Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow sites to show up in search results when people look for services rather than simply company names. The idea is that people looking for things professional online marketing are able to find a business website with virtually no prior understanding of the business or its name. You will discover all manner of tricks and techniques which fall under SEO, although 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 is not uncommon to determine to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but you'll find far too many dodgy types available who like to take companies seeking SEO - especially local and smaller businesses - for an extremely expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a good, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?

It really is actually incredibly easy to find a reliable 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 of the search results are what you want - they must be great 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 perhaps your website 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 good way to discover niche SEO agencies that have specialist expertise in your field.

Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try 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 company 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 advertisements at the top of major search engines or on banner ads on other web pages. If their search marketing is any good, what makes them having to pay for their placements?

Something else to keep in mind is to steer well clear associated with any SEO agency that promises you "top position for x keywords" or something similar. Virtually all modern search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everybody sees 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 kind of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO shall utilize sustainable "white hat" techniques as a way to bring useful traffic to your web site, 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 definitely will need to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. As well as the normal checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a wise idea to speak to someone directly on the telephone or even in person.