How to select a SEO?

I will like to hire a SEO to bring my website to top 10 in Google... and I will like to know on what criteria to select a SEO and what will be the price to pay or is it better to do it myself even if i have a basic knowledge of SEO?

Thx.

 

Get his previois work example.
Check his professional profile
Check the guys who have got work from him directly or via email
Check his ways to get backlinks
Ask him to show some sample report and check his quality of work.
Cost = That depends on your keyword+competition+your current rank(SERP)

Hope it helps

 

A lot of SEO depends on your site. Not every site can make it to the top or we would all be there.

I would do all the basic stuff myself since it isn't hard to do. I'm assuming you did your keyword research and have each page optimized and based on one or two keywords. Each page has a unique meta Title, Description, and Keyword tags. Each page has a link back to your Home page. Keyword density is about 3-5% max. Your sitemap is correct and you made good use of your htaccess file.

Do that first and then follow KathyMillers good suggestions

 

i think you learn the most by doing it yourself is the best method. To rank top 10 find do follow backlinks and get ones related to your topic if you can. articles work the best for backlinks. also, read the DP threads they give alot of advice on SEO and the people in here will answer your questions and have a lot of info to share.

 

Ask for samples from him so that you will know if he or she really has a SEO background.. As for the price, it should depend on the skills that the service provider can offer but you should work on your budget also.. However, if you have the spare time to do it yourself, then why not do SEO on your own.. There are a lot of SEO info available in the internet.. Your basic knowledge is enough to start.. In the long run, I'm sure you will learn the ins and outs of SEO.. Good luck..

 

I enjoy the process of doing everything by yourself and seeing your site grow in rankings.

 

before you hire a SEO, you need to check a few things with him, a quick checklist would be:

- Past Performance and History "will he be able to produce results ? you can only judge him or them on what they have “done or achieved”, not on what they claim to be able to do.
- Request and Review References
- Ask him about his strategies and techniques
- Anticipated expectations and time lines
- what happens if he or they fail or exceed expectations.

one last thing, don't go with the cheapest offer, and talk with as many consultants or companies as you can, Good consultants (like me ) are very busy, so you need to work hard to find them.

 

Very helpfully tips.. I agree with you..

 

Make sure they are not using any black hat methods to make ur site in top
Make sure they are not using any tools for promotion
check their history and also their past work
Take all works email authority to you

 

Ranking Top 10 in Google is the best way to go because free traffic can convert into tons of sales.

 

I did all that so now is time to follow the selection checklist... However as mentioned before it's hard to find a good SEO with good promotion methods... so maybe I'll try to do the seo work by myself...

 

If you want to hire SEO, all you need to do is follow this simple 8 Steps and You are safe.

 

I wrote an article on this same subject. This article is full of SEO tips and tricks and what you need to look for in a SEO Company.

The link is: http://www.wilsonwebsiteconsultants.com/articles.html

 

Higher price does not always guarantee you better results. One of the main tests i would carry out would be to see where the potential SEO website ranks on industry terms such as search engine optimisation and website optimisation. Afterall, if potential SEO are not optimising their own site, can u trust them to optimise yours?

 

Its not free in this case though, if you have to spend out on a SEO it makes it a bit harder to achieve a profit.