Finding a Good SEO Firm?

I am looking to hire a seo firm for my website. I am looking for a company that has proven results, that have been around for a while, that people recognize and respect. Are there any companies out there like this? Is there any big names in the industry? How can I go about finding a good company like this.

Type in what you want in Google, then ask for a free quote from lots of SEOs, then ask them lots of questions each. Monitor how they all respond to your questions. Ask to see past clients and performances, and ensure they are actual clients. Then choose the best guy for the job.

Just hunt around online and get a list together. Check out the prices, achievements, case studies etc for each then make a decision! Most of the time if a company is not up to scratch then there will be something online which slags them off.

You will find plenty of big names here on this forum from EGOL to fathom. But whether or not they will work for you will depend upon them. Instead of going here and there looking for SEO firms why don't you let them come to you.Post your project on sites like elance.

I recommend
http://www.spheri.ca (Fathom’s)
http://www.smart-traffic.co.uk (Emerson's)
http://www.bruceclay.com(the destiny you are tying to reach)
http://www.seocompany.ca/(bob much you can directly chat with him)
http://www.ebrandz.com (more than 250 employs are working in this company their clients are very good like ICICI CCAvenue)

Some points you have see for choosing any seo company
1. Testimonial (client speak)
2. Case Studies (their previous work
3. References
4. Their own ranking

Be careful on elance. Years ago, before I knew better I had a bad experience with an SEO on elance. Two things I would suggest when hiring an seo is
1) ask them what key words their own site is targeting and see how they rank. (also ask for success stories and references to back it up)
2) keep educating yourself on SEO so you can understand what the seo firm is doing and why.

As far as link building goes just remember that Google considers links to be important because they look at them as one site recommending your page. A site in your industry linking to you is like a vote of confidence in your page. I would avoid any link building strategy that trys to fake this honest vote of confidence by putting too much emphasis on directory submission or blog comments.

Umm depends!!

Whats your niche, Market audience, Budget..? you want to outsource things or keep it in the real (your) market? If you are looking to outsource perhaps, India, china and Phillipines are the best destinations to land on..

if Not, then I would recommend you to have a word with Jim.. Jim Boykin, Donna, Rodney B (fathom), Eric Ward(for links only), ClickB (Clive, do you take up work?), Europa(Daryl) there are lots many to accomplish your tasks..

At First, you need to be very clear about your budgets and objective..IMO..and then proceed further selecting the best fit.

I recommend you name also.

Some good points above.

Also, you may want to look within your own industry/niche. Review your most successful organic competition and find their webmasters. You may be able to poach them.

It's often much easier for an SEO to build among terms and niches that they know well. The contacts are already there, which makes for faster movement in optimizing.

Find successful SEO's in your niche, but be wary of those that may be getting more than a flat fee for your competitor's SEO.

This is a long one...
1. How long have you been providing search engine optimization services?

2. Are you an individual consultant or are you part of a team?

3. How long have you and your team been online?

4. what types of websites will you not promote?

5. Do you participate and/or, are you a moderator for any of the seo - Search Engine Optimization / SEM - Search Engine Marketing Forums? If so, what is your username and can you provide links to your most recent or notable discussions?

6. Can you describe and/or produce recent successful campaign results? If so, can I use those clients for references?

7. Do you have website design experience? Technical background? what types of programming environments are you experienced with?

8. what are your opinions in regards to Best Practices for the seo - Search Engine Optimization / SEM - Search Engine Marketing industry? How does a company effectively compete online using traditional optimization strategies?

9. Can you assure us that the optimization strategies and methods that you are utilizing fall under the criteria of Best Practices for the seo/SEM Industry? Can we assume that this means no penalties for our website? Penalties could include, but are not limited to; removal from the search engines or directories index, or a possible Google PageRank™ penalty, also referred to as PR0.

10. How many search engine optimization campaigns have you been involved with? what was your role for those projects? How many are still active? How many are inactive? If inactive, why?

11. Are there any guarantees for top search engine positions? The answer to this question will depend on whether or not you choose a PPC - Pay Per Click program from Overture, or similar bid management campaign like Google's CPC - Cost Per Click program. Depending on the competitiveness of your industry, guaranteed #1 search engine positions may be difficult and expensive to maintain.

12. Do you have experience managing PPC - Pay Per Click, CPC - Cost Per Click, and other bid management campaigns? what types of programs do you use for PPC bid management?

13. what is link popularity? what linking strategies would you use to increase link popularity for our website? Is this service part of the proposed price? what types of websites will you target for link exchange?

14. what is Google PageRank™ and how does it affect our website(s)? How would you address improving our PageRank™ with Google, and other search engines that calculate the number of quality inbound links to our website?

15. what changes can we expect you to make to our website to improve our positioning in the search engines? Will these changes be visible? Will there be changes in the coding of our website?

16. what type of reporting (website log analysis) will you provide to us? How often will you provide those reports? Will you provide consultation on how to interpret the reports so that we have a basic understanding of the statistics?

17. Do you offer ROI (Return On Investment) analysis? Is this in addition to your contract pricing? Have the consultant explain the process of how the ROI will be determined. This type of ROI tracking may require strict participation by the employees of your company. You may need to address internal procedures first, before being able to successfully track ROI for your website.

Those are just a few. Unfortunately, the consumer will not know many of these questions and is at the mercy of the company and/or consultant they are speaking with. Because the consumer is not educated in our industry, there are many who will fall prey to unethical seo/SEM practices.

source: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum5/1238.htm

That's pretty good opinions about the SEO firms. But, there are many SEO firms providing different kinds of services in their own ways... Any big names will not cost you less then $800 a month for just traffic driving tactics research etc., Of course, they get you good results when you are able to afford that much.

There are companies who provide excellent SEO services like <snip> . They are affordable and gets you the best results.

However, take a wise decision before you choose any SEO firm because it may cause a damage to your ranking in case if lazy seo's working on your site.

Good Luck

Can't say i have ever heard of that company "anthony" - wouldn't be anything to do with you would it??? In future if your going to plug your own company why not take it out of the user avatar so you don't look like a complete fool ;)