April 8th, 2011 by Avvo Admin

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One question I and the rest of the Avvo marketing team often get is, “How do I pick a good SEO/PPC consultant?” Or, more specifically, “What sort of questions would you ask if you were interviewing an SEO/PPC consultant and what kind of answers would you look for?”

Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) continue to pervade online marketing, so this pops up a lot. I thought I’d dedicate a couple of blog posts to my thoughts on the matter, starting with SEO, and then following up later with a PPC version.  So, let’s jump right into 10 questions I would ask a prospective SEO consultant if I were hiring one tomorrow:

1)    Do you actually perform the SEO work yourself?

Before getting into a detailed discussion, it’s important to know exactly with whom you’re talking. Some SEO firms are small enough that when you interview them, you’ll speak with the person who does the SEO work. Other SEO firms have dedicated salesmen and account managers who operate as the face of the company, and you’ll rarely, if ever, get to speak with the person actually doing the SEO work.

I’m not going to say that one is necessarily better than the other, because certainly there are great search engine optimizers (SEOs) who have delegated sales and account management duties so they can concentrate on SEO. However, I personally would rather speak with the person doing the work.  The reason is that while some salesmen are very knowledgeable of the nuts and bolts of their firms’ SEO practices, many are not, and I’d want to be sure what I’m hearing is accurate.

2)    Have you ever done SEO under any other business names?

Bad SEO companies operate on a “churn and burn” business model.  In the age of the Internet, when bad reputations get around, this often prompts SEO firms to change their names to prevent new clients from finding out about their trail of dissatisfied former clients.  So find out if the company you’re talking to is just the latest incarnation of another failed company.

3)    How long have you been doing SEO professionally?

Here you’re trying to avoid someone who just learned about SEO yesterday.  The reason the “professionally” qualifier is there is to distinguish between the professionals and the tinkerers.   As with any kind of a professional, years of experience aren’t necessary or sufficient to guarantee a high level of skill, but they do lessen the risk of hiring a total amateur.

4)    How do you build links?

One way to think of SEO is to divide it into two parts: on-page SEO, which is all of the things you can do directly to your website; and off-page SEO, which is mostly building links to your website.

In my opinion, it’s much harder to do link building well than it is to do on-page SEO well (at least for small websites), and both are key parts of successful SEO.  This is, after all, why Google chose to make links such a large part of its ranking algorithm: because it’s difficult to convince other websites to link to you (especially if they’re reputable, established websites), while it’s relatively easy to manipulate your own website code.

So what sort of answers would I look for in how an SEO builds links?  Well, since there a million different ways to build links, and the most creative ways are sometimes the best,  I don’t have a standard check list.  Rather, I’m looking for creative methods that:

• Create and market useful, unique content to people likely to link to my website.
• Attract links from people who genuinely find my website useful and want to spread the word.

You’ll find most link building methods that are either ineffective or risky don’t meet the above criteria.

5)    How do you report links to clients?

It’s essential that an SEO firm regularly report to you exactly how they are building links to your website.  Bad SEO firms either don’t report this at all or give vague reports that don’t allow you to judge the quality of links they build.  Apart from SEO, bad link building methods could be a liability to your reputation.

Another thing to watch out for are SEO agencies that are great at researching lists of websites they’d like to get you links from, but are horrible at actually acquiring those links.  So, while identifying link targets is important, watch out for copious reports that only amount to link wish lists that never become reality.

6)    What results can I expect in what rough time frame?

There are two facts about SEO you need to be aware of:

• Results are never certain.
• Goals can take months or years to accomplish.

The problem with these two facts is that if you’re sophisticated enough realize them, you are also ripe for exploitation.  Bad SEO agencies will take advantage of the fact that SEO can take a long time to string clients along for months or years, delivering no results, until the client finally realizes he’s being taken for a ride. This is the M.O. of churn-and-burn SEO agencies.

