Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when folks look for products and services rather than simply company names. The idea is the fact that people searching for things online will be able to find a business website without the prior knowledge of the business or its name. There are all manner of tricks and methods which fall under SEO, but the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called "white hat SEO") are based around the concept of making your webpage easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.
It really is not uncommon to determine to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but there are far too many dodgy types around who like to take companies seeking SEO - especially local and smaller companies - for an extremely expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding the best, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?
It is actually incredibly easy to locate a decent SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in "SEO agency." Ignoring the paid ads at the very best, whichever firm has landed at the top of the search results are what you want - they has to be very good at SEO or their very own website wouldn't be so high in the natural listings!
To narrow things down a bit, you could try extending your search. Say you live in Essex and want a local agency -
just click the up coming document type in "SEO agency Essex." Or if your website is specialised and you want particular help with it you can add your industry or site type - "SEO tourism" or "SEO eCommerce" for example. This may be a good way to discover niche SEO agencies who have specialist knowledge in your field.
Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) attempt to solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it is best to ignore it - if a business which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they aren't great. The exact same is true of SEO services advertised on paid advertisements at the very best of search engines or on banner ads on other sites. If their search marketing is any good, why are they having to pay for their placements?
Another thing to keep in mind is to steer well clear of any SEO agency that promises you "top position for x keywords" or something similar. Nearly all modern internet search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everybody sees websites in slightly different ranking positions based on their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this sort of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO will use sustainable "white hat" techniques in order to bring useful traffic to your webpage, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, that may constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google's infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.
Once you have found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you will need to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. As well as the normal checks like existing client list and testimonials, it really is a great idea to speak to someone directly on the phone or even in person.