Chosing a SEO company & others [noob]

OK i am basically a noob in SEO; well i know all the terms etc but never had time to or where to start putting things like link building, article publishing, etc into practice. so all we really use is plain old fashioned content for our site

What i am looking to know is..

1) we are considering hiring a SEO consultancy to do the stuff we dont have time and/or knowledge to do to boost our rankings

a) how do we know we are selecting a decent company is there any questions we should be asking (apart from the obvious show examples, but how do we know that the exampes are actually from that SEO company and not just random selections( yeah i know could simply call site owner lol but is there an easy way))?

b) how can we find out which SEO company our competitors are using?

c) how do i tell that a SEO company is only using white hat methods?

Just google "SEO company" or whatever term you feel and see which site is ranked No 1. If that site is still there after all those penguin and panda updates then they are the best in their field. Simple as it sounds

b) you cant find that out unless your competitor tells u that

c) Just ask what they will be doing on your site. Maybe a strategy. If they dont tell then you can just go to ahrefs.com and see what links are being built to your site. But to be honest none of the SEO companies do whitehat stuff. You should not worry unless you are seeing results. Anyways just research a bit or I would say just outsource to someone on BHW with good reviews

how do we know we are selecting a decent company is there any questions we should be asking

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A decent SEO provider will explain you everything, and he must have all the answers at the moment you ask them. If he say:"wait I'll be back with an answer during the day.." you know he is clueless

how can we find out which SEO company our competitors are using?

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You never wanna use your competitors SEO company

how do i tell that a SEO company is only using white hat methods?

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You gotta know the difference between so called white and black hat. Since you don't know this you should ask them for some prices. For example, ask them where do they plan to place your links. If they mention 500 directories, worthless article farms, thousands of irelevant links for $50-That's black SEO. If they say:" hey, we will contact high quality blogs to place articles with your links, we will do in-depth research of your targeted keywords and your competition, we will do on-page seo (this is doing SEO audit of your site, after this making improvements...), we will spy on your competitions (finding out the competitors strenght, how many of real competitors are ot there, what keywords they are targeting, what should you target...etc) we will give you some good WEB 2.0 profile backlinks (but not too much), we will give you some great blog comments (manualy, not automated) in your niche with do-follow links, and so on and so on..That's White hat SEO

Let me know if you have any questions

SkyrocketSEO said:

You never wanna use your competitors SEO company

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that why i asked if an easy way to tell as thiose with loose ethics will not tell.

that why i asked if an easy way to tell as thiose with loose ethics will not tell.

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I am not gonna say that there is no way to find this out but I am not aware of any method. If someone know please share.

It's hard to tell without lots of research. You can ask them to show you some of their other clients, examine their rankings and then examine their link profiles. But really you have to go on either gut feel or recommendations. Telling the difference between white and black hat tactics is pretty tough.

Any SEO firm you are hiring should be willing to tell you what tactics they are using if they are white hat. White hat is mostly about good writing and hard work, so there is no reason to hide what you are doing or how you are doing it.

I would be happy to give you some recommendations but it somewhat depends what you are looking for.
One of my favorite smaller boutique agencies is Brandfish Online Marketing

Ask for reviews and proof...

And don't be surprise if you have to pay $1, 000 monthly for quality SEO...

abit left field but im looking to get experience in SEO.
Originally a web developer but looking to move into SEO.

Im finding it more rewarding then building sites.

If you want il work with ye to help you get ranked higher. Il only be using whitehat methods as well.

First off will be a complete site audit and then any changes that need to be made and then we can go from there.

Im willing to do this for mimimal payment as the experience is more valuable.

Im committed to providing clients with a quality and credible service so building a relationship is key for me.

PM me if your interested.

Thanks

finding a legit provider can take a loooong while

For me, I would say look for someone who knows what they are doing and how to take care of your site. Hire someone who will really deliver results and not just sugar coated words that they have used a million times.
I have a newly built SEO site which would be my own company. I decided to start my own business as I know I can do more than being an employee for a big SEO Firm.


I am saying these things because I can offer our services to you but we do not have much presence yet in the space of Google as we are just starting. My point is, sometimes some people who are really good in what they are doing doesn't have much fame in the industry. But atleast they know how to do the job.




Knowing if the method is white hat or black is easy. You can easily identify the method used by checking the links given to you in the report or you can have a comparison of your site before and after you have hired someone.




To sum it up, I don't know if you will agree with my opinion but one thing is for sure, You need to find someone who knows and love what they do.


Thanks! Good luck to you




- Please respect my post -

I have a whitelabel I want to promote, with white hat services (since it's a whitelabel). Is it possible to do SEO on a whitelabel without the access to the backend and still use honest tactics? I am thinking we will have to make a new front page with hidden links or whatever to get any kind of ranking. FYI I have an adult live cam streaming site, so finding SEO in the first place is hard.

Any idea what a decent but not overpriced SEO would / should cost per month?

Thanks

Well, here are a few questions you can ask from your contractor/company.


What is the most likely time period required for getting a Google page rank?
What is an estimated time frame before you see a considerable improvement?
Is there any difference between these 2 keywords "pens and pencils" or "pens pencils". (Remember, this one is quite technical and people get confuse usually)
What are the actions that can get you banned from Google? then ask do you use any of them? if not then ask what methods do they use?
You can also ask about Google Penguin and what are their post-penguin linking strategies?
How good their strategy making and implementation is?
Are they familiar with any online SEO tools? What blogs do they read to keep themselves updated etc?


You can also check out their twitter, facebook or linkedin profiles and see what people are saying about them.


Usually it is mentioned in the footer or somewhere on a competitor's website but you can search for these terms on Google "seo site:competitor URL" or similar queries. This may help you to find out your competitors SEO company. But i wouldn't suggest you to use your competitor's seo company and i hope you know what i mean by that!


You'll have to study their linking patterns and strategies. You'll realize either they are using white hat or not. If you aren't that good then you can seek for experts advice as well or just PM me.


But remember quality SEO companies don't come in cheap


Hope this helps and in case of any assistance you can drop me a PM.

Google themselves give lots of good tips for hiring an SEO company, giving you a list of questions you could ask.
Sorry I can't post links yet, do a search for........ google tips for hiring seo company

Your questions they are not easy to find out the best answer. I think it is not necessary as you think, will be important that that how high result that company will bring to you.

I would suggest hiring consultant rather than a SEO company if you dont know what you do.
Ask consultant to pick best budget SEO/Fiverr services out there.
If he knows his shit you will rank first page pretty fast with minimal budget required.