Over 40 Questions to Ask a Search Engine Optmization Company Before You Hire Them

[pamela321]

A lot of people don't know what questions they should ask a potential SEO firm before they hire them. So, over the years I've been practicing organic Search Engine Optimization and website marketing, I have come up with this list of questions.

What type of search engine optimization techniques do you use to achieve search engine rankings?

What type of risk is involved with your method of search engine optimization?

What will happen if our relationship is dissolved?

Can you show me examples of past work?

What was the client’s ROI of their search engine optimization efforts?

Can you give me references? Can I talk to one or more of your current search engine optimization clients?

What type of volume increase in traffic is reasonable to expect from search engine optimization?

How long until I start to see results?

What would you expect from OUR end to aid your work?

What were some of your top search ranking achievements?

What types of internet marketing services do you offer to supplement your SEO (search engine optimization) offerings?

Will my web site point to your web site?

How many number one search engine rankings you have achieved for your clients?

How long have you been providing search engine optimization services?

Are you an individual consultant or are you part of a search engine optimization team?

How long have you and your search engine optimization team been online?

What types of web sites will you not promote?

Do you participate and/or, are you a moderator for any of the SEO – Search Engine Optimization / SEM – Search Engine Marketing Forums? If so, what is your username and can you provide links to your most recent or notable discussions?

Can you describe and/or produce recent successful search engine optimization campaign results?

If so, can I use those clients for references?

Do you have web site design experience?

What is your technical background?

What types of programming environments are you experienced with?

What are your opinions in regards to Best Practices for the SEO – Search Engine
Optimization / SEM – Search Engine Marketing industry? How does a company effectively compete online using traditional optimization strategies?

Can you assure us that the search engine optimization strategies and methods that you are utilizing fall under the criteria of Best Practices for the SEO/SEM Industry? Can we assume that this means no penalties for our website?

How many search engine optimization campaigns have you been involved with?

What was your role for those projects?

How many of those search engine optimization projects are still active?

How many of those search engine optimization projects inactive?
If inactive, why?

Do you have experience managing PPC – Pay Per Click, CPC – Cost Per Click, and other bid management campaigns?

What types of programs do you use for PPC bid management?

Are there any guarantees for top search engine positions if we decide not to use a PPC program?

The web sites we are currently linked to have no rank, which means to me that these links are useless.

What linking strategies would you use to increase link popularity for our website?
Is this service part of the proposed price? What types of websites will you target for link exchange?

Our main competitor’s Google PageRank falls between 1 and 3. How would you address improving our PageRank with Google, and other search engines that calculate the number of quality inbound links to our website? Is it possible to rank higher than our competitors?

What changes can we expect you to make to our website to improve our positioning in the search engines?

Will these search engine optimization changes be visible?

Will there be changes in the coding of our website?

What type of reporting (website log analysis) will you provide to us? How often will you provide those reports? Will you provide consultation on how to interpret the reports so that we have a basic understanding of the statistics?

[bardy]

Perfect questionnaire.

You have covered all most all important question which need to be answer before hiring any SEO company.

Thanks a lot for this.

[pamela321]

hey i think you are running a company related to SEO......

[trailblazer]

This is my first time to see this very detailed questionnaire and a lot. Anyways, I know these are very helpful in choosing the right candidate for SEO company. Thanks :-)

[runadsonline]

Thanks

[enKonversations]

I think this is quite long list of questions, I believe in asking some important question which is related to ultimate target,

From above given list i like many questions but my suggestion for client is to ask some important question only because some time many questions creates chances of misunderstanding between client and service provider.

According to me the below given questions is more important for client.
Can you show me examples of past work?

How much time requires to achieve good position of my website in search engine?

Till how much time my website will be on good position once i stop SEO process for my website?

If result will not achieve with in given period of time than can receive my money back and if yes than with in how much time i get my money back?

[mindi9]

Perfect questionnaire! I think all questions are important.