I'm going to be hiring an SEO specialist to help my e-commerce site get better organic search results. I don't know too much about SEO except that it involves building backlinks. What kind of questions do you guys think I should ask before assigning this work to someone? Thanks
You need to ask him following questions: 1. Ask his basic steps (from where he will start?) 2. How he will do ON Page SEO (answer will be using seo friendly urls and dynamic metas on all product pages)
I would look for someone that publishes some of their own case studies on previous rankings they have achieved. Ask them to tell you what sort of things they will be doing for you and what the time horizon for results is. Also come up with ways of measuring the success of the SEO (eg: moving up 10 rank positions in the first 2 months). Remember SEO does take time but there should still be results, even if they are flexible. Watch out for companies that: Guarantee you specific rank results Don't speak/write the native language you are optimizing for Seem to use black-hat techniques Are secretive about 'how' they will get your rankings up
I would take a look at the jobs on getafreelancer and see what they are asking for. Then get put your job out for bid, kind-of clone what you saw other people asking for. You will get a lot of people bidding on your job! The website has a great tool which is user reviews / ranking - read up on the bidders before you select one! You will find youself a great worker and a great price. I hope this post helped you. Thanks, Chris!
I would get him on the phone and tell him you need a list of as many sites as possible that he has SEO'd before... And you need the list within 10 minutes... If the list doesn't show up in 10 minutes then don't even bother interviewing him... That means he's probably calling his buddies who have we sites telling them he is using them as a reference and to give you glowing reviews of him when you call. If the list does arrive in 10 minutes then I would call every single one of the sites he's SEO'd. I would find out who there worked with him and what they thought of his work. I would ask them how much he improved their organic search traffic and how his work affected their rankings for their money keywords. If they all give him glowing reviews THEN I would consider interviewing the person. Otherwise, I'd move on to the next candidate. About 99 out of 100 people who 'say' they are SEO professionals are not even worth $5/hr IMO. In fact, you might want to pay them to stay away from your site! LOL They know just enough to throw out a few buzz words and sound like the are proficient. But they don't really understand SEO or 'know' it. They are liable to cause more harm than good... I can't stress enough the importance of 'real' references for previous work when it comes to hiring an SEO. Buyer beware.
- show me proof of your work (top 10 rankings on a few competitive keywords) - how long have you been working in the field of SEO (should be at least 2 years) - what is included in your work/offer? what is not? - how do you follow the Google guidelines?
Some of the most important things to ask are 1) Pass job reference and how well they perform for the clients 2) Ask them how are they going to build traffic to your website and see if they make any senses
Read somewhere on http://www.searchengineguide.com/ before, what to ask your SEO specialist. try trolling in the site
I have to agree with this. Learn a little bit about SEO yourself then you will be able to make an educated decision. In SEO just like the rest of life, "if it sounds too good to be true it usually is"
I agree. Better to have some Idea on how SEO works first. By then you can understand what questions to be ask. IMO
- Proof for their previous work. Achievements. -Methods they are going to use. - Whether they follow Google guidelines. -Time frame & cost
The best thing to do is to have who ever you want to seo your site prove themselves by showing you their site and the keywords in google it comes up highly in. Then you can perform your own test to see if they can get a site high in the SERPs.
Yup ...best thing would be be to get yourself know some basic stuff about SEO...this is quite freely available online...And if your specialist refuses to reveal the techniques going to be used,to you,then better get rid of him .. Though there is quite of mystery spread around SEO, it isn't too difficult to understand the concepts...