Hiring an SEO provider to help boost your businesses ranking in the local search results can be tricky. You’ve no doubt been spammed by many of our friends from the far east promising you page 1 rankings in days for pennies on the dollar. The old adage typically applies here of if it seems too good to be true it probably is.
If you’re serious about using search engine optimization as a way to increase your online visibility for the long term and either aren’t interested in doing it yourself or are simply pressed for time I would suggest hiring a qualified Coeur d’Alene SEO Consultant. By doing so you can rest assured that they will be using
White Hat SEO Techniques that aren’t going to get you penalized by Google and will ensure lasting results.
3 Questions To Ask A Potential SEO Consultant
1) What Is The Process You Follow To Get Results?
You can’t expect your potential SEO consultant to spill all the beans here as there are some “trade secrets” but I would expect them to be able to give you a detailed outline of the processes they take to get a site to rank. As mentioned above you should expect these methods to be white hat and follow Google’s best practices.
There should also be a variety of techniques in their bag. If they’re relying solely on one thing this can be dangerous as our friends at Google are prone to changing things from time to time and if they change that one thing that was working *poof your site will be gone along with that stream of traffic it was getting.
2) What Type of Contract or Commitment Am I Expected To Agree To?
Search engine optimization takes time. The more competitive the industry you’re in the longer it’s going to take. However with that being said Local SEO in a place like Coeur d’Alene shouldn’t be a long drawn out process. Many SEO consultants will attempt to get you to sign up for a 6 month – 1 year contract. Bottom line it means more money for them.
Not to say that in some cases it might not be necessary depending on what types of keywords you’re going after but do a little research. I for example give my clients an action plan for the first three months and try to educate them on what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and give realistic expectations of what types of results you should get. They are also welcome to cancel at any time if I’m not meeting their expectations.
3) What Qualifications Do You Have?
There really aren’t any schools for SEO (yet) and anyone can call themselves SEO Consultants. Remember our friends from the far east mentioned earlier. However, with that being said don’t be shy of someone who doesn’t have any formal “education” as there are many self taught SEO’s out there who do incredible work.
When this is the case however the best litmus test for you is asking for references of their work. If they can prove they get results who cares if they’re “educated”. I am constantly going to conferences and following the thought leaders in the industry to keep up with the latest trends and any good SEO should be doing the same.
So now you might be a little bit more qualified to hire an SEO Consultant in Coeur d’Alene. If you have any questions or suggestions for other queries that should be asked of a potential Search Engine Optimist feel free to contact me or leave a comment. If you’d like a proposal for your sites SEO please give me a call and we can work up an action plan on how to get your site ranked!
Here are several more articles on this topic:
How To Hire A Good SEO -SmallBusinessComputing.com
How To Hire The Right SEO Consultant BusinessInsider.com
Hire and SEO According To Google TopRankBlog.com