What to Look for in an SEO Consultant or Firm

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a complex business. It's generally thought that Google takes notice of over 200 different signs when it decides where to place a site in the search results. If you are going to spend money on search engine optimisation then you need to make sure that your SEO consultant can deliver what you're expecting search engine optimization companies.

This may sound odd but if an SEO consultant says they can guarantee your place in the search results, run a mile. They can't do this and they shouldn't promise it. Google may be a public company but that doesn't mean that the formula to produce the search results is public knowledge. Instead, it's the "secret sauce" that they use to maintain their edge in this highly lucrative market. So if any SEO firm claims they can guarantee where you will appear in the search results, don't use them.

If you're thinking of paying your SEO consultant a pittance then you can't expect them to produce Rolls Royce results. There isn't a complete correlation between the amount you pay and the results you get but there is certainly a reasonable degree. It just isn't possible to keep up with the search engine industry without spending a lot of time and money to keep up to date. Things change at lightning speed. Google can and does tweak their search algorithm. Small changes happen daily, larger changes happen more often but - like earthquakes - can't be predicted entirely. It's the job of your chosen SEO consultant to keep up to date and also to sort the wheat from the chaff with regard to the information they deal with.

I know we're dealing with computers, so it's tempting to think that they should lend themselves to automation and time saving. Actually, as SEO progresses, the reverse seems to be true. Automation can provide a quick solution but most of it can be spotted a mile off by Google's highly qualified engineers. They spend an inordinate amount of time making sure that their search results are as pure as the driven snow. They don't always succeed in this quest but they do manage to spot spammy techniques on a very regular basis and automation inevitably leaves footprints that would make sasquatch proud. Google's programmers look after billions (or more likely, trillions) of web pages. So they can't go in by hand and change individual search results. Which means that automated techniques often appear to slip through the radar for months or even years. But when the engineers catch up, your site bites the digital dust. So make sure that your SEO consultant only uses techniques that have stood the test of time, which almost always means they're not automated.

Well, that's not totally true. If the links are flagged as being bought and are designed to get visitors directly to your site from the link, that's probably OK. But if your SEO consultant proposes that you buy links with the express idea of fooling Google into thinking those links are natural, that's a big red flag. Google hates paid-for links because they corrupt the process of getting the best possible search results for their users. When it finds them - and they normally leave a footprint - then it takes steps to negate them and will likely penalise your site in the search results at the same time.