subject: Choosing The Right Seo Company For Your Website [print this page] If you have been working with the (SEO) search engine optimization of your own site for quite a while you tend to find that after all your efforts your site either does not rank well or your sites ranking is good but your SEO tasks take all your time and efforts and you dont have the time to perform your other day-to-day tasks. In this case then maybe its time to think about hiring an SEO company to do your search engine optimization tasks for you. But with so many SEO companies out there providing different prices and different variations of SEO services (or at least wording it differently) then its hard to know which company to choose from and which companies are reliable.
Even though there are so many scam SEO companies it doesnt mean to say that there arent any reliable SEOs out there and if you know exactly what to look for when making your choice then you can reduce the risk of hiring a fraudulent SEO company. Better still, if you have a substantial knowledge of search engine optimization you can easily decide whether their goals are realistic or whether they are simply leading you along to get your business. The following list issues important points that you should cover when selecting an SEO company:
Is the company promising you a number 1 ranking? If so then this is a good reason to doubt their competence. No SEO company can guarantee you a number 1 rank on Google, even for the least competitive keyphrases.
Have you asked about them in forums? Asking about an SEO company in a webmaster forum is a great way of checking. There are some good webmasters forums out there, but beware that some posters are SEO companies pitching for your business.
Do they come with recommendations? Recommendations from friends or business partners are very important as word of mouth confirms the credibility of a company.
Have you Googled them? Yes some people never even think about this approach to finding out whether a company is a fraudster or not. But if they are then chances are then they will have plenty of negative comments about them on the web.
Do they show examples of the websites they have optimized? There are trustworthy SEO companies out there with customer data bases and happy clients who arent afraid to sell the companys SEO services for them. Some websites even have cases studies on their websites with links to their customers sites and details of what they have achieved for them.
Do they have good PageRank on their own site? A PR of 3+ is a good sign of whether the company is worth hiring or not.
How did you find their website? If you find the SEO company that you are thinking about hiring in the paid search results then dont even go there. A professional SEO company never pays to promote its own website and should rank high for competitive keywords and keyphrases.
Do they have payment links? Stay away from any SEO company that has payment links to SEO services on their site. A good SEO company gives you a consultation and a quote for the services they provide and gives you the payment method with your contract.
Do they use black hat SEO tricks? Get to know black hat SEO tricks in advance in order to judge whether the methods they are using are ethical or not.
Do they offer their services on a subscription basis? Paying for organic SEO services has its benefits and once at the top is cheaper than Pay Per Click advertising. Because SEO is a constant process it is necessary to keep up efforts so select a company that offers post-optimization maintenance to cement
Where do their own sites backlinks come from? Backlinks are an important factor in SEO and shouldnt be collected at link farms. This can cause you a Google penalty and even a ban.
Are their services expensive? You dont get more just because you pay more for their services. The main reason why a companys prices should be high is for their high quality of service. If their site offers you the world its a fair guess that their work workmanship is shabby and they are trying to make up for this.
Are their services cheap? Professional SEO companies offer realistic prices. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. So if they are cheap revert back to the questions in this check-list.
The list we have put together here covers the most important issues you need to look at when choosing an SEO company but each case is different and there are of course many other points you need to consider before even consulting with an SEO company. And whatever you do even after the initial consultation take time to go over the strategy they are offering before signing the contract.
