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If you were interviewing an SEO firm to see if they're for real, what questions would you ask them? A High Rankings Forum thread touches upon some of the must-know questions, and they're outlined below:
- How long they have been doing SEO?
- Can you give me three clients that you have had first-page results for?
- What are some campaigns you have succeeded with?
- Can you illustrate any significant traffic boosts or conversion boosts?
- What is your general SEO process?
- What is your criteria for choosing keyword phrases?
- How is success measured?
- What should you expect from us as a client?
And the list goes on and on. What would you add to this for desired results?
Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.
Comments:
Stephen Pitts
04/30/2008 04:31 pm
I think that the most important question is hinted at here with these, but from sitting on either side of the table, "What clients have seen sustainable conversions through your SEO efforts?" and another, "What is your client retention rate?"
Michael Martinez
05/01/2008 04:41 pm
Some of those questions won't help with agencies that are under non-disclosure. This is an area where industry standards would help a lot of people.
Scott Salwolke
05/04/2008 05:25 am
The interesting thing about this post is that the search engine firm has already been hired. So the point is not to ask question that will convince a prospect, but which will reassure a new client.
Mike DeWolfe
09/23/2011 07:05 pm
Short and sweet points! SEO has always been a level of nuance that's evaded me. From technical perspective I can do much of what is required to optimize a site (easy to parse code, few small graphics, all of the necessary meta tags present, etc.). I just wrote a request-for-proposal to get third-party SEO help from prospective companies... and then I found your post. Happily, I didn't veer too far off of what you suggested.