Hire an SEO consultant, but try not to sell your soul to the devil.
Hiring an SEO company is a decision that can improve your business and save you time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure you know what to look for in search engine optimization as well as the damage that bad SEO consultants can do to your site and your business.
Don't Believe the Hype
If an SEO consultant guarantees #1 rank in a very short time, move on to another one. If they are guaranteeing great results like first page search in a few weeks, ask for details. Make sure they aren't going to get you there just by using Google AdWords and paying for the spot if their optimization isn't working. There is nothing wrong with Adwords itself, but anyone who is telling you they are going to get you to rank well in the search engines and then just takes out some Google ads is ripping you off. Paid ads are not search results. Supplementing good SEO with ads to bring in traffic until your site really is ranking well is an acceptable practice. Just make sure you know that is what you are paying for. Nobody can really guarantee search engine results but many search engine optimization companies do make impossible guarantees.
Also watch out for wild promises about Google Places, promises to submit your site to thousands of directories or any other "pie in the sky", impossible to prove claims. The old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is not true" definitely fits. So does "you get what you pay for".
Ask Questions and Accept No Secrets
Find out exactly what you will be getting, and how they plan on achieving results.
Remember - this is your business and on the web, how you rank and how you get there can make or break your business. If you hire an SEO and they get backlinks to your site from disreputable or even illegal sites, it is YOUR reputation on the line. If they use "black hat" tactics or otherwise violate Google's rules, it is YOUR website that will get penalized or banned. Of course most SEO consultants are not going to tell you every little detail about their methods. That would be time consuming and probably overwhelming. If an SEO will not give you at least some general idea what they do and they claim it is their "secret", then they are probably not someone you should trust with your business.
Some things to ask potential SEO candidates:
Tell some success stories?
Do you follow Google Webmaster Guidelines?
How do you determine what keywords and phrases to target?
Do you offer any other online marketing services?
Do you have marketing experience or just keyword manipulation and backlink building?
What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
What's your experience in my industry? In my country/region/city? Localized marketing is very important.
What SEO techniques do you use? Which are most important?
How do you get backlinks? (Avoid paid link schemes like the plague)
Will you tell me what you did and give detailed information about your recommendations?
Finding good, trustworthy SEO consultants can be difficult, but it is very important that you make an informed decision. Choose wisely and your SEO company can save you a lot of time and give you the results and great ROI your business needs to succeed.
Check back soon for similar tips on how to choose a web designer. After all, if your designer doesn't know SEO, you'll have a many more potential hazards to avoid in promoting your website.
About the Author:
Ker Communications is a Pittsburgh SEO and Internet Marketing Company dedicated to combining good web design, insightful marketing, and high quality SEO to get real world results. Our philosophy is that the best marketing strategy, whether it is for a small local business or a larger company, is a holistic approach combining quality content, professional visual and functional design, social networking, expert level search engine and performance optimization and most importantly, real human insight and innovation.
Ker Communications has over 20 years of experience graphic design, marketing, printing, video production and web design in Pittsburgh. We know how to manage your public image, how to help build your business and how to get your message out there.
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