Outsourced Corporate SEO Management done right -- Review of ChaosMap SEO Services

Search Engine Optimization or what we know from the trendy buzzword that gets thrown around constantly with this topic SEO, is in short becoming a stock broker of Internet trends and peoples habits and characteristics from an unlimited data pool and entirely unpredictable trend swings.  There has been a huge corporate trend as of late in dedicating internal and external positions for this type of work as it has proven to increase brand and company exposure with the intent of helping push revenue up.  Just doing some minor research on the steps that are involved in getting your website completely SEO-ized (yes i know its not real term but it is now in my terminology)  there is next to an infinite number of ways you can go about doing this.  A very common thing that I read and hear is content content content is what makes your site and keeps your site rolling good.  As I and the rest of my co-workers just didn't have the time or adequate knowledge of the SEO world so we came to a conclusion that it would be better for the company to look externally for this matter.   There was a great deal of research and dicussions with many firms on who we should go with and who would we be able to work with effectively and can take on the large project that our site would be.  The search ended with a very capable and knowledgable firm called ChaosMap, where this company shined that others failed to show differences is stated plainly on their website---

No cookie-cutters here

Your path to success, though similar to other Web sites, is as unique as your Web site and requires a custom blueprint. -- Chaosmap.com

What I found with my initial interactions with Jon Rognerud who has an extensive backround of the inner workings of search engines and how and why they work the way they do.   The earlier statement that I mentioned on not having some carved out "do this and that, and everything should pan out" Chaosmap showed a drive and excitement about what they were getting involved with.  I mean when you shoot an e-mail over to them and you get an non-dull e-mail of being "We'll look into it" you get something on the order of "That's an amazing idea! - but this is what I think would help evolve the idea a little more and tighten the screws a little more on this...."   Which on a Monday morning getting an e-mail that is bubbly and has some excitement behind it is always a nice thing to have.  Usually when the idea of outsourcing large projects it throws a red flag up in the air because it requires a great deal of time and priority management which hear again Jon and Chaosmap step up to the plate and make very easy on doing the management side of things so you constantly know what's going on and where things are at.  They utlize a "portal" is what they refer to it as, but it looks like a similar platform as BaseCamp which makes it nice and easy to see where things are at and what has or hasn't been done.

I'm going to take a moment and provide a short evaluation of a few points I see as evaluation points from a SEO Outsource team

Availability

ChaosMap is a US based company that works mostly out of the Southern California front which works great for the company I work for currently, but after reading through their website a little more indepth it looks like they have factions scattered around the US as I noticed they had at least one contact in Chicago which is a huge internet driven capital of the US so it makes things nice for the Midwest / Central timezone people as well.  Aside from locale, they hold normal Monday - Friday business hours which you can call into the office and talk to your account rep and talk about what's on your mind.   As are most internet driven companies these days they drive a good amount of communication via e-mail which you shouldn't be surprised to see an e-mail get returned on a Saturday or Sunday from time to time.   I have yet to see an e-mail take more than 24 hours to be responded to which shows that they have solid account management in place.  Overall availability is a strong spot for ChaosMap as a company!

Knowledge of What They Are Doing (Do they talk the talk or do they step up to the plate and swing for the fences?)

When I was initially brought into this project it was mid-project and I wasn't entirely sure what was exactly going on and where things were at and what the action items were so I could make sure I was holding up on my end.  So I got my login to their portal and glanced over the project plan and outstanding action items and everything was professionally thought out and organized.  Sometimes what you see from outsource teams is you get a bullet point saying "Action Item - Keyword Research"   ChaosMap you don't have vague misleading information,  they explain WHY this is going to have a positive effect and WHAT they are going to be doing to accomplish this and all the details of additional resources that they may need so you can actively plan around it.   One of their bread and butter approaches of figuring out where things are at is they don't just use tools to see what's happening they will look at the actual code and give proper recommendations on what we could change to improve this and that and why it's going to help in this manner.  They also use the concept of A - B testing with landing pages which currently is our sore spot that we are struggling to get a handle on the most.  They take a very "marketing" oriented path of helping in this manner by trying to grab for attention inside 30 seconds.   On the employee level there is some MAJOR search engine experience inside the company for example Jon comes from a high level management position at Yahoo! and got his hands dirty inside the Expedia search engine, and the CEO Jerry Glynn also held some high profile executive positions and some large corporations and brings to the plate a MIT education to boot.   Sitting down and talking to Jon in person just floors you for the absolute knowledge and excitement he has for the SEO industry and overall helping develop internet based sites. Overall ChaosMap steps up to the plate and delivers better than most service based firms that I have worked with in some time.

Do They Produce Results (what's the historical cost they bring?)

I really can't comment on this quite yet as we haven't gotten far enough into the process to show/see any results.  Once I have some proof yay or nay on the subject I'll definitely be writing about it

Are They Remotely Economical?

I have no information on this, but as my rule of thumb you want something that is great?  You are going to pay for it, but it will be worth it in the end.   The awesome thing is they do have an online form to receive a proper quote from them you can access it here

Additional Notes

ChaosMap is a fun and energetic company to work with.  They get work done and have a well structured process or at least thought process that makes working with them a great experience.   Jon Rognerud wrote a book that is completely on SEO topics and supposely a one of the "Bibles" of the industry from what I've read.  I have it sitting on my desk next to me.. unfortunately I haven't cracked it open quite yet but I plan on it soon!  If you are curious here's the link to his book entitled Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization: Drive Traffic, Boost Conversion Rates and Make Lots of Money