BT Now Offering SEO & PPC Services
I have just been checking out rankings and stuff this morning after a nice long Christmas break and I saw a Google ad for BT SearchSmart: PPC & SEO.
I checked it out and it is the real British Telecom offering SEO and PPC services, you can check the website out here.
BT are probably the biggest company ever to start selling SEO and PPC services.
Their SEO packages include most of the things you would expect to get with a basic SEO pack, with the option 1 for £74.99 per month + a £100 setup fee you get:
- Keyword selection
- Comprehensive website audit
- Recommendations document
- In depth telephone consultation
- Unlimited email access to online marketing specialists
- Google Site Map production and provision for upload
- Monthly SEO reports position reporting
- Best practice SEO documentation & guides
The only thing that’s missing is link building, however links are mentioned in their option 2 package which costs £349.99 per month + £100 setup:
- All the features of Option 1 plus:
- Unlimited 0800 phone-based support
- Link building via 3 bespoke articles (monthly)
- Directory submissions to up to 50 targeted directories
- Enhanced reporting
- Enhanced reporting of keywords & competitor link analysis
That doesn’t sound too bad, it could go either way I guess depending on the quality of the articles they are creating and the quality of the web directories and article directories they are submitting to. For a similar price we will include submissions to all of the best paid directories such as BOTW and Yahoo etc. If they are just submitting to the free ones then there is less chance of your links getting approved and sticking around.
Thoughts?
Posted in SEO News By David Eaves a UK search engine optimisation specialist.
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January 4th, 2010 57 Comments
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January 4th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Hi,
Strange timing… Just published a blog about this too (wrote this morning, published now after reading yours) – http://www.aukseo.co.uk/bt-offering-seo-bt-searchsmart-any-good-2-901/
The main point is that it’s just BT reselling SEO by Latitude, found out by a duplicate content problem.
Guessing the service is for smaller companies?
January 4th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
It’s run by Latitude. I believe it used to be run by BMM before that
January 4th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
It is primarily focused on the UK search market, and aimed at marketers looking to outsource the management of SEO or PPC campaigns. Free Articles
January 5th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Thank as well for your article
January 19th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Good post, but i think you would have to be daft to let BT optimize your site.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:12 pm
BT moving into even more IT markets now there is no money in ADSL or Landlines.
Just stumbled on your blog nice
January 25th, 2010 at 8:19 am
It’s good that BT provides such a great solution for SEO & PPC. but really I have heard about it for the first time.
February 4th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Hey David,
It’s very interesting isn’t it. I can imagine it being a bit like a call centre with 20+ employee’s (article writers) managed by one team leader who tells them the directories to sign up too etc.
It looks very cheap though and it wouldn’t surprise me if they are successful in sales over the phone (they are nowhere for “Search Engine Marketing” their meta title although they do have only 11 page links…)
I’ll be watching with interest…
February 5th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
I wonder how succesful this will be?
February 8th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Hahaha! Anyone who pays BT for this needs their heads looking at! BT are one of the worst companies in the world for customer service and value. They are stuck in the 70s with regards to their ethos.
Overpriced rubbish.
March 6th, 2010 at 2:23 am
It looks very cheap though and it wouldn’t surprise me if they are successful in sales over the phone (they are nowhere for Search Engine Marketing†their meta title although they do have only 11 page links)
I’ll be watching with interest
March 27th, 2010 at 8:44 am
hmm seems like a nice little SEO service
March 29th, 2010 at 9:38 am
It’s a good news that British Telecom is providing SEO & PPC services. And of course it’s a first time i have heard that such a big company is involved in it. It is a new way for other big companies to try these services and get the new revenue generation.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
BT called me the other day offering to do web design and SEO for our BT trade-space. First of all I only got BT trade space because they told me to, Secondly we are a web design and SEO company, Why would I pay them £100 to do something I do every day!
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:44 pm
I was surpised to BT offering SEO work, I have to ask what they know about SEO, it dies seem a strange move from what is after all a telecoms provider.
I would probably get more value from posting a link to our site here than hiring BT to carry out SEO work for us.
In fact I will post a link to our site on
April 5th, 2010 at 10:30 am
More and more seo companies are emerging nowadays. Client must choose the right one.
April 7th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
It is most defiantly latitude that supply the services.
April 16th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
I say…stick to what they are good at…which is??
May 4th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I find this hard to beleive, it is just so far from their core business, i agree with Samual, stick to what your best at. Providibng mediocre and over priced calling plans to domestic and business users.
May 26th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
superb site and like this post
May 27th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
How can BT possibly offer ROI on SEO packages at that price. For a decent encumbant the average charge out rate is £100 per hour. For a cowboy you can get it cheaper but you pay for what you get so if anyone goes with BT happy wasting cash.
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:02 am
Interesting post…am a bit surprised BT has decided to enter into this market. It will be interesting to see how this works out for them as i am not totally convinced they have even mastered phone lines yet!
