Qs to Ask Before Hiring an SEO Company/Pro

There are a lot of people who come to SEOChat asking for advice on which SEO company to use or how to find an SEO company etc.

I think it would be commendable of us, as a community, to present a straightforward set of questions that any knowledgable and capable SEO should be able to answer effectively. These questions can help to serve as a protection system against being scammed by either 'black-hat' style techniques or un-professional/unknowledgable SEOs.

Let me urge anyone using these questions to be as honest & friendly when asking them as possible. There is absolutely no need for an antagonistic relationship between a client and SEO - it is a fundamental partnership and an excellent rapport can do wonders for both sides.

I'll start:

#1: Your background
What other sites have you done SEO work for?
What were the results you achieved for those sites?
What was the relative difficulty & competitiveness of the keyword phrase(s)?
How long have you been in the SEO industry?

#2: Ranking Expectations
Based on my industry and keywords, what are your expectations for the time it will take to be listed in the top 10 at the major search engines?
Who are my primary competitors and how well have they done SEO?

#3: Budget Requirements
How much should I anticipate spending over the next 1,3 & 6 months on link building?
How many hours should I anticipate paying for in SEO work over the next 1, 3 & 6 months?

#4: PPC
Will you be managing my pay-per-click accounts?
What traffic levels should I expect to see and how much should I budget for PPC?

#5: SEO Knowledge
Do you think Google's penalties/devaluations (sandbox) of newer sites will affect my rankings?
What statistics will you need to be able to measure on my site?
Can you explain why it is neccessary for me to get links to my site from other sites?

With this combo of broad & narrow questions, I think a small-medium sized business owner would be well prepared to make an informed decision. Please add others you think would be important.

Good questions but missing something fundamental imho. Most potential customers that come to us ask for the wrong thing "I want to rank No 1 on Google Yahoo and XYZ for 'weird industry phrase'".

So before anything else they need to find a company that asks them questions:

1) What are you hoping to achieve with SEO?
2) Why do you believe SEO can achieve the results you are looking for?
3) Do you understand how you're customers make a decision to buy from you and can you explain it to us?

In our case we have a recent customer that I can promise No 1 spot to - as their site would be a google wack - however it's unlikely to get them any traffic or sales!

Regards, S

Spartan - Your questions are good, but they are the ones an SEO firm should ask their customers. My post was about the other way around. Both are valid, however...

I would put enormous weight on particular industry experience and keyword/keyword phrase research. Plus marketing smarts. After you go through the straight SEO work, proof of the putting will come from distinguishing the site from competitors/ and or targeting the audience very well. If I'm highly ranked, but for the wrong phrases or the wrong audience...BIG DEAL. That might not be straight SEO work...but if I invest lots of money in straight SEO and don't hit the right audience or have a site that turns viewers into conversions...big deal.

Dave

I know that I was trying to make the point that they need to ask themselves some questions first. In my experience few do.

Regards, S

earlpearl - I think a good SEO can adapt to any industry, but you're definitely right about having some marketing smarts - they're critical to success. Getting traffic early on means getting links that pass traffic and those are not easy to come by... Due to Mr. Sandbox, I rely on links to bring about 45% of my current traffic, so it's something that can't be overlooked.

Spartan - sorry, I thought when you said critical stuff was missing, you meant from my questions list