I'm writing a proposal to a web development firm, and I'm having trouble stating exactly how the website should be developed so that the firm is required to optimize the site for search engines. I do not know what specifics, if any, I should go in to. for example, should I write this: The firm should put forth maximal effort with respect to Search Engine Optimization, in order for optimal search engine results to be achieved in the search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN (in that order of importance). Any ideas? Also, I need the firm to come up with a domain name and domain hosting for me. Should I declare that they must use a certain hosting company?
You really should hire a seperate person to do the SEO, someone educated in this field. If you don't, you'll find the web developer may lack the proper skills and knowledge to properly optimize your web pages.
I don't know what your asking then I'd just make sure to do some heavy research into this "firm", as usually the most sucessful SEO services comes from individuals who work alone; SEO companies come in the millions and probably only 1% of them are worth your actual money.
If you are having trouble with these questions you should not be writing a proposal for SEO. We can help by answering small questions, but this really requires someone experienced to working with you to pull it all together. It's good that you have hired someone else to help, this was the right decision.
before hiring a team to develop and optimize your website you should ask first who are their clients and what did they achieved during and after the project, to be able to know what are they capable of in this kind of field.