You made the decision and you are going to hire a professional SEO Company to perform the task of search engine optimization. Now what? There are so many options out there from firms offering to submit your site to 1,000's of engines for only $50 to high end firms offering to do everything and more for $1,000's of dollars. What do you do?
Here are some suggestions on selecting your SEO Guru to help guide you through the ongoing changes of optimization:
1. Don't respond to unsolicited emails
If an SEO firm is sending out unsolicited emails trying to get anyone to use them, they are probably not a very reliable firm. Many of these emails will talk about submitting to 1,000's of websites, guaranteed page one rankings on Google or new technologies to get you top placement. If you go with a firm that boasts things like this, chances are, they are not going to be a reputable firm and you stand the chance of being banned on search engines.
2. SEO firms should NEVER guarantee results
Unless you are paying a search engine to place you in the top of the results, no one can guarantee that you can rank number one. The search engines change the algorithms often and there are so many other sites adding links and making modifications, that it can't be guaranteed. That is always the goal, but it can't be guaranteed. If they do, they are probably using some black hat practices that I would recommend against. By hiring a firm like this, you stand the chance of having your site banned, which doesn't hurt the SEO firm....just you.
3. Get references
Before hiring any SEO firm, make sure that you get some referral information. Find out some of the sites they have worked on before and ask for phone numbers of past customers. Search the major engines for these sites and call the customers. Ask how easy it was to work with the firm. How long did it take to get results? Were they generally happy with the working relationship and the results.
4. Know your SEO firm
Make sure you know who you will be dealing with within the firm. Will you be working with the owner or a hired college student? How much experience does this person have? What tasks will they be performing?
5. Your SEO firm should be your teacher
When I work with companies to move them up on the search engines, I make a point to always tell them what I'm doing and why. Just as when you try to educate your clients about the real estate market when they are buying or selling, I think it is important to teach your clients about SEO. An educated client is a happy client.
