Chapter 9: Hiring an SEO Professional
In This Chapter
Figuring out how to find candidates
Checking qualifications
Asking the right questions
Knowing what to expect
After reading this minibook, you might decide that you need to hire an SEO consultant instead of trying to improve your search rankings yourself. And hiring a consultant might be a wise decision. Search engine optimization is a time-consuming and demanding Internet marketing task.
Finding an SEO Professional
A good SEO professional is someone you work with for months or years. She can advise you and help you make long-term improvements to your website. And she is also aware of your business objectives beyond higher rankings or more traffic. Try the following places to start your search:
• Talk to other business owners. Find out whether they’ve worked with anyone, and if so, how they liked that person. Referrals are still your best information source.
• Check industry associations and analyst websites, such as SEMPO, at www.sempo.org, or SEOMOZ, at www.seomoz.org. Both have marketplaces where you can request bids, and both provide lists of members or recommended vendors.
• If you’re looking for someone local, search for (your city/town name) search engine optimization. If an SEO consultant can’t get a top-10 ranking for that search, you might want to consider using another consultant.
Avoid looking in the following places:
• In your inbox: Never talk to an SEO professional who e-mails you out of the blue.
• Any website or professional who guarantees you a ranking: No honest SEO professional does this.
• Any website or professional who asks you to put links to his other clients on your website: That’s a link exchange network, as described in Chapter 7 of this minibook.
• Any website or professional who emphasizes optimizing your meta tags: You’ve probably read enough now to understand why optimizing meta tags is only 5 percent of the battle.
Checking Qualifications
After you have your list of firms, you can narrow your search by checking a few qualifications. It’s very important to perform an initial check because it helps you focus your search on the consultants who best fit your needs. Take these steps:
1. Search Google Blog Search for the company name.
Make sure that you don’t find dozens of angry posts about horrible things the company has done. You are bound to find a few — everyone gets a few folks angry occasionally. But if you see a long history of complaints, think twice.
2. Visit a firm’s website in Firefox, with the Google Toolbar installed.
What is its PageRank? Don’t worry if it’s low. But if it’s 0, the company might have been penalized by Google. If it has been, do you want those folks working for you?
3. Type the first key phrase in the company’s title tag into the two major search engines (Google and Bing).
How does the company rank?
4. Read the firm’s blog (and it had better have one).
What’s the company’s philosophy? Does it “play it very safe” and “white hat”? Or, does it push the limits of what the search engines will tolerate? Make sure to find a firm you’re comfortable with.
5. Call the firm.
Talk to representatives on the phone or in person, and make sure that you’re comfortable working with them. You’re going to be spending a lot of time with them.
You want a firm that has demonstrated competency, that has folks you can work with, and that will stick around if you decide to work with them for a few years.
Ask for references. However, only a moron would give you bad references. It’s comforting to hear how wonderful the agency you’re about to hire really is, but realize that you’re probably not going to get a clear picture this way.
One qualification you don’t need to worry about is experience in a similar industry. It’s just not that critical to SEO success. Whatever your industry, the challenges of gaining a good ranking remain largely the same.
Knowing What to Ask an SEO Professional
Before you start working with an SEO consultant, you must either meet him or talk to him on the phone. Get the answers to the following questions:
• What is the consultant’s SEO process? What can you expect to see happen in the first month? The process should make sense to you. If he can’t explain it, don’t hire him.
• What is the first thing he would do on your site? The SEO professional should look at your website before speaking with you. Or, he should ask whether he can look later. Either way, don’t demand a lot of information — this is what you pay him for, and he shouldn’t have to give information away for free. Instead, look for a sensible recommendation that demonstrates he gave your site some thought.
• How are results reported? If he mentions ranking reports, don’t hire him. Traffic matters more than rankings. Any good SEO pro will know that.
• How long has he been an SEO professional? There’s no specific right answer here, but a response like “six months” should give you pause.
• If you’re unhappy with the service, can you end your contract before the scheduled end date? Many unethical agencies bind you to a contract and charge your credit card month after month.
• How often will he speak with you? Your SEO professional needs to periodically review results and strategy with you.
• Does any service cost extra? Many SEO firms charge extra for copywriting and other work. That’s fine — just make sure that you know before you start.
Don’t worry about specific answers to these questions, except where noted. The main thing you’re trying to get is an impression of the person or company you’ll be working with. SEO is marketing, and it requires a lot of communication between you and your consultant.
Knowing What to Expect
More SEO campaigns have fallen to incorrect expectations than any other form of marketing. Here’s what you should know before you start:
• SEO takes a long time. Expect at least a minimum six-month contract; one or two years is better. If you try to sign an SEO professional to a shorter contract, you’ll likely either rush her (so she won’t do solid long-term planning) or you’ll chase off the best practitioners.
• Don’t expect fast results. See the preceding Bullet1.
• Do expect regular reports. These should include all the data from Chapter 8 of this minibook. A screen capture of your Google Analytics output doesn’t count! A true report should include analysis: what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what’s coming next.
• Expect that your SEO professional wants a certain amount of work from you. He is going to give you lots of recommendations and requests for changes to your site. He’ll ask for content, and he’ll want information about your competitors. That’s a good thing.
Costs vary widely from one SEO professional to the next. Some charge as little as $99.95 per month. Others charge $10,000 or more per month. The difference? The level of service. For $99.95 per month, expect very little. The SEO firm may or may not answer the phone when you call, probably won’t do any work outside of a few automated directory submissions, and might not get you results. At the top end of the pay scale, an SEO professional writes SEO-optimized articles for your website, regularly analyzes your site for potential problems, researches keywords, and generally does whatever it takes to move you up in the rankings.
Most SEO pros charge based on a monthly fee. They might also offer one-time reviews where they check your website, write a report recommending changes, and then ride off into the sunset. If you have your own development team, this second option is a good one. If you don’t, though, the monthly engagement works better.
Good SEO professionals often negotiate their fees depending on how challenging they think your campaign will be, how much work they’re expected to do, and how long you plan to work with them. If you have a site that’s already well optimized but needs a little help and you’re hiring someone for a year, expect your monthly fees to be lower. If you have a site that’s an SEO disaster, and you’re in a very competitive industry, and you want everything done in three months, you’re going to pay more per month.
When it comes to cost, the real question is what makes sense to you and your budget. Don’t hire a bargain you don’t trust. Your money will be wasted.