Ten Considerations When Hiring a
Search Engine Optimization Company
Part 2

By Robin Nobles

In Part 1, we began looking at important considerations when
hiring a search engine optimization company. Let's continue here.

5. Track Record

How can the professional SEO company prove to you that they
knowledgeable and experienced in this industry?

For one thing, you can ask for a list of references from any SEO
that you're considering. Look closely at the list to see if the
sites appear to be legitimate and trustworthy. Then, contact
those references.

Does the firm hold certification from a reliable training company
like the Academy of Web Specialists? How many years of experience
does the company have? Is the company willing to show you a few
reports for some of their clients?

6. Access to Your Server

How will the SEO firm work on your site? Are you going to give
them access to your server, to where they're responsible for
uploading pages and making changes?

Or, will they have to go through a Webmaster, thereby slowing
down the process. Some SEO companies like to set up gateway pages
on their own server and route traffic to your site. Other SEO
firms like to set up separate Web sites on their own server as a
means of building link popularity and routing traffic. If that's
the case, who will own those gateway pages or sites if you decide
not to continue using their services?

When the SEO firm owns the pages or sites, if you take your SEO
work elsewhere, that firm can simply re-route traffic to another
client's site. There's nothing illegal or shady about this-it's
just a fact of life. However, you can always choose to negotiate
ownership of a gateway page or site in the initial contract.

7. Site Quality

Professional search engine optimizers understand that getting top
rankings in the search engines is only the beginning. In order to
be successful, those top rankings have to convert to additional
traffic to the site, and ultimately to traffic that converts to
sales.

But what if the SEO achieves top results for you, yet your site
isn't designed in such a way to promote the actual sale. For
example, let's say that the site is confusing, and visitors
simply give up and never make it to the order page. Or maybe
there's no "call to action."

Some SEO's are beginning to make stipulations in the contract
that state that they are not responsible for actually increasing
sales unless they take on the responsibility of redesigning some
areas of the site to make them more "sales friendly."

8. Finding a Trustworthy SEO Firm

How can you find a professional SEO company that you can trust?
Wouldn't all of the best firms be listed in the top rankings at
the search engines?

Not necessarily, and here's why. Many of the successful SEO firms
are so busy working on clients' sites that they don't have time
to optimize their own sites. So, they rely on word of mouth and
recommendations for their new clients, which keeps them more than
adequately busy.

Plus, the firm may be in the top rankings for the keywords that
they consider important to them, but you may be looking in
different areas that they aren't targeting.

So, just because a company isn't in the top 10 doesn't mean that
they aren't a top notch firm with the experience needed to help
your site achieve success.

Back to our original question of how to find a trustworthy
company, ask other Webmasters whom they use to optimize their
site. Search for related online forums or visit newsgroups and
see which firms are recommended. Write to some SEO companies and
see what type of response you get. Do your homework before
choosing the firm, and you stand a much greater chance of
choosing an SEO company who can really help you.

9. Type of Proposal

Many SEO companies will create a detailed report and offer
numerous suggestions before you ever sign the contract. Some of
these companies charge for the proposal, and others don't. Still
others will charge only if you decide not to use their services.

Taking it from the side of the optimizer, it's very time
consuming coming up with a strategy for a particular company. Not
only do you have to visit the site and spend some time, but you
also have to run various reports and do considerable research.
Plus, many SEO's are hesitant to give away too much information
in the initial proposal, so they won't do detailed reports or
offer focused suggestions until an official agreement has been
reached.

In any event, make sure that you understand the process that's
involved. For example:

* Do you have to pay for a formal proposal?
* If you hire the company, how often will you be sent verifiable
results?
* What types of reports can you expect to receive?
* How long will the process take?
* When can you expect to see results?

10. Contract

As with all contractual obligations, read the contract carefully,
including all fine print. At the Academy of Web Specialists, we
compiled a group of contracts from various SEO firms, and we've
posted them online. We also came up with a standard contract that
incorporates many of the ideas shown in the individual contracts.
It might help you to view those contracts and compare what the
SEO company you're considering is offering.

http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/chat/contracts.html


This article was written by Robin Nobles, a professional
freelance writer and the Director of Training at the Academy of
Web Specialists (http://www.academywebspecialists.com). Over the
past few years, she has trained several thousand people in her
online and onsite courses in search engine positioning strategies
and has written three books that can be ordered through Amazon.
Visit the Academy's training Web site to learn more about their
online courses: http://www.onlinewebtraining.com.