Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow websites to show up in search results when people look for products or services rather than simply company names. The idea is the fact that people looking for things online will be able to search out a business website without the prior knowledge of the business or its name. You will discover 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 perception of making your webpage easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.

It's not uncommon to decide to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but there are far too many dodgy types around who like to take companies seeking SEO - especially local and smaller companies - for a really expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a great, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?

It is actually incredibly easy to seek out a quality SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in "SEO agency." Ignoring the paid ads at the top, whichever firm has landed at the top of the search results are what you want - they must be pretty good at SEO or their own website wouldn't be so high within the natural listings!

To narrow things down a bit, you may try extending your search. Say you are living in Essex and want a local agency - just type in "SEO agency Essex." Or maybe if your site is specialised and you want particular help with it you can add your industry or site type - "SEO tourism" or "SEO eCommerce" for example. This may be a great way to discover niche SEO agencies who have specialist knowledge in your field.

Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) attempt to 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's 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 great. The exact 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?

Something else 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 sites in slightly different ranking positions according to 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 so that you can bring useful traffic to your webpage, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, which 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 before you decide to leap into their services. And also the normal checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a great idea to speak to someone directly on the telephone or even in person.