Microsoft has entered the search engine optimization field. They have launched SEO Services for Microsoft Partners – website. Thank you Microsoft for alerting me to their new venture into SEO in Ireland, they called this morning asking if I would like to be part of their partner network…
I thought this must be a joke so I called them back. No joke. Essentially Microsoft are creating a network of SEO companies and using them as third party suppliers. They would like a complete breakdown of my fee structure and everything formatted for SEO reports and suggestion on areas they have not included. Please…
Microsoft is Using Google’s Tools
Between the two calls I had a look at the Microsoft Partner’s website. They have many of the same problems I encounter initially with client websites, but I must say the best part is they are using Google analytics on their site, is this better than their own analytics software? There have two other main issues:
- Canonical URL issues – the home page can be viewed at .com/ and /SEOWelcome.aspx – the latter is the links from the inside pages, this should be the root
- Duplicate page titles – they are using the same page title on nearly all the pages – this will kill any ranking in Google
Microsoft has three levels of service, basic at $1,395, SEO Pro at $1,795 and SEO Premium at $2,995. They all include a validation and indexing report, page analysis report – (see above re their own page titles), Search Engine Report – essentially an analytics report, Keyword report – this is critical, and monthly reports for six months. At $1,395 I would happily turn out 2 or 3 of these per day – depending on the site of the site of course.
For another $400 you get a page design report, and the last report at $2,995 includes 10 hours with a SEO consultant. The SEO consultant is costing $120 per hour, which is not excessive, but I question the value v cost on some of the other items. It is interesting to note that Microsoft’s positioning is in the middle of the market.
Now there is good and bad in this for me. To have a company like Microsoft with their budget promoting SEO services is going to spread the idea of SEO to many more companies than I ever could with my minuscule marketing budget. However do I really want Microsoft competing in the SEO market?
Well yes, I do. I can optimize a website better than Microsoft, if their site is anything to go by. I believe that many companies might come across this on the Microsoft Partners site but they will engage their own service provider, only time will tell.
And the bad – Microsoft with their huge network will be able to point many links at the site and have it rank very well.
But What About Link Building
One of the major factors in SEO is link building and Microsoft has not added this to their offering. I fail to see how only optimizing the onsite factors will produce the best return on investment. However, this is an area where they may run into some ethical problems between what they want from Bing, (their new search engine), and what is best for the client.
Overall, though, I am surprised that a company that runs a search engine needs to out-source SEO services, and lastly Microsoft do NOT hold the domain name in their own name but it is held by another SEO company – I though false whois information would lead to a domain name being withdrawn?
MS Analytics is being discontinued in December.
Interesting departure for MS though…
Very strange move for Microsoft. Their site doesn’t look great. I do think if you take a look at a lot of companies offering SEO services, they will never be perfect. Although to be fair, they will probably do the simply things right (which you have pointed out, Microsoft are not).
Should be interesting to see how this pans out.
I suppose in the long run it will help immensely in offering some legitimacy to the SEO industry that its not full of cowboy and chancers. A very interesting move by MS!