If you’re looking for a good SEO consultant, there are endless characteristics that you need to be looking for depending on your business and what your goals are. Rather than sit here and bore you with a laundry list of an attempt at manipulating you to choose me, I have 5 things you should look out for.
- NO guarantees — If ANY SEO consultant guarantees a specific ranking, they either have no idea how search engines work or are using illegal “black hat” methods. Perhaps if you’re in a mood to humor them and want to see how full of bologna they are, you can ask them “How competitive are the keywords that you will rank my site for?“, “How quickly can you get my site ranked for this keyword?“, and “How long will these results last?“
- NO package deals — Don’t let them tell you what they have, tell them what you need. A good SEO consultant knows that each website is different and that a broad “SEO Package” will not get the job done right because the meaning of “conversion” will vary per business. The idea of a “package” option implies that the consultant/agency has a system of processes. Would you rather pay a consultant who is good at following a procedure or somebody who can understand your business and apply the fundamentals of SEO?
- NO pitches — An SEO expert has a particular set of powerful skills and if they aren’t running and promoting a handful of their own websites, one may question whether or not they have the confidence or knowledge for that matter to successfully perform SEO. With that said, be very careful of those SEO consultants sending a generic pitch to a smorgasbord of companies hoping to bait at least one.
- NO stingy teachers — To say the least, a smart SEO consultant knows that his job is much easier the more his client knows about SEO. If you ask your consultant about a specific topic and he gives you a sub-optimal answer, chances are likely that they don’t know the answer themselves or are using “black hat”. If they can’t answer your questions, you can’t afford to pay them for whatever they claim to do for you.
- NO contracts — A minimum contract implies a “package” of some sort. Typically, these packages will keep rankings valid until the contract is over. Whether you hire somebody for a few months or a few years, you should always know what they’re doing and that their work will provide lasting results. Although roughly 6 months is required as a minimum in order to see results, a consultant who tries to bind you into a contract seems to be a bit insecure in their abilities.
Remember, take these 5 points with a grain of salt. These are purely the opinions of somebody who has been in the industry long enough to sniff out the scam artists. Hope this helps guys!
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Maximus says: Got a question about SEO consulting? If you have a few minutes, let's chat!
