Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO click for more short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when individuals search for products and services rather than simply company names. The idea is the fact that people looking for things online will be able to locate a business website without the prior understanding of the business or its name. You can find all manner of tricks and also techniques which fall under SEO, though the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called “white hat SEO”) are based around the idea of making your site easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.

It’s not uncommon to determine to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but there are actually far too many dodgy types available who like to take companies seeking SEO – especially local and smaller companies – for a very expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding the best, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?

It really is actually incredibly easy to locate a reliable SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in “SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid ads at the very best, whichever firm has landed at the very best of the search results are what you want – they must be great at SEO or their own website wouldn’t be so high within the natural listings!

To narrow things down a bit, you may try extending your search. Say you reside in Essex and want a local agency – just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or if perhaps your web page is specialised and you want particular help with it you may add your industry or site type – “SEO tourism” or “SEO eCommerce” for example. This may be a great way to discover niche SEO agencies who have specialist knowledge in your field.

Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try and solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it’s best to ignore it – if a company which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they are not very good. The same is true of SEO services advertised on paid ads at the very best of search engines or on banner ads on other websites. If their search marketing is any good, why are they having to pay for their placements?

Something else to bear in mind is to steer well clear of any SEO agency that promises you “top position for x keywords” or something similar. Virtually all modern search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everybody sees web sites in slightly different ranking positions depending on their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this kind of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO shall utilize sustainable “white hat” techniques to be able to bring useful traffic to your webpage, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, that can constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google’s infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.

Once you have found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you are going to need to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. As well as the common checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a good idea to speak to someone directly on the telephone or even in person.