Many companies claim that they can help you climb to the top of the search engine rankings through search engine optimization.

It is not rocket science, but it does take time, effort, attention to detail, and research.

How long have you been in business?

How was the company founded?

·       What experience do you have working in my industry?

What’s your experience in my country/city/region?

·       Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?

·       Do you set up a Google site map for your clients?

·       Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?

·       What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?

·       How do you measure your success?

Do you have any experience developing international sites?

·       What are your most important SEO techniques?

Do you use any black hat SEO techniques?

What are the main tools you use for your keyword research?

What are the main tools you use to track the metrics of the site?

·       Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?

What are the most important tools you use to gauge your success?

How can I expect to communicate with you?

·       How often would we communicate?

·       Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site?

What is one key recommendation you would give about my site?

·       What is the reason behind that recommendation?

Is your pricing based on a package, or can we opt for services a la carte?

How long do you tend to work with your clients?

Have you got any current clients willing to chat with me for a few minutes about your services?

You should get three bids, and ask all of them the same questions. Note down their answers.

·       Do you like their answers about metrics, keyword research, and how you measure success?

The cheapest company is not necessarily the best.

So, armed with these questions, if you do decide to hire an SEO firm rather than do it yourself, happy hunting!

You not only want to have a favorable spidering of your site so that you can get onto the first page of the search results the search engine delivers to the internet user when they run a search, you also want to keep your site dynamic so that the spiders will keep coming back.