Search Engine Optimization is a well-planned and intelligent technique of making a website to be search engine friendly or, in other words, to get the website indexed on search engines to allow the search engines to rank the website. The consultants dealing with Search Engine Optimization are often called Search Engine Optimizer (SEO). Many businesses or website owners are willing to spend a good amount of money on search engine optimization, and will hire Search Engine Optimizers. As it is a widely spread range of service, it’s best to make a list of "Do’s and Don’ts" in hiring a Search Engine Optimizer. The possibility exists of spoiling or damaging the websites, if one is not aware of "Don’ts" in hiring a Search Engine Optimizer. In this Factoid, I will discuss the general as well as specific "Do’s and Don’ts" to be considered during the hiring of a Search Engine Optimizer.
Do’s in Hiring a Search Engine Optimizer:
- Ask for past examples of the SEO’s previous work or any successful case studies they can share with you, along with any references. Get to know about their total experience in search engine optimization consulting.
- Ask which search engine’s webmaster guidelines this SEO follows while optimizing their client’s websites.
- Ask if the SEO offers any kind of services or advisory consulting pertaining to online marketing.
- Ask about the timeframe and key measuring techniques expected to see the results achieved through hiring the SEO.
- Get to know how proficient and expert this SEO is in local search engine optimization.
- Ask if there any way that you can easily check on the changes made by them on a periodic basis.
Don’ts in Hiring a Search Engine Optimizer:
- Do not believe an SEO candidate who offers any kind of guarantee that your website will be ranked as #1 on Bing or Google or Yahoo, or on any other major search engine.
- Do not fall prey to SEO’s that can not distinguish between or who claim that sponsored or free ads are equal to or even better than search results.
- Do not hire the SEO if they own any shadow or related type of domains
- Do not allow the SEO to put your website links on any of their other clients’ website opening or other pages
- Do not rely on the SEO’s that offer to sell various keywords or keyword combinations in the address bars or in any other context.
- Don’t believe an SEO who claims that when any web user searches on a specific search engine for keyword phrases or sentences, that your website will be prompted in the first two or three search results. Understand that if you use any unique phrases, absolutely your website will be prompted at the top of search results when searched with that long phrase on a search engine.
- Do not consider an SEO candidate if they assure in any way of search ranking on fake search engines.
- Do not rely on or fall prey to the SEOs that request root access to your server or ftp access information.
