A company that 'guarantees you will be the #1 result within 2 weeks or 1 month' is lying to you and themselves. Although it is certainly possible to push you higher in the organic rankings in a reasonable amount of time, SEO in the end is the process of utilizing a multitude of strategies to make a website favorable to Google's ranking algorthim. This means that nothing is completely a guarantee and is at the whim of Google.

With that being said, an outsourced SEO company CAN guarantee that they will implement tried and true optimization practices to ensure that your site has the best chance of getting high ranking. This equals proper keyword research, page implementation (titles, h1, copy, alt tags, etc.), content creation, link creation and a number of other processes.

Instead of looking for a company that has "WE WILL MAKE YOU #1' all over their website make sure to see that they are transparent with what they are doing to potentially make you #1. Do they have a complete strategy? Does it include an initial 'SEO overhaul' as well as ongoing campaigns? Are they upfront with how they'll let you know they're actually doing something to help you out?

SEO is just like any industry where there are a lot of snake oil salesman hanging around. Look for companies that aren't full of 'yes-men' and will actually tell you what you need to hear to push your business's online presence to capacity. (Disclosure: I own one such SEO consulting business, http://www.InsightForge.com )

Brent Chaters

Owner, Gab Monkey

Posted on July 25, 2011

Recommended by:
Lisa Unfried

Like any agency selection ensure you do the following:
1) review multiple agencies
2) ask for examples of work, as well as contacts for each job
3) call those contacts and ask lots of questions
4) ask for a general over view of how this agency can/would help you
5) Unfortunately as Michael says "Google Certified" doesn't really mean much, and usually only applies to paid search.
6) Any company that promises a number one ranking, you should walk away from right away.
7) look for a company that is not selling you on the idea of more traffic but on how to get traffic that will deliver to your bottom line.
8) know what your websites objective is (how do you monetize it?) I know this seems like common sense but many people don't know how they plan on generating revenue, knowing where your site fits in these plans can help your search strategy.

Michael De Angelis

Director of Operations, Card Processing Services

Posted on May 2, 2011

Start Early! I just wasted 2 months jumping from one consultant to the next until finding the right one.

Do a search for local consultants. This should be quick since you only want to meet with companies that are on the first results page anyway. Make sure possible candidates are Google Certified and examine their portfolio of clients. If they don't have any clients you recognise, don't bother with them. There are a lot of phony's out there who understand how SEO works and can talk the talk, but cannot/will not spend the time, research and brainpower that is required for a successful SEO strategy. The company I ended up with produces content like press releases, blog entries, articles and even video from an in-house production studio should I need it. They also have a department which deals with all social media oulets, maintaining and updating our pages for us.

Meet with at least 4 or 5 companies and go through your project expectations with them. Be sure to meet at their offices, as many of these so called SEO specialists don't even have an office.

Choose the company you feel most comfortable with.

Alex Grechanowski

Editor-in-Chief , Marketing Sutra

Posted on July 15, 2011

Tricia,

SEO means different things to different people. The better you know what exactly you'd like to outsource and the deliverabilities, the more chances you find the right person / company to do it.

I'm attaching a link to an interesting video explaining what the new SEO is all about: http://www.marketingsutra.com/blog/pandalized-new-seo/