Are you desperate to find a good SEO experts, but do not know how to go about choosing one? In this article I will try to give you some hints for what to look out for when hiring an SEO consultant. Let’s begin.
1. A good off-site SEO campaign takes a long time to produce measurable results. If your chosen SEO consultant promises quick results – be very vary about his/her tactics. There are ways to manipulate search results for short-term gains, but these tactics will almost always get your website into trouble.
2. Good SEO firms are not cheap. You have to remember that every website outreach, every guest posting opportunity and every newspaper/media campaign costs money to arrange. Then there are content production and editing costs, as well as various charges for custom design work (such as infographics, etc). All of these charges can easily add up to hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Now, every SEO consultant worth knowing will also add a substantial fee on top of all those basic expenses (as would any professional – accountant, lawyer, etc).
3. If your SEO firm places too much attention on off-page (links, etc) factors and completely ignores on-page optimization – time to look for better SEO experts!
4. There are many types of links, but very few of those links are actually worth having. Ask your chosen SEO company if they could get you featured in some “big brand” newspapers and other online publications. If they say no and try to pitch you other backlink options, they probably aren’t very established yet.
5. No one can guarantee positive SERP results, no matter how good they are. If someone offers you a 100% guarantee, be very skeptical.
6. Ask them to walk you through several case studies using their past clients. If your goal is to attract local traffic – ask them to show you some examples of their local SEO work.
7. Every respectable SEO company will be happy to provide real-world testimonials. Good work leads to happy clients and happy clients are happy to give testimonials. Always remember this.
8. Ask for references from other business owners. And remember that friend and family recommendations are almost always worthless.
9. Get a contract that addresses your every concern.
10. And lastly, it helps to educate yourself on the basics of SEO. There are many great beginner resources for this, such as SEOMOZ tutorials.
Remember that there are good and bad SEO firms – choose who you trust your website to with care!