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How To Choose A Good Seo Consultant
But how do you choose a reputable SEO consultant who will be able to achieve the results they promise? The SEO industry is still in it's infancy and there's no regulators or trade bodies who are qualified to give accreditation's to qualified providers. Below I'll share some advice for things to look out fir when selecting a consultant. Experience Ask about the consultants experience working on campaigns for other sites. Look at what other work they've done in your sector to get an idea of whether they understand your products and services as well as the challenges you face as a business. Don't just settle for an impressive looking client list- quiz them on exactly what role they filled for that client. Making the tea at the BBC doesn't quality them as a professional SEO! Results Look at where the consultants clients rank for their most important keywords in Google search results. While it's unrealistic to expect first place rankings for all keywords where the SEO consultants been working on the project for a while (6 months +) you should expect to see some decent positions for some high value keywords. Also look at how well deeper pages in the website rank. Some SEO's are very good at optimising for a small number of keywords but ignore the 'long tail' keywords (those which may typically be made up of 4 words or more) which often drive the bulk of a websites traffic. Testimonials and references Both experience and results should be contextualized against references from past or existing clients. Maybe the SEO consultant is working with a great brand and the results appear good but upon talking to the client you'll find out that the experience of working with the SEO was bad, or most of the results where achieved by a previous agency, before the consultant got involved with the project. Professional reputation Although SEO is unregulated it does have a very active professional community. As well as seeking references from a consultants clients you might want to investigate their professional credibility among their peers. Look at whether the consultant writes their own blog or has published articles on other credible websites. What forums and communities are they a member of? Have they attended or spoken at any SEO conferences? How do they keep their SEO knowledge relevant and up to date? Take any information here with a pinch of salt and don't assume if a consultant isn't well known in the SEO community they aren't any good. Some of the best SEO's keep the lowest profiles while some of the most high profile spokespeople for SEO spend so much time writing and talking about the industry they no longer possess the practical skills required to run a successful campaign for a client. Professional memberships With SEO being so unregulated most professional credentials are useless when trying to establish an SEO consultants suitability. Most organisations which claim to be impartial arbitrators are little more than directories which SEO's pay for the privilege of being included in. Far more valuable are any accreditation's which prove the SEO has some sort of professional standing within your sector. Websites The websites of many SEO consultants are surprisingly poor while most SEO agencies have flash looking designs with hyperbolic sales copy. Don't buy too much into a website- the best consultants are often in high demand and too busy to spend time working on their own sites. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com John McElborough is a freelance SEO consultant from Brighton in the UK. Before you start thinking about hiring an expert you might want to read this article to start learning the basics of SEO. |
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