In all industries there are good and bad companies. With this in mind, the Search Engine Optimisation field is no different. With this post I hope I am able to educate you if you are daunted by the task of hiring someone to look after the Search Engine Optimisation aspect of your website. I’m hoping to tell you some things to look for which will enable you to avoid a costly mistake and hire the right company for you. This post hopes to be a great resource if you are thinking of hiring someone, or already hire someone and are not happy with the results you are getting.

Hiring a company to look after this aspect of your website that is incompetent can cause harm to your online presence. The use of Black-Hat and “spammy” techniques is a huge issue in this industry and can cause your website to be penalised by search engines.

So how can you sort out the good from the bad? I’ve compiled a list of what you should look out for and avoid when hiring an SEO company.

The price is too low

This is a common issue within the SEO industry and is diluting it further. A low price quote is extremely likely to buy low quality work. If a price seems too good to be true, it probably is! A company that carries out high quality SEO work does not need to provide services at an extremely low price, and will be unable to carry out the vast amount of work required for proper SEO. If you are paying £200 a month or so, what are you actually getting for your money? Not many hours of solid SEO work, that’s for sure.

They offer fixed price packages

This is one of my biggest issues in this list. A lot of SEO companies offer set-priced SEO packages, such as Bronze, Silver and Gold. I really do not understand how this sort of pricing module can be offered. The simple reason for this is that different keywords, key phrase, etc, all have different levels of competition. Some require a lot of work to rank higher and some require little work. A lot of analysis has to be done before a price can be quoted. Having fixed price SEO packages is like getting a builder to give you a price on extending your property without actually setting foot on your property!

They guarantee number 1 rankings

Simply put, no company can guarantee that you will top the rankings for any given keywords or phrases in any given industry. The same can be said if an SEO company guarantees any sort of ranking in a particular amount of time. Ranking is not done on a daily basis by search engines. It is done periodically and it can take weeks or months to improve rankings. Search Engines are also always changing their algorithms, so what works today may not work tomorrow.

They confuse you with technical jargon

If an SEO company talks to you about what they are doing, but can’t explain it in a way that you are unable to understand, then they are not a match for you. One of the key values you should look for in an SEO company is their ability to break down and explain what they are doing to you. Communication is key.

They propose a price-per-link payment

Link building is about quality, not quantity. The best links result from great content and the value it offers to web users. Building huge amounts of poor quality backlinks is likely to get your website penalised by the search engines. The best way to get a lot of links is to provide quality content and then market it.

They have insider algorithm information

They really don’t. Experts, like myself, have learned certain aspects of search engine algorithms based on many hours spent testing techniques and working on different websites in different industries for clients. One thing you can be sure of is that they aren’t getting any special treatment and aren’t receiving information from Google, Bing or Yahoo on how things work. The main reason for this is that search engine company employees sign confidentiality agreements which could see them end up in prison if they divulge information!

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