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
They should stick to phones and broadband if you ask me!
June 4th, 2010 at 10:55 am
It doesn’t look to me as if they are focussing enough on the link building aspect, I know there is more to SEO than just link building but it is a big part…
June 9th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I agree with David Whitehouse Stick to what you know best.
June 11th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
hi
interesting post
A good approach from BT towards seo services. most important thing is they are charging only £74.99 per month for basic package which is very reasonable.
thanks for the post again.
June 14th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
It is a good business model considering they have access to many Indian companies.
June 18th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
hi
interesting post
A good approach from BT towards seo services. most important thing is they are charging only £74.99 per month for basic package which is very reasonable.
thanks for the post again.
June 29th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
It looks very cheap though and it wouldn’t surprise me if they are successful in sales over the phone
July 13th, 2010 at 10:59 am
I was approached by BT and they haven’t a clue about seo.
July 13th, 2010 at 11:00 am
So was I, and they dont talk any sense what so ever when it comes to seo.
July 19th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Sounds like everyone wants to get in on SEO Services these days.
July 23rd, 2010 at 4:15 pm
The success of this will depend very much on where and how much time they are prepared to give you at those prices. Even more important will be their results in coming up with the goods. Its all about results at the end of the day.
July 26th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
SEO from BT? You have got to be joking! They don’t know anything about internet marketing.
August 3rd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
something tells me they aren’t going to be very good at it. The only thing that’s slightly concerning is that they are a familiar name so people might be inclined to trust them, but I don’t think there’s any cause for alarm just yet.
August 5th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Sounds a bit expensive especially when you consider that the most fundamental part of SEO is link building and paying a GB company is going to cost you a lot more than hiring someone from overseas.
August 10th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Looks like there are lot of SEO’s here around. Everyone has their own SEO site
August 10th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Hi, when finding another SEO guy, my spirit is back
August 14th, 2010 at 12:55 am
This shall be interesting to see how successful this proves to be. BT is a big company. Their success at doing SEO will be interesting to say the least. I will want to see them being successful with other people before I take them seriously. Time will tell.
August 19th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Its lucky i’m good at maths lol, that spam protection sum is tough!
Anyhow back to BT offering SEO services – Avoid avoid avoid! Way over-priced to have some pakistani call centre trying to explain what you should do for better SEO! they are just monkeys reading from a BT guide.
September 6th, 2010 at 12:30 am
Their own site doesn’t have even basic SEO in place, and their case studies sites don’t either. We’ve had a telesales call from them offering us SEO services even though we’re an SEO company, and it was clear from the call that they have no idea what they’re doing.
Basically, they’re ripping people off!
September 8th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I see everybody here has bad thoughts for BT seo services. Well then, what do you recommend?
September 25th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Yes they rang me up recently with a similar offer
November 17th, 2010 at 9:34 am
A very interesting development from an unrelated source. They are clearly hoping that customers trust their brand enough for people to buy this service. It may appeal to SMEs who know little about SEO. For them, I think its an ok service but for me, its expensive.
November 18th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
How can BY possibly even entertain offering SEO services? What do they know about SEO? I mean, honestly, what are they thinking? A load of rubbish in my opinion.
November 19th, 2010 at 7:02 am
It’s good That BT is offering PPC and SEO Services. Very interesting Development. Well Done..!!
November 29th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
I wouldnt trust BT with my SEO even if they paid me to do it.
December 3rd, 2010 at 6:17 am
It will be very interesting to see what customers think about this new BT service.I mystery shopped these guys as soon as they started doing PPC for the term SEOâ€. The results were shocking, the operative had to go and check what ‘SEO†actually stood for and then said it was search engine optimiserâ€. Needless to say she had no idea what SEO entailed. There was no mention of Latitude as well, have they always done this for BT?
January 10th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
This is not surprising news to be honest. More and more companies are not making the profit they want and so are branching out into ever more unrelated areas. I really can’t see it being that great a service. I’d love to hear of someone that’s bought one of their SEO packages though!
January 12th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Good article. SEO is not just about link building. Even the tiny thing can hurt your SERP.
January 12th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
BT cant even do their calls properly. SEO will be a joke.
February 1st, 2011 at 12:54 pm
All I can say is… You get what you pay for!
February 1st, 2011 at 5:29 pm
I wouldn’t like to trust BT with my SEO!
February 3rd, 2011 at 8:39 am
It’s really very good that BT provides services for SEO & PPC both.
April 29th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Very nice blog!!! I really can’t see it being that great a service. I’d love to hear of someone that’s bought one of their SEO packages though!
May 18th, 2011 at 11:41 am
It sounds to me, like with any large company such as BT, they will make it all sound amazing, yet overcharge for basic stuff. The power of their brand means that they can do these things, and to the general public they will just think wow..its BT, they must be good!
November 29th, 2011 at 4:09 am
Really interesting to see a major player become involved in a sector that hasnt really seen that kind of involvement.