Finding a Genuine SEO Company

The frustration continues...

[micklearn]

Over the last few months, one of the things that I have found to be somewhat disturbing -- in my exploration of SEO companies/services -- is the large number of company sites and blogs that are showing advertisements for paid link services.

It appears that the ads are not served up by an ad network, just simple links that are part of an affiliate program.

This doesn't inspire confidence in what I could expect from these companies (large and small ones, mind you) in the future.

This made me ask myself, "Why are they offering link building/development as a service and, at the same time, promoting ads for companies who place paid links on other sites?"

If I were to hire one/some of them, they seem to have no problem with someone buying links, because they promote that -- I can only wonder if they're going to be buying links to my site through various connections.

How should one go about trying to hire the right person/company to perform and research genuine and honest link development? I do not want any paid links. How can one know for sure that paid links aren't a part of the process?

Best,
Mick

[anallawalla]

You won't know until you ask and they are unlikely to get you paid links as part of the price if they can charge you more for that service.

I have no way to generalise, but it does seem that the large number of businesses that have woken up to needing SEO are creating assembly-line services eager to take their money. It's too hard to get a client a genuine link, but it's easy to rewrite an article 10 times and submit to 10 article directories, to submit to 200 directories that all live on one IP address and share a single MySQL database.

You even have to spell out "accepted links" instead of "link submissions". A lot of directory submissions are ignored by directory owners who have moved on to some other way of making money. The real issue is that Google is forcing websites to provide genuine value but many website owners don't want to make that effort. Hence there will be plenty of work for shonky SEOs.

[maximillianos]

Word of mouth referrals are priceless. Start asking around your network of friends. I would not go with a firm unless I knew someone else who used them and was happy with their service.

[wheel]

This is like buying a used car. If you don't know anything about cars, there's a good chance you're going to get screwed. Worst case, you may even end up being sold a chevy. I'm serious, this happens to some people.

The best way to find an SEO firm is to know what you're doing first - then you know what questions to ask. I know that's not the easy answer, but nothing beats being able to have a discussion about their techniques.

[jedz]

Finding a genuine and reputable company isn't that easy. Outsourcing is a business that trust is the first requirement. Business won't grow if you haven't trusted the company that you're working with. This business has it pros and cons, you just need to find the right company, ask for samples and client references so you can decide. There are lots of outsourcing providers who pretend to be the best, that's why you need to be careful and look for the reputable ones.

[topr8]

>>This is like buying a used car. If you don't know anything about cars, there's a good chance you're going to get screwed.

i ditto that!

like all people you either employ or give contracts to, you must be very clear about what you want from them, down to as much detail as possible and then you also need to overview/review their work on an ongoing basis too.

i'd say dodgy companies (of all types) exploit the ignorant and lazy, it's up to you/your company not to be ignorant or lazy.

[Lorel]

One way to find a good SEO is to see how their website ranks for a wide range of keywords and also their clients (not the newest ones as ranking takes time). Also read their SEO articles(if any)and see if they know what they are talking about. Also check their references. If they offer a paid link service I would avoid them.