If you're a business or brand without a direct referral for a video production company, you often end up online researching with your favorite search engine. And let's be real, that search engine is probably Google. Contrary to popular belief, there are other search engines out there, but Google just so happens to carry 90% of the market share. Given that fact, search engine position competition has indeed heated up between video production companies. Companies are working their SEO (search engine optimization) hard to serve you, the client, their website link when you type in those sought after keywords: Pittsburgh video production. Here are three things to look out for when selecting a video production company online.
If locality matters to you, this is an important question to ask yourself. Do not simply assume that because you were served a link searching for a 412 local company, that it's true. It's a recent trend that video production companies as far away as California, are utilizing SEO techniques and tricks to mine leads for areas that they don't serve and probably have never even been to. There are even companies who sublet small office rooms to gain a local address or purchase a vanity phone number to spoof their true location.
Bottom line: If companies are dishonest in their initial presentation to you, maybe ask yourself what else are they being dishonest about?
As a culture, we have become so accustomed to referrals from our friends and even people we have never met, in order to help us decide whether to say "yes" or "no." Reviews have become a huge determining factor on whether clients choose to work with a video production company, or not. However, even reviews have and can be spoofed and exploited. Make sure to cross-reference a companies Google reviews with their key personel Recommendations on Linked In. Linked In tends to paint a more reliable picture about the actual people working on your next video project.
Directory websites like Upcity and Clutch offer more extensive reviews, but they also include paid promotions from companies outside of your local areas. The profiles on those sites are company updated, but the top listings and verified profiles require businesses to pay a monthly fee in order to maintain their positions. Directory site tech companies are popping up everywhere due to their SEO savviness, and expand into many differing industries in order to tap into localized small business revenues. Production Hub on the other hand, was founded in 1999, and is still the most trusted resource for finding qualified and experienced crew, vendors and employees. They focus only on the industry that they know best.
Bottom line: Know the source of your reviews and cross-reference them. Don't rely solely on paid-directory sites. And keep an eye out for fake reviews, they are out there.
The Top Video Production Company title description is used by both for-profit directory tech companies and also by websites seeking to boost their search engine ranks with backlinks and key search words. What makes the former practice questionable is that: it often forces businesses to participate in for-profit directory sites, allows listings without reviews, features agencies that outsource all their video content, and does this all under the guise of a Top Video Production Company. Some directory sites do have processes of accountability in order to promote information accuracy, but what exactly constitutes a top video production company, anyway? Is it the number of reviews? Is it the number of employees? Or location of their studio?
Bottom line: Don't buy into the hype, directory sites do not list the top video production companies. Let the work speak for itself.
