Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when folks search for products or services rather than simply company names. The idea is that people trying to find things online are able to find a business website with virtually no prior comprehension of the business or its name. You will discover all manner of tricks and methods which fall under SEO, although the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called “white hat SEO”) are based around the idea of making your website easier for search engine to read the article and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.
It really is not uncommon to determine to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but there are far too many dodgy types available who like to take companies seeking SEO - especially local and smaller businesses - for a very expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a good, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?
It's actually incredibly easy to seek out a decent SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in “SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid advertisements at the top, whichever firm has landed at the top of the search results are what you want - they has to be pretty good at SEO or their own website wouldn't be so high in the natural listings!
To narrow things down a bit, you may try extending your search. Say you live in Essex and want a local agency - just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or if perhaps your webpage is specialised and you want particular help with it you may add your industry or site type - “SEO tourism” or “SEO eCommerce” for example. This could be a great way to locate niche SEO agencies who have specialist expertise in your field.
Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try and solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it is best to ignore it - if a business which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they are not great. The same is true of SEO services advertised on paid ads at the very best of major search engines or on banner advertisements on other sites. If their search marketing is any good, why are they having to pay for their placements?
Another thing to bear in mind is to steer well clear of any SEO agency that promises you “top position for x keywords” or something similar. Virtually all modern major search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everyone sees web pages in slightly different ranking positions depending on their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this kind of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO shall utilize sustainable “white hat” techniques in order to bring useful traffic to your website, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, that can constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google's infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.
Once you have found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you are going to need to ask them some questions prior to deciding to leap into their services. And also the usual checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a great idea to talk to someone directly on the phone or in person.