Here are some things to consider when you are looking to hire an SEO company for your business.

1. Guaranteeing results
Stop right there. If a company is guaranteeing you number one positions in Google then remember that there are no SEO companies affiliated with Google and no one can guarantee results. Being fairly certain that you can get a site to a number one position for a keyword is something else. By conducting research on the competitiveness of a keyword it is possible for a good SEO company to give estimates of whether a top five position in Google will be possible or whether it is an unachievable goal.

There is no such thing as guaranteed SEO but educated estimates can be provided. Ask your prospective SEO company how they decided that it would be possible or not to competitively rank for a keyword and how they arrived at a particular timescale. Your SEO company should be able to explain how they came to their decision.

2. Cost
Arriving at an SEO price should involve some discussion with the client and some research. You may be tempted to buy one of those £99 SEO packages from your hosting company. I wouldn’t bother. Instead of not ranking for anything in one search engine you will be not ranking for anything in 100 search engines.

SEO is not a cookie cutter service. You can’t just apply a formula and be ranking in a couple of months for all of your desired keywords. You need an SEO company that will assess your requirements, research the market and give an estimate of how much work it is going to take to get you where you need to be. Once there is a clear understanding of the work required it will be far easier to estimate the time and resources that need to be allocated and therefore how much it will cost.

Don’t go for a one size fits all SEO campaign and ask for clarification on how your company has arrived at an SEO price.

3. Previous work and customer testimonials
If you are looking to employ an SEO company it is fair to expect information about previous campaign successes and testimonials from satisfied customers. This should be easy for a successful company to provide you with. Don’t settle for ranking improvement stats. Ask for proof of traffic as well as sales and enquiry improvements. Remember that there are lots of ways that you could end up with bad SEO including over ambitious goals, lack of SEO company experience in your market or an unclear strategy.