Choosing a good and reliable SEO company can be quite hard, especially with the dramatic rise in businesses offering this service in the past 2 years. Search Engine Optimisation is one of the biggest investments you will make into your company's online marketing strategy, so it is vital you make the right choice when appointing your SEO consultancy, as the wrong choice could lead to a few nightmares on the road ahead, with being dropped by Google if the methods are black hat a distinct possibility.

Below are some tips and ideas to make sure you choose the best SEO Company for your company, business or website.

How long have they been established? As with most things in the life, the longer you have been doing something, normally the better you are at. If possible, take into account how long the SEO company has been established, the chances are if its been around for a few years they will be well up to date with the latest strategies and have a decent history and background.

Have they worked in your niche before? Although SEO is a general operation, some SEO companies specialise in a few niches. For example, if you are a property company it can sometimes be a good idea to look at an SEO company that has worked with a property or related project before, as the experience is a major asset for any SEO campaign.

Can they provide testimonials and recommendations? Any good and reliable SEO company will not only have good testimonials, but will make sure they tell you they have them from the start! Ask for some testimonials and also for the phone numbers of people they have worked for before. If they can not provide these then personally, I would walk away, as they either have a bad past or they simply do not have any happy clients.

Do they have a good portfolio? Again, have a look at the previous projects they have completed. Do the sites rank well, does the case study look good, and are the sites all performing well. You can also make contact with the firms they have worked for using this method to check out how good the SEO Company is.

Are their methods white hat and legitimate? White Hat = Good. Black Hat = disastrous and will be a major blow to you once the engines find out what you have been up to. Check out the methods the SEO Company will use, speak to others about whether these are good or bad and make sure that the methods they use are within the rules and guidelines of the engines. Trying to cut corners will only back fire, so it's better for things to take a bit longer but have proven results, and not a short hop into fame and then misery.

Do they make any "too good to be true" claims? Any SEO company that makes an guarantees are simply not worth working with, in my opinion. We can not guarantee anything, we can not promise you a first page ranking and we can not promise you a thousand hits by next Wednesday. Just like the weather, the search engines algorithms change all the time, so these claims are just unfounded. The only guarantee most of us can offer is to work hard and within the rules, and this is the only guarantee you need.

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