For the inexperienced, choosing an SEO company can be a daunting task. Sure all seo companies are going to tell you how good they are at this and that, but how do you really know what is important and what is just sales hype. Sometimes it is easier to cross potential seo companies off your list by recognising problems with their sales pitch, rather than just believing the things you want to hear. 

There are many red flags that should arouse your suspision when discussing your SEO with a consultant from a potential SEO company. I have listed some of them below

1. They suggest that page rank, keyword meta tags or loads of links are a magic solution to high rankings. The truth is that there is no single answer. The truth is there are many factors that go towards quality SEO and these catch phrases don't mean results.

2. The SEO's website or their clients site have the same title tag on all pages of their website. This is not just poor SEO but suggests they have no idea about what they are doing. put on your running shoes and think of a reason to leave.

3. The SEO just wants to focus on long tail keyphrases. Although some long tail phrases are a good strategy, they should never be afraid of the generic ones you dream about ranking number one for. Anyone who looks over the shoulder of an SEO expert for a day can rank your site for long tail phrases, but for value you will usually need some generic phrases to rank well.

4. Your SEO consultant is misleading you if they say it is all about links, or content or keyphrases. There is no all about. Everything needs to be done well in competitive markets and all of these things are important.

5. You should be suspicious if your consultant tells you there will not have to be any changes at all to your website. If so, why does it not rank already? Sure they can trial many things before any changes need need to be made but the possibility of architectural changes should exist if rankings do not improve much in the first few months.

6. They can not provide references for previous site optimised. This should include phone numbers if you want to call and speak to past or present clients.

7. I find it suspicious for the SEO to take on work or offer pricing without investigating your industry. They should know it's competitiveness, demographics etc. I would prefer an SEO who attempts to understand my business.

8. One of the selling points should never be, 'we know someone at Google' or 'our SEO guy used to work at Yahoo'. This won't help your ranking and is probably not true anyway.

9. If they suggest submitting your site to hundreds of search engines and thousands of directories, leg it. They sound to me like they have no personal touch and you will not only pay too much for their automated service, but you will also probably get a poor result.

10. As Google gets more and more clever, attention should be paid to social media. Article posting, forum marketing and press releases are all increasing in value for Google rankings. So a pro SEO should suggest or at least include these in their proposal.

There are many things that are important when choosing an SEO company. Learn all you can before making a decision and ask your SEO as many questions as possible to work out how experienced they are.

If you want me to write more things to watch out for, just leave a comment. If you have any to add i will include them on this post with a link for you.

Go well

Troy