Cool – You know you probably need a Dallas area SEO Consultant. As you probably figured out there are a lot. So how do you know who’s good and who’s not so good, or even bad? Here are a few key questions to ask when choosing an seo consultant to take care of your website and business:
Essential Questions for an SEO Consultant
- How long have you been in business (SEO Specifically)
Many consultants have been in business a while but might have been in web design or development primarily. Make sure they have been doing honest SEO for a while. - What does the _____ Alogrythm mean? Fill in the blan with Panda, Penguin, Fred or any others you heard about (and you should know the answer before asking to make sure they aren’t bluffing)
- Are you willing to show me real examples of client successes? If they’re as good as you need them to be they should have a long list of data showing client traffic growth, revenue, keyword reports, etc.
- What is a canonical (KAN – ON – i – CAL) tag? If they don’t know walk away. For the record a canonical tag is code that tells Google what page is the primary in the case that there are a few with similar content.
Other Questions to Consider
- How do I know your’e doing the work you say you will? A lot of SEO is behind the scenes and it’s not visually obvious that’s anything has been done. A good SEO will have a schedule of deliverables that shows you exactly what’s planned in the near future and reports showing that it’s been done as well as the effect.
- What’s your Process? There needs to be a solid plan. If this questions is answered with the word “Um…” Walk away!
- What tools do you use? This one is tricky. In our case we use a few proprietary tools we’re happy to explain but when it comes to out of the box tools some may be hesitant to spill the beans.
- What kind of SEO do you do? There are four types (in my opinion) and they should know how to do them all (even if you don’t need all of them) – Technical SEO, On Page, Off Page and Paid Media.
- Can you guarantee #1 rankings? If they say YES! then run away. I can certainly tell you our methods work and show you past success, but no one can guarantee #1 rankings. No one!
- How often will you send reports? If it’s less than once a month walk away.
- What’s your phone number? If you don’t already know, walk away
- Do you work for our competitors? If yes then your answer is no. They can’t get you and your competitor to the top at the same time!
Other than these questions to ask when hiring an SEO consultant, you should also be comfortable with them. This is a relationship of sorts and you need to get along on a personal level as well as professional. I’m not saying go out for drinks but if you can’t be yourself and feel comfortable working with anyone I’d recommend you look elsewhere.