The key to finding the sweet spot between being a sucker who gets strung along and a nightmare client who unreasonably demands immediate results is to realize that although SEO can progress slowly, it should progress.  In other words, while you may not get all of your SEO wishes tomorrow, you should be seeing improved search engine visibility in a matter of months, not years.

A good SEO consultant should be comfortable going over with you a set of goals that allow you to hold the SEO accountable, while at the same time not promising you “#1 results in 30 days, guaranteed.”

7)    How will I know your SEO work is actually producing more business for me?

It’s important to keep in mind that SEO is ultimately about driving more business through the door.  It’s not necessarily about keyword rankings, if those keywords don’t result in more business.  So you want to make sure you get two different kinds of reports:

• Traffic reports that show organic traffic growth.  You should be able to see sample reports that show where traffic is coming from and where it’s going.
• Conversion reports that show the organic traffic is doing something that indicates it’s resulting in prospective clients (e.g., calling you or emailing you).

Traffic reports are fairly simple.  Conversion reports can get a bit more complicated, but this is one place where good SEOs are separated from great SEOs. For example, it’s actually possible now to use call tracking so that you know, every time the phone rings, not only if the phone call originated from your website, but which keyword sent that person to your website.  While call tracking specifically may not be a good fit for every situation, having some way of tracking (or estimating) how many people are actually turning into clients is essential for measuring ROI.

8)    What sort of things do you do for local SEO that you don’t do for national SEO?

Local SEO in Google is a unique animal, and not all SEOs understand the nuances.  If you’re a professional targeting a local market, local SEO is probably more important to you than national SEO.  So local SEO knowledge is essential.  But how can you tell if the SEO knows local SEO?

Luckily, an SEO consultant out of Portland named David Mihm hosts a survey that ranks local SEO factors.  Familiarize yourself with the top 5-10 items here and see if the consultant you’re interviewing understands them. You don’t need to become an expert on these things yourself, but if you study these things for half an hour and wind up knowing more than your prospective SEO consultant, it’s time to look elsewhere.

9)    What is the minimum contract term?

Because SEO can take months to see results, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for an SEO firm to require minimum contracts.  However, I would prefer a contract that allowed me to get out after 3-6 months vs. a year or more.  The reason is twofold:

• If the SEO isn’t doing what he promised or is difficult to work with, I don’t need to wait a year for results to know I’m getting rid of him.
• Even if my ultimate goals aren’t achieved for years, I should see some results after 3-6 months and I would strongly consider getting rid of an SEO agency that showed none whatsoever.

That said, I won’t categorically say you should avoid SEO agencies with longer contract terms.  The reality of the market is that the best SEO agencies have the luxury of dictating whatever contract terms they want, and if you trust them, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  However, all else equal, the more flexible the contract, the better.

10)    What exactly do I get for my money?

What you want to avoid are vague expectations like “For $10,000/month you will get Deluxe SEO.” What does that really mean, after all? You don’t “do SEO.”  SEO consists of discrete activities like content production, Web design, keyword research, link building, etc., and you should know exactly which activities you’re paying for.

You should get monthly reports that show exactly what the SEO agency is doing.  If you don’t, you’re inviting them to sit around and do nothing while cashing your checks.  Ask to see a sample report.

Educate yourself

Before wrapping this up, let me give a last bit of advice — educate yourself about SEO and online marketing in general.

Obviously the reason you’re hiring someone is because you don’t have the time to become an expert yourself, but that’s no excuse to be completely in the dark.  Just as having a basic understanding of how your car works allows you to pick a better mechanic, having a basic understanding of SEO allows you to pick a better SEO consultant.  Better yet, you’ll also gain an appreciation for SEO’s role in a holistic online marketing plan and quash unrealistic notions of what SEO can and can’t accomplish.

With only a small investment in time, you can gain a basic understanding of SEO by using free resources like these:

• SEOmoz ranking factors (great summary of all SEO ranking factors and their relative importance)
• SEOroundtable (great for daily SEO industry updates)
• Alltop SEO (an aggregator of top SEO-related blog posts)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 5:01 pm by Avvo Admin and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.