Search engine optimization (SEO) services employ all kinds of tactics ranging from old-school link dumping to providing high-end original content. We carefully considered internet marketing companies’ reputation and practices to decide who we could recommend as some of the best SEO and internet marketing services. We found Server Side Design (SSD) to be on the positive side of the spectrum; they provide original content and adhere to a good code of ethics in terms of their SEO services.
We liked that Server Side Design’s code of SEO ethics includes practices and standards that protect their client’s company reputation and long-term relationship with the search engines. For example, they do not try to perform campaigns against competitor’s sites, employ bait and switch tactics, plagiarize or use duplicate content, link spam or place hidden links or generate doorways or re-direct pages. They are interested in the long-term success of a website and not quick, often harmful tactics to get fast short-term results. This online internet marketing service also does not make Google ranking promises they cannot keep.
SSD internet marketing service also provides a high-level of customer contact which we liked. They assign every client their own account executive that they can contact at any time by email or telephone. In addition, they provide frequent reports regarding keyword performance, traffic statistics, new content published and pay per click campaign performance.
Server Side Design provides most of the online internet marketing services we were looking for including SEO services, pay per click management (PPC) and social media marketing (SMM).
Search Engine Optimization:
SEO services are intended to help websites move up higher in search results. Server Side Design can identify keyword phrases that directly relate to your site and the types of phrases people use to search. Once these phrases are indentified SSD will create original content around those keyword phrases so search engines such as Google will see those words and begin to post your site in search results so people can more easily find your site.
Despite what many SEO service companies may say, no one can guarantee specific results. But SSD does everything it can to naturally move your site up in ranking without violating their code of SEO ethics. To maintain the integrity of their clients they will not engage in any SEO practices that will get a site banned from search engines such as interfering with a competitor’s site, violating search engine guidelines, plagiarism, reporting false information, hidden link placement, submission spamming, specialized landing pages that redirect and link farming, to mention just a few. Basically, this online internet marketing service is interested in your long-term success with natural or organic traffic and does not employ “fast result” schemes that may damage the reputation of your company.
Pay Per Click Management:
Server Side Design can manage PPC accounts with such companies as Google, Yahoo and Bing. They offer comprehensive services that start with extensive keyword research then ad placement. They carefully watch conversions and ROI to ensure that ad campaigns are making money and do not cost more than what they are worth. They can also manage image and video ads and send out bi-weekly reports so you know exactly what is going on with your ads at all times.
Social Media Marketing:
SSD offers social media marketing services, which include blog posts, article distribution, press release, video creation, placement on map sites, social link building, Facebook account maintenance and Twitter posts. In their reports Server Side Design will send links to all of the posts or articles that have been published on behalf of your company.
Server Side Design provides a high level of transparency and is extremely motivated to provide exceptional customer support. You can easily contact them by telephone or email, or read through support information on their website. When we contacted them by email they responded very quickly and provided well-thought-out relevant answers to our questions. However, they go way beyond standard support; they also offer one-on-one support and comprehensive reporting.
This online internet marketing company assigns every client their own account manager that they can call or email at any time. In addition, they provide weekly, monthly and bi-annual reporting.
Weekly:
Once a week Server Side Design will send their clients a campaign deliverable summary, which includes links to all of the blog posts, articles, press releases and so on that have been published that week. As mentioned, SSD, depending on the contract agreement, will write and publish articles for your company. These articles can be created by SSD writers alone or you can call them and discuss the type of articles or press releases you want to be published.
Monthly:
Account managers call each client once a month to go over their monthly search engine ranking report and Server Side Design will send each client a website traffic report and an inbound link report.
Biannually:
Twice a year they do a comprehensive review of each client’s keyword campaigns. At that point they will identify five keyword phrases that are not performing well and will replace them with five new phrases to be worked on. The new phrases will get five new landing pages, copy and more. They do not charge extra for switching out the slow-moving phrases with five new ones with content, they do this just to help ensure a successful keyword campaign.
Basically, this online internet marketing service does not want to have to make their clients take the extensive amount of time it would take every month to check to see how their keywords are doing in search engine ranking.
When it comes to search engine placement we looked to see basically if online internet marketers could “walk the talk.” Server Side Design does quite well, when we typed “SEO services” into the Google search toolbar they came up No. 4 organically, when we searched the term “top seo company,” they came up No. 3, which is also very good. When we searched on the phrase “pay per click services,” they came up No. 2. The results for “SMM services” was in the No. 2 position in as well. This type of result is extremely good considering the vast sea of SEO services there are online. If they can do this for their own company, then more than likely they can also do it for your company. (Though keep in mind that Google does produce different results per geographical location as well as per user if you are logged in).
We also took a peek at the “page source” information or coding of their main landing page. We were pleased to see that they did not do any “keyword dumping.” All the keywords were directly related to the services they offer. They also did not over do it with too much repetitive phrasing in the meta keywords section of the code. When we analyzed the text of their main landing page we found that their main keyword phrases such as “SEO” and “PPC” come in at about 2.8-3.9%, which is a little high but not too bad. Phrases such as “seo services,” "media marketing,” “social media,” and “click advertising” are good at less than five percent. This tells us that they employ current SEO acceptable practices, which includes not over inundating content with repetitive keyword inclusion.
In Alexa, as of May 2011, Server Side Design’s website ranks 426,776 overall and 159,538 in the United States. They do well for the keywords phrases “top seo company,” “top seo companies” and “Seo Company.” They also do very well when it comes to Houston based companies, which is the location search results they have been concentrating on thus far.
Server Side Design has been in the SEO services business for over five years, though many members of the company have worked together longer than that. They are also Google Adwords qualified professionals and score an “A” with the Better Business Bureau with zero customer reported complaints in the last three years. We also did a quick search online and could not find any negative press, forum posts or other types of complaints posted online about this online internet marketing service.
SSD does not provide extensive information online, however, we did like that the fact that they send reports out about your campaigns often and they are available for questions should you need to contact them.
They also provide a free SEO report to their potential customers. This report or website analysis includes a look into the sites directory structure, navigation, database, content, file names, meta data, site code and more. The free report explains all discovers and gives website owners good information as to how they can better optimize their site.
We found Server Side Design to have integrity and to be an internet marketing company that sticks to good SEO practices. We liked that they have done well maximizing the potential of their own site, which gives us a good idea as to what they can do for their clients. We also like that they provide a high level of communication, including frequent, easy-to-understand performance reports as well as an account manager that clients can contact at anytime. They offer a free website analysis that we think is a good idea to commission so you can see what SSD can do for you.
