The search engine optimization (SEO) industry is changing so rapidly that none of the SEO agencies that were ranked among the 10 best in a 2011 study were among the 10 best in a 2013 study and only three SEO agencies were ranked among the 20 best in both studies.
The difference between Heardable’s 2011 rankings and BestSEOCompanies.com’s 2013 rankings is stark partly because there are so many new and growing SEO agencies and partly because ranking the best SEO agencies is subjective and complicated. In fact, Heardable and BestSEOCompanies both report that a large part of how they determine the best SEO agencies is proprietary.
Heardable and BestSEOCompanies both use the terms SEO agencies and SEO companies interchangeably. Basically, SEO agencies help their clients increase their business by helping their products and services rank higher on search engines such as Google.
The top SEO agency on the BestSEOCompanies list, for example, is Distilled. This Seattle-based company’s clients include Microsoft, The Telegraph and Staples. People looking for office supplies might be more likely to buy a product at Staples if Distilled has helped its client show up higher on a Google search result after the shoppers do an online search for the supplies they are looking for.
The industry is so complicated that SEO agencies often rely on companies such as WordVision, a service of IdeaLaunch, to help them optimize their clients’ SEO efforts.
The top SEO agency according to Heardable is Carlisle, Pa.-based webpagefx.com. The second through 10th-best SEO agencies according to the list are searchenginewatch.com, e-storm.com, apogeeresults.com, ymarketing.com, searchenginepeople.com, iprospect.com, searchengineland.com, 6smarketing.com, and customermagnetism.com.
Rounding out the top 20 are marketplaceearth.com, seoconsult.com, seo.com, lilengine.com, orangesoda.com, webwize.com, covario.com, saasaaffiliates.com, seoinc.com and stepforth.com.
The three SEO agencies on Heardable’s list that also made the BestSEOCompanies list are:
* iprospect.com: Seventh on the 2011 list and 14th on the 2013 list.
* seo.com: Thirteenth on the 2011 list and 11th on the 2013 list.
* orangsoda.com: Fifteenth on the 2011 list and 18th on the 2013 list.
BestSEOCompanies is more explicit about how it determines its rankings, although the weight it gives each of the eight criteria is proprietary. The factors include the quality of each SEO agency’s website and how well the agency itself does on search results because BestSEOCompanies reasons that it will do a better job for its clients if it does better work for itself.
Using the same reasoning, BestSEOCompanies also factors in the SEO agencies’ backlinks – SEO agencies’ hyperlinks on other companies’ websites. Other factors include how often the agencies are mentioned in the media, the quality of their clients, the quality of their customer service, and their contribution to the SEO community as measured by blogs, speeches at conferences, and other public contributions.
Distilled is ranked as the best SEO agency according to BestSEOCompanies. The second through 10th-best SEO agencies according to the list are Higher Visibility, BlueGlass, ICrossing, Acronym, Brick Marketing, Bruce Clay, Verticle Measures, Slingshot SEO and 360i.
Rounding out the top 20 were SEO.com, Straight North, Razorfish, iProspect, Fathom, Internet Marketing Ninjas, Webimax, Orange Soda, Internet Marketing Inc. and Geary LSF.
But anyone who thinks the rankings won’t change dramatically in the next few years is probably mistaken. The industry didn’t exist until the mid-1990s. The top five SEO agencies on the 2013 list were founded in 2005, 2007, 2004, 1999, and 2006 respectively.
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