More Information on Buying SEO Services

More Information on Buying SEO Services

Any trade union or SEO directory will have some people (likely marketers) at the center of it. This may of course cause conflict. Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), for example, has been ridiculed to death by many prominent members of the Internet marketing community for talking up the value of PPC marketing while vilifying SEOs. I do not recommend SEMPO, since it seemed like it was primarily organized to be a promotional organization for selfish power grabs.

There are a few more reputable locations you can find search engine optimizers. Search Marketing Association (SMA) comprises many regional SEO/SEM trade associations. They intend to be a bit more reputable than SEMPO. Here are a couple of other spots where you can hunt for SEO/SEM professionals:

•       SEOPros.org. A reviewed, best practices guide of SEO firms.

•       SEOConsultants.com. A reviewed directory of SEO firms

•       MarketingSherpa. This site has as a Buyer’s Guide to SEO for sale; I have not yet read it

•       Forums. Much of the information in SEO forums will be outdated or over-hyped information with an agenda, but they are additional locations where you can seek feedback about SEO firms.

People made a bunch of fake forums to promote one company’s less-than-stellar services, but on most SEO forums, you will find a few friendly people who provide good answers to SEO questions.

Some of the people who seem like they would be compatible with you may be worth contacting to see if they are available to perform SEO services. In various SEO forums, you will find many biases, so it is a good idea to ask questions at a bunch of different forums to get a feel for them. You may want to space out your questions and ask slightly different questions at the different forums so that people who frequent various forums do not think that you are using some sort of automated forum-spamming software.

•       Go to conferences and meet people. If you get along well with them in person the odds are pretty good that you will work well together.

You can also find further information about hiring an SEO at HonestSEO.com, although that guide could use some updating if the author could get some time to do another update.

SEO is a market without much regulation and good SEOs have the opportunity to make a lot of money. Because of that, if you invest too little in hiring an SEO you will likely preclude the honest service providers from even wanting to take you on as a client. 

In John Andrew’s post titled A Market For Lemons, a Nobel Prize, and Snake Oil SEO he relates an award winning game theory paper to the field of SEO, and how competitive forces hurt the field as a whole