Choosing the right search engine optimization professional or firm to work with your company isn’t always easy. First, a quick look through Google will tell you that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of us around. And that’s not to mention the fact that many of us have different fee structures, philosophies, and so on. I think the biggest challenge for most marketers and business owners, however, goes just a little bit deeper: since they don’t have a great understanding of what we actually do, it’s hard to find the right fit for their company.
Hopefully, a look through the articles on this blog will give you some ideas about SEO concepts and basics that will help. To add to that, though, here are three questions you should ask any search engine optimization firm before you hire them:
What is your approach to SEO? A search engine professional should be able to explain what they’re going to do for you in a way that’s clear and understandable. If they can’t, that’s a sign they might be hard to work with going forward, or prone to hiding behind technical jargon.
How long will it take to improve my position? This is a bit of a trick question. If someone tells you that you are going to start seeing results almost instantly, then they might be willing to give you unrealistic hopes to get your money. On the other hand, if they can’t give any kind of reasonable timeframe, you’ll have to question how committed they are to getting results. An experienced search engine professional knows that the process takes time, but that you should start to see improvements in 3 to 6 months.
Where do your own sites rank? The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Search engine optimization is a very tough field to compete in; if the company’s own sites are doing well on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, they probably have a good idea of what they are doing.
