# How to pick a SEO service?



## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

Anyone here familiar with SEO? I am talking to a few services and need to make a decision soon on who to choose but don't know what the best way is to go about picking one. Obviously price is a factor but I thought getting some links from other sites these companies have worked with and check said sites against Google pagerank would also tell me something but I was told by one company that this is a dated practice? Any help here is appreciated. Thanks!


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## Pwear (Mar 7, 2008)

If you PM me I can recommend one company we've been working with for the last few months. I'd say one of the best ways to gauge the effectiveness of an SEO company is to get a list of websites that they've worked with, and then google various terms relating to that website - their rankings is a pretty good indicator of the effectiveness of the SEO company.


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## SunEmbroidery (Oct 18, 2007)

I agree about the page rank comment. Page rank is just one of many factors and if you did compare in that area you would also need to look at sites similar to yours rather than in another industry. I think you're totally right in looking for recommendations. SEO companies tend to promise everything without saying how they will deliver. In additiion to a recommendation from someone you trust and pricing I would consider:

1. Can you work with the person (s) - Does their work style suit yours?
2. How much control will they have over your site? (Can fulll SEO be accomplished or is it a host-owned site with variables that can't be controlled?
3. Time frame/ payment schedule - Will specific things be accomplished by a certain date so you can see some results before making another payment?
4. Has the company optimized an apparel site before? Are they familiar with industry keywords, etc?
5. Will black hat techniques be used? (techniques that can get you dropped from the rankings)?
5. Do they offer a maintenance program? The net is constently changing between Google's adjustments, new sites being published and how people search. You wouldn't want to spend a lot for SEO that doesn't last long.

I would hesitate about working with a company who claims to make you #1 for a phrase that no one searches for. You'll probably get more business ranking well (above fold on first page) in common searches rather than depending on one good ranking because the net is constently changing and even if you are #1 for a while you probably won't stay there. Also I would be watching my analytics closely while changes are made so you can see the specific improvements you've gained. I wouldn't trust keying in search terms myself. My personal experience is that I get a much better results when I search than Google Analytics lists as my site's averge SER for the same search term.


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## Posylane (Mar 3, 2011)

> 5. Will black hat techniques be used? (techniques that can get you dropped from the rankings)?


I am curious as to what exactly these techniques are.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I'm pretty familiar with SEO and my suggestion would be to do it on your own. 

There are the basics that many small business owners never do that will put you ahead of many other websites out there.

The rest is changing so frequently, that it's hard for companies to give you guarantees.

You can find some great tips here about Title tags, relevant content, tips directly from Google, etc: seo related topics at T-Shirt Forums

Once you start offering a great product or service and doing an awesome job for people...people will talk about you (online and offline) and that will in turn turn into word of mouth referrals via links and good old fashioned talking


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Any company that "guarantees" you a number one rating or even a first page rating for any keyword you choose should be avoided like the plague. SEO involves a lot of factors and there's no guaranteed way to rank highly. If they're guaranteeing you a high ranking, it's probably for a keyword with no competition and very few searches which most likely won't do you any good anyway. 

References are always a good thing too. Talk to the customers that work with the companies you're considering and see where they ranked before and where they rank now.


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## SunEmbroidery (Oct 18, 2007)

The typical "black hat" technique that was formerly used was adding lots of keywords to pages in a text color that's the same as the page background color so human readers can't "see" the keywords but SR bots can. If you follow the guidelines set in Google Webmaster Guidelines you shouldn't have any problems.
Webmaster Guidelines - Webmaster Tools Help


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## LittleDogy (Jan 15, 2008)

Great information.

Thank you!


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## staybeau (Feb 23, 2011)

Rodney said:


> I'm pretty familiar with SEO and my suggestion would be to do it on your own.
> 
> There are the basics that many small business owners never do that will put you ahead of many other websites out there.
> 
> ...


Couldn't agree more Rodney!


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