The Layman’s Guide to How to choose an SEO

Search Engine Roundtable noticed that Google has updated its SEO advice. The Googler questions are okay but I don’t think they go far enough (and perhaps that is best, as I was concerned at first that Google may be showing too much initiative in the area of judging SEOs).

Over on the LED-Digest, Sandra Combs asked if an SEO consultant she is working with is worth the money her limited budget non-profit client is paying.

Without standards the SEO industry has no baseline upon which we can judge the quality of SEO firms and consultants. Without standards none of the certifications being offered are worth anything. Without standards, the search optimization customer has no way of knowing what is right and what is wrong.

I think there is indeed a legitimate groundswell of inquiry about how to select the right SEO (or at least a good SEO). And through the years many SEOs have written articles about how to choose a good SEO. They put these articles on their own sites and distribute them through free article distribution services. Naturally, they advise you to look for qualities they feel they possess. Being a hard-core self-promoter, I have always felt ambivalent about self-promotion.

You want to build a good relationship with your search engine optimization specialist. You need to know that your provider has integrity, knowledge, skill, and resources. Here is how I would evaluate an SEO were I looking to hire one.

SEO Integrity - Some people in the industry will do snarky things that get Web sites in trouble. You can search on companies like Internet Advancement and Traffic Power to get ideas of what kinds of snarky things you want to avoid. Here are some services good SEOs should provide. You are paying for the service, not the results.

1. Keyword research
2. Competitive analysis
3. On-page optimization recommendations
4. Relevant copy suggestions
5. Link placement

No SEO can guarantee you top placement for queries that people actually search on. However, many SEOs can probably get you there. Some may be able to do it in a couple of months. Some may be able to do it in a couple of years. There are many, many possible reasons for why one query takes longer to top out than another.

No good SEO should ever suggest any of the following:

1. Trademark infringement - misusing other people’s trademarks to obtain high rankings in search results
2. Deceptive content - creating pages that pretend to be one thing to the search engines but which do something else for searchers
3. Dropping links on blogs and forums - any SEO who tells you that good link building includes leaving comments on blogs and forums is a BAD SEO

A good SEO will respect other sites’ integrity, boundaries, and rules. They don’t just observe search engine guidelines, they observe forum and blog guidelines. If an SEO tells you he can obtain 10,000 links for you, ask for the list of domains where those links will be placed. If he doesn’t provide it to you, move on. If he DOES provide you with the list, you should look at them. If they look snarky, trust your instincts. You can also exercise editorial control and insist that your links only be placed on sites that don’t cause your stomach to turn.

A good SEO will report to you on a regular basis. Most SEOs will provide auto-generated ranking reports. Some people complain that this is a scam. It’s not a scam. A good SEO technician has to track your site’s performance over time. Ideally he’ll capture data on a weekly basis, but bi-weekly and monthly rankings captures will also work. You should expect these reports so you can track progress.

A good SEO should return your email and/or phone calls. They may not always be available when you try to reach them, but they should always be responsive. If you have to go through a customer service representative, that representative should be able to respond to your needs within 24-48 hours (3 days max for weekends, 4-5 days max for holiday weekends).

SEO Knowledge - Here’s the rub for people trying to pick a good SEO: You don’t know enough about search engine optimization to know who knows what they are talking about. Generally speaking, a lot of people in this industry discuss the same concepts with their own personal idiom. That will confuse you and to be honest it confuses all the SEOs, too.

A good SEO should be able to explain the following concepts to you in layman’s terms:

1. How keyword research works - Some keywords are easier to rank for because no one competes for them (because no one searches for them). An SEO’s job is to find keywords that are relevant to your content, that people search for, and for which the chances of achieving high rankings are good.
2. How on-page optimization works - Search engines are looking for signals of relevance. If an SEO doesn’t talk to you about title tags, ALT= text, using query expressions in natural language text, etc., ask yourself why they are not concerned with the content on your site.
3. How links are not the magic bullet - If an SEO tells you that all you need are links, run away. Run far away as fast as you can. If it could only be done through links, you’d never see anyone in this industry (including me) write about content. Optimizing through links is the least effective, least efficient, most costly way of doing SEO.
4. How links help - If an SEO talks about PageRank and Google algorithms, politely interrupt, excuse yourself, and leave (or throw him out of your office). Links help in several ways: they create visibility on other Web sites, they pass anchor text, they help search engines find your site and crawl it more often, and they help search engines decide to trust your site.
5. How search engines change - Google changed its service 450 times in 2007. Those many changes caused a lot of grief, a lot of happiness, a lot of frustration, and a lot of celebration. If search results tank for your best competitor, they may improve for you. If your search results tank, they may come back in a few days, a few weeks, or maybe never.

