Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow web sites to show up in search results when individuals search for services rather than simply company names. The idea is that people trying to find things online are able to locate a business website without any prior knowledge of the business or its name. You will find all manner of tricks and methods which fall under SEO, but the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called "white hat SEO") are based around the notion of making your web site easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.
It really is not uncommon to decide to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but you can find far too many dodgy types available who like to take companies seeking SEO - especially local and small businesses - for an extremely expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding an excellent, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?
It is actually incredibly easy to discover 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 very
best SEO services of the search results are what you want - they must be very good at SEO or their very own website wouldn't be so high in the natural listings!
To narrow things down a bit, you can try extending your search. Say you live in Essex and want a local agency - just type in "SEO agency Essex." Or if your webpage is specialised and also you want particular help with it you may add your industry or site type - "SEO tourism" or "SEO eCommerce" for example. This may be a good way to seek out niche SEO agencies who have specialist knowledge 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 very own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they aren't good. 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, what makes them having to pay for their placements?
Another thing to keep in mind is to steer well clear of the SEO agency that promises you "top position for x keywords" or something similar. Virtually all modern major search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everybody sees web sites 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 sort of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO shall use sustainable "white hat" techniques to be able to bring useful traffic to your website, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, that could constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google's infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.
Once you've found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you definitely will need to ask them some questions before you decide to leap into their services. And also the usual checks like existing client list and testimonials, it really is a good idea to speak to someone directly on the telephone or even in person.