At the risk of not delivering to your expectations, or perhaps merely my own, I thought I’d start simple. I noticed that over a year ago Stephan posted a great series of questions for SEOs, questions about the industry, the practice of SEO, and our future. Missing from NaturalSearchBlog is a discussion of the appropriate questions to ask an SEO when seeking support. Here are my thoughts:

• What techniques do you use to achieve rankings?
  • Avoid companies that focus on getting you links or promise you top placement
• What risk is involved with the methods you suggest?
  • Every technique has risk, get an answer and weigh it against the benefit.  Consider that risks include a wide variety of hurdles and challenges such as IT intensive projects, adverse impacts on your brand, or withdrawal of your site from natural search results.
• What will happen if our relationship is dissolved?
  • They should be able to get in, do some work, and get out, leaving you with the experience to maintain your optimized site
  • Yes, you might want a full time, ongoing SEO but you don’t need one
• Can you show me examples of past work?
  • You bet they can
• What was the client’s ROI?
  • Sure, SEO is “free” in that it doesn’t have a marketing cost but good SEOs know the cost that went into their service, IT/engineering resources, copywriting, etc. Don’t be sold on just the improvements in traffic, position, or the growth in revenue, what was required to deliver that?
• What increases in traffic are reasonable to expect?
  • This is tough because it depends on your site, but that’s why you should ask, expect an answer that is relative to your site and details that show how your experience is unique
• How long until I start to see results?
• What would you expect from OUR end to aid your work?
  • Important because the answer is NOT ‘nothing’
• What were some of your top search ranking achievements?
• Do you offer any other internet marketing services to supplement your SEO offerings?

Look for a company that understands your business, marketing, technology, and the internet extensively.  Most importantly, do not shop around based on price. You don’t want a deal as you need expertise while at the same time, SEO isn’t really expensive rocket science (it is alien for most people but not rocket science).

Find a professional that meets your needs, start with these questions, let us know what works for you, and what you look for from an SEO.