Im so overwhelmed there are to many to choose from.

How does one decide where to spend the money on SEO work?

Tips anyone?

Pappa

It can be hard to choose a good SEO. I think it is important to educate yourself first so you know what questions to ask and more importantly what answers from potential vendors are warning signs.

If you want to save money you can use elance, rent a coder and craigslist to hire content writers, programmers, designers and link builders (i wouldn't hire link builders myself). You will have to manage them and closely monitor them for optimal results.

If you have a good budget you can hire a SEO firm to manage it all for you. Look at their portfolio of websites. Do they rank well in the search engines? Do they have good usability? Do their previous clients recommend them?

Do not expect them to guarantee their work. Why? Because no one can guarantee you a #1 spot. Google controls the rankings on Google. A good SEO can reverse engineer the algorithm and have a very good chance of ranking well. But no SEO can guarantee a specific rank 100% of the time. The next best thing to a guarantee are performance incentives. Be willing to pay them more for the higher they can rank you. That is fair for both parties.

As for myself I run a one man network of sites. I no longer accept consulting because it is more profitable for me to build a site and own it forever instead of working on someone else's.

To help me keep my sites growing I have hired several freelance workers. When I find a freelance worker I like, I offer them a long term contract. That is for everything except link building. I have not found someone that is capable of doing the high quality link building that I need for less than $100k a year. Most link builders I have come across overcharge alot because there is so much demand for that service.

Thanks for the help. It is a nitemare.

Each of the SEO's ive spoken with rank high in one way or another and each has thier own way of claiming higher power for this.

All are in my opinion overpriced (supply demand i suppose). Which sounds like why elance might be a great choice.

Thanks
pappa

A nightmare will occur should you choose an SEO firm that will spend money buying links from link brokers. In fact, if your SEO uses any form of linking scheme (to get backlinks unnaturally) you should do well to ask alot of questions for you may be stuck with link partners that your web site promotion could well do without.

Your business is reflected on the type of web site promotion strategy you choose. SEOs who goal is to cheat in order to beat the search engine filters should be avoided as they inevitably get caught in their mischievious ways and the web site promotion can suffer for a long time.

SEO demands the use of on-site elements such as the web content, internal linking structure and the organization of the source coding. SEO demands the ever evolution of the content and the web site. Most linking strategists know very little about the actual art in search engine optimization but they do know how to get links. SEO experts craft their content to be so important in the search engine eyes and so valuable to the Internet visitor that in itself generates the best kinds of links, the naturally occurring ones.

(pardon any spelling errors, in a hurry)

A personal recommendation would be to use www.10e20.com -- they are close friends of mine that I respect. I know they do quality work. It's not cheap, but it's worth every penny.

I agree, before you select a search engine marketing company to promote your website your should do good research on search engine marketing strategies and techniques. When approaching a search engine marketing or search engine optimization company ask them what exactly they will do. If you yourself have a good idea about search engine marketing then you will know exactly whet their time will be spent on. You should also see their own organic ranking on major search engines especially Google and Yahoo. No point in letting a company optimise your website for search engines if their own website does not rank well on Google and Yahoo.

thanks all for the tips...

I am curious... is there such a thing as an SEO broker?

I feel im techy but these skills are far beyond my knowledge. Would be great to have someone with knowledge and skillset on the buyers side.

the seo brokers are the seo conferences. look at who constantly speaks at them. most speakers are good at what they do (but not all).

i personally know 10e20 does a good job and has a very impressive track record and one of the best people consultants i have ever dealt with is rae hoffman . she regularly speaks at conferences and also writes a SEO online column.

> I no longer accept consulting because it is more profitable for me to build a site and own it forever instead of working on someone else's.
I have the same attitude.

Also ... good SEOs are willing to explain to you exactly what it is they do. If they tell you it's all just one big trade secret, then look elsewhere.