Truth be told, a lot of SEOs have many opinions on many topics. You really want to look for passion. If the guy is a “mechanic” just going through the motions, he’s not (in my opinion) the best choice for you. If he’s just reading SEO blogs and forums, buying SEO books, and taking SEO classes he may be a little green. Sometimes the new kid on the block is worth taking a chance on, but I’d only do it if he has a passion for the craft instead of dollar signs in his eyes.

Good SEOs will look at your site structure and content. They will look at how your internal links are arranged. They will point out that what works for external links also works for internal links. They will help you learn about accessibility, usability, and better Web design. They may advise you that your tacky (but beautiful in your eyes and heart) Web design is not really working in your best interests.

Unfortunately, bad SEOs will also look at your site structure and content, your internal links, and they may tell you that your design is not optimal.

Ask the SEO to show you several examples of successful Web sites that utilize the principles they advocate. Understand that there may be many reasons for why those sites are successful and the SEO’s suggestions may have value in other, less immediately obvious ways. Generally speaking, if you can see how an SEO’s suggestions make your site more user-friendly, they are probably good suggestions.

SEO Skill - SEO skill is not the same as SEO knowledge. If you know HTML yourself you can probably learn quickly if an SEO has any on-page optimization skill by discussing the pros and cons of your site’s technical structures. If you don’t know HTML you can still ask the SEO to walk you through the code and show you how to create a title tag, H1 header, etc.

More importantly, if an SEO starts talking about links, you can test his skill by asking him to do some basic link analysis in a search engine. If he has to have a tool installed in the browser he has no skill; he’s a mechanic. A good SEO can analyze search results and links with or without their favorite tools.

If they show you links, ask them to distinguish between external links and internal links, between links pointing to the home page (root URL) and links pointing to deeper pages on a site. If an SEO cannot easily do this, he has no skill. He’s too dependent upon software and tools to really understand how links work.

A good SEO should be able to show you a search results page and explain how it is laid out. They show you competitive queries versus uncompetitive queries. A good SEO should be able to explain to you how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. If he looks at an advertising-laden search results page and says it’s not competitive, be suspicious. If he looks at a search results page with no ads and says it IS competitive, be suspicious. Those are not absolute tests but they are good acid tests for people who don’t know much about search engine optimization.

Remember: The money follows the traffic. Any good SEO should be able to show you that the money follows the traffic.

SEO Resources - Search engine optimization specialists need resources. It’s okay if they use browser tools as long as they know enough to be able to work without the tools. But they need more than browser tools. Without being confrontational, ask your SEO these questions:

1. How many HTML code checking tools have you used in the past month?
2. How many link analysis tools have you used in the past month?
3. How many analytics tools have you used in the past month?
4. How many Web sites do you control, that you can leverage to help with my campaign?
5. Can you refer me to a Web designer/Web developer if I need one? Can you give me at least two names for each type of specialist?
6. If I need copy, do you have copywriters? Do you work with an outsource firm? Which one?
7. Do you only obtain links from social media sites like DIGG, StumbleUpon, Del.ic.io.us, etc.?

For most of those questions, there is no one right answer. As long as the SEO can honestly show you that he has been active in developing his resources, you should be okay.

However, if the SEO only obtains links from one kind of source, be concerned. Ask how much their campaigns depend on those links. Some SEOs just buy links. Some SEOs just drop links on blogs and forums. Some SEOs just use social media “sock puppets” and networks of social engineering SEOs to build links. All of these types of links entail some risk, and they may not continue to pass value (if they pass value at all).

That’s not to say you don’t want links from DIGG. Rather, if DIGG is the heart of the SEO’s strategy there’s something wrong. If they try to assure you that this is the way it’s done, run away. There is no one way to do this stuff. Any good SEO knows that and will acknowledge it.

It’s okay for an SEO to have a preferred methodology. Most SEOs do tend to provide service according to a pattern or set of guiding principles. You have to start somewhere and these methodologies give SEOs structure that helps them analyze tougher campaigns.

Other things you can ask SEOs to provide:

References. Someone who is just starting out in the industry may not have any references but he should be able to show you personal sites that he has ranked competitively. If he has a passion for the craft, he’s already doing it regardless of whether anyone is paying him. But an established SEO firm or consultant should have references. Check them.

An SEO Showcase. A Showcase consists of one or more sites that are ranking well in competitive queries. In a perfect world, you should also be able to see if the sites are converting well (return on investment is very important). You cannot judge the quality of an SEO by how well his site ranks for “SEO”, “SEO services”, etc. For example, my team gets only a very small part of our client portfolio from the Web. We have other channels for developing business and many well-established SEO firms rely more on sales staff or referrals than search results.

