SEO means Search Engine Optimization – this is the course of creating your site more accessible to search engines with the goal of increasing your ranking for certain keywords; Search Engine Optimization experts or SEO firms are the professionals that are employed to do this.
Before you run off and hire the first SEO firm you can find, there are some things you must know. Hiring the right SEO firm is necessary, because hiring the wrong individual or company to do SEO for your website could result in penalties or even a ban from Google and other search engines. You need to find an SEO firm/person who knows what they are doing. This article will show you what questions you should ask an SEO company, what qualities a good SEO company has, and how to avoid bad SEO firms and SEO scams.
Questions to ask an SEO Company
• Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
The potential SEO Company or consultant should have at least a few clear SEO success stories. The best answer involves not only verifiable keyword rankings gained for a website, but how those rankings converted into sales or other goals for the client. Ignore any SEO company that tries to impress you with #1 result on Google/Yahoo/Bing for keywords using more than 4 words. Focus on how much traffic they brought to the client and how that traffic generated sales, sign-ups, leads, etc.
• Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
The answer to this should be: YES, YES, YES.
• Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
Most legitimate SEO firms should (and do) also offer advice and/or management for pay per click services like Google’s Adsense.
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
You want an SEO company that is realistic with you about what you can expect. This is obviously something that is decided on a case-by-case basis, but I think most results can be expected within 6 months. Success can be measured by gain in traffic, increase in website conversions from search engines, or top 3 result presence for specific keywords.
Other good questions to ask an SEO company:
What are your most important SEO techniques?
How long have you been doing SEO?
How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
Qualities of a good SEO company:
Honest & Transparent – Your SEO Company must be able to explain to you in plain English what they are doing for your site (both on-site and off-site) to increase your search based traffic.
Communicative – You should be able to contact your SEO Company with questions about your SEO project and they should have time to talk with you no more than 24 hours later. They should also clear any changes to your website with you before making them, ensuring that you understand what they will be doing before they do it.
How to avoid bad SEO companies and SEO scams:
There are literally hundreds of thousands of scams that have sprung up around Search Engine Optimization – in addition to that, there are hundreds of thousands of ‘SEO experts’ who, despite good intentions, just don’t know what they are doing. The field of SEO is not regulated by any official body and has not been (until recently) taught in any schools in the United States – as a result, anyone who knows how to use a computer can jump up and claim: “I’m an SEO Expert!” As an SEO firm we have been contacted numerous times by people who claim to be SEO experts who ask us questions about simple SEO related tasks that any real SEO expert should already know.
So, how do you avoid SEO scams and poor quality SEO imposters? Ask lots of questions when interviewing your potential SEO company (the list above is a good place to start, but also ask some that are more specific to your website).