How to Choose the Best SEO Firm for Your Business

A great search engine specialist is hard to find, but the right one can seriously improve your page rank - and your bottom line.

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Once upon a time, in the early days of Internet, before sites like AltaVista and Dogpile gave way to the almighty Google, getting a top page rank on a search engine was as easy as repeating a keyword over and over again on a webpage.

Well, the Internet's search engines are a whole lot smarter now. So are their scammers. Google's PageRank system is their way of determining which websites are the most applicable and useful for every search term. An SEO specialist's task is to make a page as applicable and useful as possible, thereby improving its rank. As service providers, many SEO firms will offer you the stars and the moon when it comes to SEO, but few will be able to deliver the sustainable change they promise. So when you're choosing an SEO firm, you'll have to weed through a lot of empty promises to find a trustworthy specialist.

Noah Lehmann-Haupt, president and founder of the New York-based Gotham Dream Cars, is a self-taught search engine optimization expert. It's not that he had a tremendous amount of interest in SEO, he just never felt he could trust anyone else with his website.

"Being an SEO firm is kind of like being a graphic designer. It doesn't take much to call yourself a graphic designer; anyone buys a copy of Photoshop and suddenly they're a graphic designer," he says. "It's hard to separate who is really an SEO firm and who's going to be a black hat spammer."

We've mapped out what you should and shouldn't look for in an SEO firm to help you get the biggest return on investment from your improved Google rank.


Choosing an SEO Firm: Starting Your Search

Wouldn't it be great if you could just Google "SEO firm" and choose one of the first ten firms that comes up? They practice what they preach, so they must be good right? Yes, good and pricey. "Some of the largest SEO firms have $50,000 a month minimums," says Elisabeth Osmeloski, the Salt Lake City-based managing editor of Search Engine Land. The fact is, your small business probably doesn't need the mighty force of a top SEO firm. You just need the firm that will work the hardest for you at a reasonable price.

There are a few places you can start for recommendations. Ask other business owners you trust and work with. Ask vendors you discovered through a Google search – after all, you found them, didn't you? Check SEO groups and online forums like Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, High Rankings and Search Engine Guide.

'They'll recommend the freelance people who have smaller minimums,' Osmeloski says.

Steer clear of any SEO firms that bombard you with phone calls and emails or who promise you a No. 1 Google ranking. These people are likely just offering you a paid spot in a Google ad, which is not the same as a top ranking in an organic search engine.

Lehmann-Haupt also warns against firms that claim to have 'proprietary methods' of optimization. 'That probably means they have unscrupulous methods,' he says. "There is no special sauce, and there's no secret method.'

It's important to protect yourself against people who might just be spammers because, Lehmann-Haupt says, "Google is run by a bunch of extremely smart guys, who spend their entire lives being smarter and more adept at defeating cheaters." The last thing you want is to get kicked off of Google's index.

Another substantial consideration is whether or not you'd like your firm to be local so you can have face-to-face conversations and meetings. Lehmann-Haupt says, "I would start the search by Googling 'New York SEO firms' and looking for online reviews."

While you don't have to limit yourself to SEO firms in your area, it's almost a necessity to find an SEO firm that is comfortable working with small to medium businesses and has experience working in your niche.

"I only work in the travel industry when I consult companies, because I have a fair amount of travel background and understand the business problems facing their marketing," Osmeloski says. "There are a lot of SEO firms who have a history with different verticals, whether it's retail or local plumbers."

To find out about their past experiences, of course, you'll have to explore their references and reviews, which we'll explain below.

Dig Deeper: 5 Secrets to Selecting Highly-Effective Keywords

Choosing an SEO Firm: Budget and Fees

The first thing you need to take into consideration before you even look at fees is how much you can actually afford to pay. Fees will vary across the board, so it's important for you to have a figure in mind and find a reliable SEO firm or consultant who can work on your budget.

"There are some SEO consultants who are just starting out, who might only charge $50 to $100 an hour or charge a flat rate per month," Osmeloski says, adding that opting for a freelance SEO specialist is often the more "cost-effective" route than signing with an agency.

The firms may ask you to pay by the webpage, by the hour, by the project, or ask for a pre-determined amount of money to cover the cost of their work for the month.

Some may even charge a percentage of the revenue you earn as a result of their work. Osmeloski says this is one of the most reliable means of payment. If the firm has a stake in your success, she says, "you can have some confidence that the SEO firm is going to work as hard as they can for you, versus collecting a flat fee every month and not necessarily putting their most creative foot forward."

Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so ask the firm or consultant how much it will cost to maintain the site once the major changes have been made.

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Issie Lapowsky is a reporter at Inc. magazine. She has covered lifestyle and entertainment for the New York Daily News, and her work has been published in BlackBook magazine and The Brooklyn Rail. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.