White papers. White papers tend to be sales pitches but they should set your expectations about how your relationship will work. If the SEO doesn’t have a white paper that spells out how they deliver the service, or at least something like that, that’s a red flag.

Things that SEOs can and should do:

Cold call - YES. It’s okay for SEOs to cold call. There are people in this industry who will tell you to never accept a cold call from an SEO. That’s bunk. It’s true that disreputable SEO firms have used cold calling to obtain new clients. So have reputable SEO firms. If an SEO firm contacts you out of the blue, it’s okay to meet with them. If you’re concerned about your search results then you need to start somewhere. Just be careful to ensure they make their process as transparent as possible. The more grandiose their claims, the less likely you want to do business with them.

In my opinion, an SEO should only be calling to ask for an appointment. You should ask a few qualifying questions to see how you feel about the other person’s personality. If you don’t like their phone voice, say “Thanks, but no thanks”. It should be no worse than being called by every insurance agent in your city.

Drop off literature - YES. It’s okay to walk down the street, visit your local businesses, and give them letters and brochures about your business. How well does this work? You should expect to get appointments from about 5% of your dropoffs (but you have to call these companies later to get the appointments). It’s a legitimate business practice, although some business campuses don’t want sales calls. It’s tough to call someone on the phone or walk into their business, but if you’re building a new business these are time-tested ways of doing so.

If you’re the business owner or manager and someone drops off literature about their SEO service, take a moment to scan it. If they have a Web site it should be included. Their literature should emphasize the deliverables (keyword research, on-site optimization, etc.). If you get literature that promises you more traffic, better rankings, etc. then you can throw it away. Blind promises don’t mean anything. You may have the best possible search results already, but you might need an SEO to help you launch a new project. You want to work with someone whom you can trust, someone who wants to build a good relationship with you.

Speak at local business functions. Some SEOs do this. You may be able to arrange to do a presentation for local business clubs, chambers of commerce, continuing education classes for small business owners, and small conferences. Find out who is planning an event in your area 6 to 8 months out. See if you can get on their presenters list. Prepare a 20-minute presentation and videotape it. Have several CDs ready that you can send to event organizers. Your presentation should make use of audio-visual equipment (projector). You should be dressed professionally or business casual. Your voice and mannerisms should be relaxed and confident.

If you have to practice giving the presentation 100 times, do it 100 times. Don’t send out a crappy CD with an awkward presentation. When you get to the point where you’re not pausing to swallow, saying “Um, uh, ahem”, covering for temporary memory loss, and otherwise looking ill-prepared, ask 10 of your friends to sit in your taping session. Have them ask questions. It’s okay if they don’t seem as confident and relaxed as you.

Event organizers: If an SEO contacts you about participating in your business conference, pay attention if he expresses knowledge of your industry and how search engines impact it. If he can share verfiable statistical data with you — especially marketing data you may have seen from your regular sources — he probably does his homework.

You won’t get SEO conference A-listers this way. Frankly, I wouldn’t want most of them anyway. They obsess over links and really don’t know that much more than most SEOs (and some of them know a good deal less than people think they do). Some SEO conference circuit regulars have an easier time being included because of who they know rather than what they know. Take that for what it’s worth.

You don’t need an SEO celebrity to show your audience. You need someone who wants to help them build their search-oriented business projects. You need someone who cares about reaching out to your attendees. Go for the passion.

Final words - There is a lot the SEO industry can do to help repair its damaged reputation. We’ll always have some low-quality people in highly visible positions, making us look bad. But there are thousands of hard-working SEO technicians who are improving their knowledge and skills day-by-day, week-by-week, client-by-client. The demand for search engine optimization services and talent is far outpacing the supply. For the next year or two mediocre SEOs will enjoy the benefit of the demand. But the marketplace will learn from its experiences.

It would be great if we had an industry-wide standards body to help set expectations. That is not likely to happen soon. The next best thing we can do is look at ourselves in as critical and demanding a way as possible.

I would never hire an SEO who thinks only in terms of links. Nor would I want to hire an SEO who thinks the search engines have to be fooled. But if I were looking for someone to do SEO for me, I’d be willing to take a chance on someone who loves the work and wants to learn more about it. I would want to trust someone who realizes there is no one solution, who is flexible, and who doesn’t make extravagant promises.

But I would also keep in mind that I was paying for work performed, not for some miraculous transformation in the search results. Sometimes miracles do happen. Most of the time you have to work for what you want, even if you’re the paying client.