I'm considering hiring a SEO consultant, but I'm not sure how to objectively evaluate their services. Truthfully, a lot of people who pass themselves off as SEO experts don't seem to know jack. I'm an engineer, so I like a standardized way of doing things. Has anyone put together a checklist of things to look for in a SEO service? Thanks.
If your looking for the right SEO you must evaluate their site first. Some say the site is the mirror of the company. First search the company background. The traffic that they receive. The design layout of their site for Search Engine. The must have good testimonials from their clients. I think that is the best way to look for the right SEO.
Let me narrow it down a little bit. I'll be honest. The only thing I really care about is link building. The other stuff is worthwhile, I'm sure, but back links are the Big Kahuna. But I don't know enough at this point to tell whether a service is going to get me into trouble with the search engines by using bad tactics. What do I check for?
You should check for those ultimate SEO companies which can supposeldly get you #1 in a matter of days, i often see people say this but then they are talking about ranking for the website name Just keep an eye open for shady looking deals, that may seem to good to be true!
First of all try to gauge their domain expertise by tossing some questions about your website or on any related topic and evaluate answers you get from different companies. Get their specific suggestions. Zero in on 1-2 companies who seems to win some trust from you. Then again grill down to more queries and past results (see the competition of the keywords they show the rankings for)....Then finally ask for client reference: as most legitimate seo companies would NOT like to divuldge their client on the first instance... at least I wouldn't. Be aware of Auto-submission companies and who tell you they will do link building and directory submission or blog submissions... For now-a-days SEO is way beyond just link building , forum postings...
Damn good question. It's easy for me - being in the industry - I can tell simply reading their website if they are up to snuff... If they mention the following... run screaming 1. Submitting to SEs 2. ToolBar PageRank 3. Keyword Density 4. Alexa 5. Compliant code - code/text ratio 6. SandBox (personal pet peave only) 7. Any questionable methods 8.Guranteed rankings 9. Non comptitive KW testimonials/case studies 10. Talk about ANY engine other than the Big 3.5 11. Incorrect stats - data -claims So there is my what to look for on a SEO providers site...
To me guaranteed rankings come first. It's the most typical hype they sell. As for submitting to SEs, I really am sorry for people who think they need professional help.
The most important question you need to ask is "How do you go about building links?" If you ask everyone that question, then come back here and post the different replies, experts here will be able to tell you which one is the best to choose.
Ok - I found this example of a bad SEO company -- Look at the bottom of their home page bwaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha... talk about fine print
Passed along from my Web Development CO - (I own Verve Developments as well) - they were giving them a hard time about SEO ... now they are in my sites.. he he... poor bastards... I feel a Blog post comming on
Yup. I see this one a lot. A since I'm interested in SERP's not PR, this is critical. You've hit the nail on the head. With link building in mind... - What sort of techniques should I look for in their answer? - What tactics raise red flags?
...... our organic seo company and invites you to contact our organic search engine optimization organic technical team directly by organic email at: or by organic telephone at: 1-800-oorg-anic.
Well, I have seen way worse than that SEO company. It was about 5 months ago when I saw this SEO site. For some reason, I wanted to check out the page source and I found something like: <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,seo,"> Of course, they did nicely at the front so no one could tell. They tried to be so professional but