How do you know if you hire someone for SEO that he will stick to his word and only do legal and white hat SEO methods? He says he is, but I would hate to have my site jeopardized if he does do black hat methods, however he does want to keep me as a customer for SEO. Should I ask for a contract, or what about a confidentiality agreement, if he knows all my keywords and the product?
yes put together a NDA for your piece of mind, you may want to have a contract with a restriction of trade clause as well. if you are afraid he may use black hat then you can either check regularly to see if he has used say white text/tiny text on your site or simply do not use this person
It would be better for you to have a contract. (it is always better to have something written down for future reference and safety; plus security). As there are pretty wanna-be SEOs who are self-proclaiming about their SEO expertise, by having a contract you can avoid such situation. Mutual contract would be good in which you can ask your SEO service provide to brief you about: 1. Their working ethics and SEO techniques they are going to use for your site(s) 2. Turnaround of when the results cane be expected 3. Package pricing and procedures. Hope this makes sense. Good luck,
you can ask him/her to submit daily reports to see if he/she is doing proper seo. A contract is good if he/she is really concern and want to the job he/she should agree having a contract.
contract is a way to secure both of the parties..bu I'm wondering if you could identify that he is doing black hat?? can this be identified??
@Excel... Very well said. With daily reports you can not only keep track of what the service provider is doing; at what time span, but you can also stay updated about the SEO methods used by the provider. Also, with daily SEO reports, you can evaluate the progress of the SEO provider (whether you are getting what you have been told).
Obviously making a contact take you to safe and secure side if any thing go wrong but written report and proper update of work on regular basis will also allow you to keep a check on him/her that how they are doing and what they are doing.
you can take their services for a week and ask for the complete report and you analyze the ranking of your website.
For judging black hat SEO, you cant do enough, just believe in them!!!! You cant write in contract that only this particular methods you will use or only on certain number of times you will submit or comment in particular period. nonsense!!!