my input as a 1-person operation. It's just getting started and I'm pretty much working around the clock. To me it's important to take baby steps. I'm probably lucky to afford to do it that way because I have a few other jobs.

My belief is bigger companies can sell their "size", and smaller companies can sell their "trust".

With that said, I focus with the smaller and local market. This gives me face-to-face time with the client to try to build this trust. I try to do as much local networking that I can as well. For some clients, I can to do all the SEO with no subcontractors. If a customer needs design done or changed, I have a couple developers to subcontract.

There are things I'll pass on as well. I've ran PPC campaigns before, but if a customer has a 1000 PPC list, I'm passing it right off and will probably suggest another SEO in town that taught my last company a HUGE amount about it. That company can handle it, and as a 1-person operation, I can't. I need sleep.

My angle is if a client has questions, they can come right to me. If I don't have the answer, I can usually find it from someone else (or here!). I know I'll lose some business because I'm such a small company and potential clients will look at me as unproven. That's fine. Big companies do have more resources and will always be able to sell that.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

Paul