7 Questions To Ask Before Hiring An SEO Expert

Anyone who knows anything about marketing their business online will at some point realize that they probably need their site optimized for search engines like Google. The thing is, when you sit down to talk to some of these guys, they spit out so much tech talk and wizardly mumbo jumbo that its hard to understand what exactly you’ll be paying them for.

I want to help you out with that a bit.

The questions Ive compiled below are a few of the things you need to make sure your SEO guy knows…you know, to make sure he actually knows what he’s talking about and stuff.

None of us like to get ripped off, and none of us like to think that there are people out there that will take your money and not have a clue how to deliver what they promise, but unfortunately, they’re out there. Im here to save you from them!

So lets get started.

#1- Do you have any examples of sites that you’ve ranked in the past that are still high in the rankings?

Rankings that they have done in the past are critical, as sometimes with certain methods, a page one ranking can be achieved, but it can drop off in a few weeks to the second or third page. You want a ranking that will stick.

As long as the competitors in your industry are not all actively competing for the top spots (which they usually aren’t) whatever ranking you get out of a 90 or 120 day campaign should stick around for a while. I do usually recommend ongoing backlink campaigns to maintain the position and/or tackle other important industry keywords.

#2- Will you be doing the keyword research for my site?

Keyword research is the lifeblood of SEO. If the research is not done, or not done correctly, almost any page one ranking you get will not give you a valid return on investment for your money…and that’s what business is about, right?

To ensure you actually make money off of your SEO investment, you have to make sure the keywords you rank for are “Buyer Keywords” or keywords that people would search if they are ready to buy.

The word “Cars” for example is a vague and general term, but it gets a ton of traffic. Some of the less than trust worthy SEO guys would tell you that that term gets close to a million searches a month and your car dealership site will be flooded with traffic. That’s true to a point, because you will get traffic, but those people won’t care about your site, and they won’t be looking to buy.

If you were to instead go after a keyword like “buy Honda civic Los Angeles” it’s much more specific, and the traffic you get from that keyword will be much more interested in your cars for sale…assuming of course you are selling Honda Civics. Now the amount of traffic you get from these types of “Buyer Keywords” will usually be drastically lower than a more general term, but the conversion rate exponentially increases the more specific you get.

Bottom Line: make sure your SEO guy knows this, and make sure he does the research to get you the best keywords for your business, and not the easiest ones for him to rank.

#3 – What exactly will you be optimizing on my site?

There’s no short answer to this one, because if your site has never been optimized, there’s a LOT of stuff to work on.

Generally, you should listen for the following components of your site as an answer:

• Page Name
• Titles
• Headings (H1 – H7)
• Bold words
• Keyword density of the text content
• Internal link infrastructure

That about covers most of SEO. There are a few odds and ends here and there, but if he understands how to do that stuff, you’re in good shape.

#4 – Will you be providing backlinks?

Backlinks are CRITICAL to SEO. In my estimation, all of the optimization above is only about 40% of your ranking. The other %60 is the correct number and quality of backlinks…or pretty much just have more then you r competitors do.

It’s not all about quantity though. The quality of backlinks is a HUGE DEAL in SEO…One high PageRank, un-spammed, quality link can equal hundreds or in some case thousands of no-name random site backlinks.

It can get a bit complicated because the term “SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization” really only refers to optimizing your site for the search engines. In recent years, “SEO” has taken on a different meaning. The generally accepted definition these days is ”The process of getting a website to the first page Google.” Your SEO guy needs to know this and be on the same page with you… and backlinks definitely need to be part of the deal.

#5 – Where will these backlinks come from, and how will you get them?

As I mentioned above, the quality of backlinks is much more important than quantity. Your SEO guys needs to be able to explain where and how he can get the backlinks in somewhat of a detailed explanation. In short, the backlinks should come from a variety of sources, and I’ve listed some of the accepted answers below.

• Article Directory Submissions
• Directories
• Blog Comments
• Social Bookmarking sites
• Link exchanges (somewhat outdated, but still acceptable)

Don’t be so in shock if your SEO guy throws out a number like 5,000, or 10,000 backlinks, as most of them are probably not worth anything at all. Don’t fall prey to the gimmick.

#6 – Do you use any sort of spam or Comment Automation Tool?

This is a very critical question, because if your SEO guy does less than ethical work, you need to know about it before it damages your site or your reputation.

There are tools that exist in the world that do nothing but go out online, find someone’s blog, and attack that blog with a generated comment and your link. And it does so over every page of their site, over and over, and then it moves on to the next site. These tools can also do the same thing with forums and message boards, and spam your links on new profiles and posts.

This is really equivalent to paying some teenagers to go graffiti your business name all over the city on any wall they can find to get your name out there. It is damaging others property and should never be done under any circumstances.

Aside from the ethical dilemma you have here, these links can get you in trouble with Google if they find less than reputable sites themselves, or if the same link pattern shows up over and over again. Some have reported that Google will even “Sandbox” your site, or basically remove it from the Google ranking completely.

#7 – How will what you are doing benefit me or my business in the future?

This is one of those questions that need to be asked no matter what. See, there are far too many people in the industry that understand SEO, but they don’t understand marketing. In other words, you pay them, they’ll do some optimization, but they don’t understand that the goal of all of this is to help you make more money, and frankly, they don’t really care.

You need someone that understands long term strategy and thinks about the return on investment. The work they do for you should be to get your more leads or sales, not to just optimize your site.

Unfortunately, many don’t understand this concept, and the typical response will be “It will get you more traffic.” – And that’s not what you want. Traffic by itself is useless. It needs to be targeted and converting traffic.

That’s it!

Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the section below. If you have a particular dilemma or there is something I can help clear up for you, I’d be happy to help. =)

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