I have a new site that I want to page 1 on the SERPs. It shouldn't be too difficult as it's not a very competitive key word/phase. I don't have the time nor the know-how (though I am no SEO dummy) to put in the work to get it there, so I was planning on hiring someone to do so. I will likely use elance.com or guru.com but I am open to other options. What I am asking is if there are any tips to help me hire the right person. I know that SEO/SEM can be a shady business and I don't want my site to get into the wrong neighborhoods or to pay someone who is just going to use marginally effective automatic tools. So has anyone hired out SEO/SEM before? And what should I be asking and requiring of the potential contractors? Thanks!
The #1 thing you should do is get references... and CHECK THEM! I would get the potential SEO on the phone and immediately ask him/her to tell you right then and there a list of sites that he/she has SEO'd/SEM'd successfully... Don't let them "get back to you with a list of references" after they've had time to call their buddies so that they can make up some good lies to tell you ahead of time... Put them on the spot. They should be able to rattle of 5 sites or so that they have done good work for. Then contact the owner of the sites. Ask them what the person did for them... which keywords they helped them target... what their rankings were before they worked on the site for those keywords... what the guy/gal did to improve rankings for those keywords... what the rankings for those keywords were when the engagement ended... how have rankings for those keywords have faired since the SEO stopped working on the site... would they hire this person again... did the SEO's work increase conversions (after all ranking for keywords that don't lead ultimately to conversions is pointless)... did they feel they got a good return on their investment... And if their willing to volunteer the info, what they paid the SEO and how they paid them. Then review the sites. See how they rank for those keywords the SEO supposedly helped them with... look at the backlinks profiles of those pages and see what kind of link building was done... look at the on-page/on-site optimization... etc. In short... The BEST way to interview an SEO/SEM is to interview their clients. If they don't have any, they're probably not worth paying. And if the have clients, they will generally let you know whether they are worth hiring... The SEO/SEM's work should speak for them.
Great advice! I will certainly do just that. But what I am also interesting in, is what to put in my proposal. I can't just say "i wan to be #1". Are there things I should mention to avoid attracting the wrong types of contractors. ie. no black hat stuff.
Just so you know, you cant just phone someone's customers and start interviewing them - that is rude without first contacting them to ask if they could spare a few minutes to answer some questions regarding the SEO who worked for them. Don't go in there assuming that they must help you. However, as mentioned, you need to check what work they have completed before - ask them to tell you what they did, then if you do get to speak to one of their customers, they can confirm this. Confirm that they use no tools to submit you anywhere or to research keywords and that you will not be submitted to any link farms. Give them a clear indicator of what you want and it will make it easier for them to give you an idea of what can be achieved.
This is one of the reason why most of the people fail or get cheated. It will be better (in any field) that you must have some time and knowledge before putting steps into that field.
I couldn't agree more - there is no success in anything without putting an effort to gain knowledge and understand what exactly you need. Golden rule: well defined requirements = successful project outcome!