Hire a SEO contractor for a small company.

[Digby]

I have a small company that has struggled over the past three years to get on its feet.  We've finally made it in the retail sector building a nice client base and delivering beyond what is expected.

I'm trying not to make mistakes and have been doing the SEO on my own with a SEO word pack plug in for our Wordpress site and all the training videos I could handle from SEOMOZ and Hubspot (forever grateful).  I have a list of 200 key words and only a handful are on the first page, but with that it has meant the difference between getting paycheck for not.

It's now time for us to hire an expert.  Here's what I want.

1.  Quality back links with a MOZ grade higher than mine.

2.  All the errors fixed in my site that I don't understand from the reports generated by the MOZ tool.

3.  A weekly report of the sites that have created a link and its MOZ ranking.

4.  Ongoing support and tracking of progress with no black hat techniques.

5.  3 client references with a name and number that I can speak to.

Am I asking too much?  I'm told that client information is confidential and couldn't be release.  If I'm in a completely different sector of retail, would that matter?

What questions should I be asking?  If you were me, what would you do?

[Digby]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.  I'm working on A and B now and should roll out the changes in the next couple of weeks

This has been very helpful and I'll look at my SEO on a monthly basis instead of a weekly.

[Digby]

Thanks for the direction.  I'm glad Rand provided the answers to the questions and will use the information in searching for a candidate.

[Digby]

Thanks for the direction.  I'm glad Rand provided the answers to the questions and will use the information in searching for a candidate.

[EGOL]

If I was making your list for one of my own sites, I would make just a couple of changes.

Before I begin I would ask myself and ask the SEO these two questions.....

A) What can I do to make my site more linkable, likable,tweetable?

Very few websites are easy linkbuilding jobs.  In fact, I think that most clients need a magician rather than a linkbuilder. So, before you start burning money on linkbuilders see what you can do to make that job easier.

B) What can I do to make my site more effective at converting visitors into customers?

When just starting out it is usually easier to double your income from current visitors than it is to double your income through new traffic.  What changes can be made to your product pages, shopping cart, navigation that will produce sales?  Can you improve the trust level of your site in eye of the buyer by adding trust seals, satisfaction policy, etc.  What can you do to cross-sell more effectively.  Increasing the size of your average shopping cart by 25% could produce more profits than doubling your sales.

Do A and B as soon as possible to get the most out of your spend on an SEO.

Now for your list of work.

1.  Quality back links with a MOZ grade higher than mine.

I would change this to "quality backlinks".  Don't limit your link potential.  As  the strength of your site grows it will be really really hard to get links if you maintain this requirement.  Also, I would want relevant links.

3.  A weekly report of the sites that have created a link and its MOZ ranking.

Allow this to be done monthly.  Let your SEO do SEO work and spend less time on reports.

I'm told that client information is confidential and couldn't be release.  If I'm in a completely different sector of retail, would that matter?

It is often easy to get a few references.  However, I would never want my site being used by an SEO to market his services.  And, you don't want your SEO showing your site to me because I might be inspired by what you are doing and become a competitor.  Lots of people feel differently from me but there is a lot of young hungry greedy energy in the SEO space.  Don't paint a target on your wallet.

[MRCSearch]

I agree with RankSurge here. The more time spent preparing reports, the more you're paying for data and less for actual performance.

Ask yourself why you want week-over-week. Because you don't trust the vendor? Find someone you do. I'd recommend monthly reporting. Week-to-week just isn't going to be actionable, and you're liable to see information you honestly don't want to. I've seen it commonplace for rankings to swing so wildly week-to-week that moving off that data is folly, you really need to look at month-to-month and general trends.

As for confidentiality of client information, it depends on the contracts that the vendor has with them. I've had a client ask me for a business reference before, one that they could talk to live. When asking my clients to volunteer one of them made a good point by saying they took a risk on me without a reference, so why should they alleviate someone else's business risk for me live. They're happy to provide a testimonial, but being available to speak live to a potential client for one of their vendors can be too much.

[Digby]

Thank you.  I guess I don't want my company to be penalized for inappropriate SEO activity.  The only way I know that a vendor is delivering quality is by measuring the results with statistics.  I know that SEO has much to do with art as it does science.  My problem is accountability and transparency.

Is it taboo to ask for references in the SEO world?

[Jinx14678]

You have some good questions.

I seem to remember Rand doing either a WBF or a post.

All I could find was;

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/ten-question-litmus-test-for-professional-seos

Which is a good start once the interview process begins, (you could probably even make the questions themselves a little more niche specific as well)

Between the questions you have and putting together a rough outline of what you want to accomplish over the next 1 - 2 years is good to have as well, this way the SEO can put you on the correct path toward your goals. I would be looking more for an SEO Consultant or Web Strategy expert that specializes in SEO. Not a company that promises links and reports.

An SEO needs a relationship with the client on more than a "paper basis" in my opinion to truly understand the goals of the business, and make sure that each step in the path aligns with those goals

w00t!

Have Fun!

[RankSurge]

The questions I would ask:

Expectations - how long will it take to get ranked?

What techniques will you use?

While you can certainly ask as many questions as you want, at some point in time, you just have to trust that your vendor is delivering value to you. By asking for weekly reports and ALL links that point to your site, you are taking time away from your vendor to do work that will get your site ranked.

Accountability and transparency are important, but if you are constantly asking your vendor to "show your work", they won't have time to get your properties ranked!

I understand that every dollar spent has to work for your business to grow. At the end of the day, you have to trust your intuition and go with the people that are interested in your success.

Good luck!