Gone are the days when hiring an SEO consultant or professional was a breeze. There was a time when companies hired an SEO specialist who knew link building was all about publishing many articles on websites to submit, listing your business in directories, and running multiple blogs per page.
Then there were GOOGLE UPDATES – Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Above the Fold, and others. You need the right expert for the job. Getting the right SEO professional might be somewhat difficult, but with the right questions, you can land the best. Here are questions to ask before hiring one.
Can you provide me with profiles of your recent successful projects or clients?
If the SEO consultant you consider hiring is reputable and trustworthy, they will be happy to share their list of past projects and clients. Instead, he will be proud to share some of his outstanding accomplishments while working for these clients. This will help you understand his reputation and validate his performance in various SEO campaigns.
Are you sure you will follow the webmaster guidelines given by search engines when you browse my site?
You need to hire a consultant who adheres to the webmaster best practices set by Google, which prohibits certain SEO tricks, including spam content, unnatural and hidden text links. If this guy doesn’t stick to all of these rules, the biggest loss will be for you. Google prohibits sites that are genuinely non-compliant with SEO ethics. It’s the same with other search engines like Yahoo and Bing.
How will you improve my site’s search engine rankings?
Regardless of how well you know about these practices, a confident and strong question will help you test his confidence in what he is planning for you. He should be able to explain each strategy when you ask him. Ask him about the estimated duration of your site’s rank improvement. Choose a realistic, albeit tentative, time frame to reach your traffic or rankings goals that suit your type of business.
Ask about the on-page and off-page techniques he is going to use to boost your rankings. Ask how he will spread the word about your business.
Will I receive a report on the changes you have made to my site?
The SEO for your website needs some major changes. This can be in the coding, design, and content of your site. It is very important to know exactly what changes happen to your site from time to time and what the benefits of this will be in the ranking.
Ask him to send the reports by mail so that if you are not well versed in a particular change, you can ask someone else you know to check them. Also, some changes may require your permission.
At the same time, you must ensure that these changes include a quantifiable cost, or you will have to pay extra for any coding, design, or content changes.