Just read a terrific article with MediaPost Publication which summarizes ten reasons clients don’t pick the right SEM company: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101432

This article is about prevention. A warning to companies to choose and choose wisely, because in SEM mistakes are costly, and in today’s economy nobody has time or money for mistakes. To save you from reading the entire article (although it’s a worthy read for businesses) we’ll summarize a few key points:

1.Don’t fall for the magic act. We’re talking about the wining and dining and 1-2-3-Presto! presentations that don’t really say anything and make unreal promises. No company worth its salt should guarantee you immediate results, and those that do will either resort to industry-termed “black hat” tactics which can get your site barred from advertising on the most important search engines.

2. Ask for references, and then actually check up on them. If your advertising doesn’t have a clean Carfax-like report, don’t bother. Take the time to talk to provided references and get a feel for the SEM agency’s handle on their business, their vertical, and their long-term relationship together.

3. Rockbottom prices mean rockbottom results. Yes, the economic cash crunch is being felt by everyone, but when it comes to your business nothing can be more damage than an off-the-shelf, cheap solution that will have you shelling out big bucks to repair later. We don’t think you should get swindled, but the cheapest guy in town is cheap for a reason.

4. Spend some QT together. The SEM agency you hand your baby, erm, business over to should be one that you enjoy an open dialogue with, and someone who you can see yourself growing your business with for the next 3, 5, even 10 years. Your SEM agency is not a vendor, like the article points out; it’s a relationship, and is only as effective as the lines of communication.

At NetSearch we do our fair share  of repairing damaged goods.  As a business, it breaks our heart to patch up companies suffering in the aftermath of a poorly constructed search engine marketing effort. It’s also frustrating because, much like a healing heart after love relationship has ended, these business owners build walls around their company hearts and are afraid to reach out to try new things. We’ve been up against those companies who wine and dine their potential clients and promise them the moon – sometimes clients recognize the song and dance early but we’ve also lost a few good potentials to the magic act. It happens. We just don’t want it to happen to you.