What to Consider When Hiring an SEO - Do Your Homework

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Remember the warning I gave you earlier about the SEO field being rife with scam artists? You’ll need to do your research to find a good SEO company just as you would with any contractor. Stuntdubl offers a list of steps to take that he describes as the best techniques he’s seen and heard for hiring an SEO company or consultant:

• Call lots of companies and have good questions about SEO strategy to ask them. This is why it’s often a good idea to do some research into SEO basics first. (I’ll have some good questions for you to ask in the next section).
  
• Ask each company who they’d recommend if they couldn’t take you on as a client. Believe it or not, many good SEO companies are really busy, and won’t have any problems with giving you a good referral.
  
• Give each company some choices of other SEO companies; throw in a bad SEO company as a ringer. Ask them which one they’d recommend you use.
  
• Do some searches for two-word phrases that aren’t hugely competitive (don’t use “real estate” for example). Contact the companies in the top spot for those phrases and ask them who does their SEO. Make sure the keywords are NOT related to your field; companies will be a lot more forthcoming with this information if you can tell them honestly that you’re not a competitor.
  
• Try out some of the smaller SEO services. Don’t sign a year-long contract; just try out some of their offerings and see how their customer service responds. 
  
• Search for the names of the SEO companies you’re considering, as well as the most important people at the companies (“C” level executives). This will give you an idea of their reputation.

Okay, now you’ve done your homework and you’ve narrowed things down to somewhere between three and five companies. What kinds of questions should you ask?

Next: Pop Quiz? >>
 

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