What to look for, when hiring an SEO Consultant for Your Business

Small and large companies are hiring SEO Consultants to perform a variety of different functions. These professionals are high in demand today, especially those who have experience in certain areas. One of the main duties of a consultant, however, is to ensure the business has a great online presence. Therefore, creating a web page or a website for a company is only one of many essential steps in the search engine optimization process. Which means, if a business is going to be successful in the industry that they have chosen, they will need to ensure that users on the Internet can find their website very easily. This is also one of the main reasons why the best SEO Consultants are high in demand.

The role that they play in this business, is to make sure that the company's website displays prominently in the major search engine results (i.e. Google, Bing, Yahoo and Safari). Therefore, unless the business owner or their representative is educated and skilled in search engine optimization, it is a wise decision for the company to hire a reputable consultant that will help their website to get the praise and the success that it deserves.

When interviewing for these positions, there are some common things that every business owner or their representative should look for when they are filling these positions. Some of the most common tips and recommendations are listed below:

SEO Basics

Learn the basics of SEO. Which means, the business owner should learn some of the basic techniques along with the lingo. Without this information, it is virtually impossible to properly interview prospective SEO consultants, since the business owner must understand all of the services that they are expecting a consultant to provide. By doing the research prior to the interview, the owner will also understand the answers that the consultant gives in the interview. This is essential because some SEO strategists may engage in various risky online tactics. For instance, some consultants may use black-hat techniques when they are trying to achieve the results that their clients are looking for.

Black hat and other unethical techniques may backfire and cause other problems. Companies that engage in these strategies and techniques could wind up with their websites or web pages not showing up in any of the major search engine results. Therefore, the business owner must be in the position of recognizing the difference between the good as well as the bad SEO practices. As a result, they can avoid hiring consultants who are recommending potentially risky tactics to their clients as viable solutions.

Experience

Due to how fast the major search engines can change their algorithms, it is essential to identify those consultants who have experience with navigating thru all of the frequent search engine updates. These professionals must be able to make the changes without compromising the advertisement and marketing campaigns effectiveness. This identification process can be done by browsing through each of the candidate's website to view their SEO experience, The owner or the interviewer should also review any case studies to see if they can demonstrate and verity some of their past successes.

On the other hand, the owner should avoid judging the candidate's experience level by the total number of years in the industry, since is not the best indicator of potential success. Even though most consultants may make it a high priority to stay up-to-date with the most recent SEO activities, the business owner may encounter one of the older firms that use some of the outdated best practices.

Reference Checks


Check the potential candidate's references. Even when a potential candidate for the SEO consultant position claims high rankings, the business owner or their representatives should check these references and claims for validity. This means a company should not hire any SEO consultant until they have contacted and spoken with some of their previous clients. Additionally, the owner should avoid relying on testimonials only, specifically those that have been posted on the consultants' site.

Before hiring a consultant, the owner should also search for the consultants' site to determine how their sites rank in comparison to others. If the websites that they represent are buried in the rankings or their own site is low on the list of performance, the company should look for other consultants to fill their business needs.

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