December 4th, 2008 by Dave
What not to ask when hiring an SEO
Category General, Industry | 26 comments »
Are you looking to hire an SEO consultant or in-house staffer? Then do me a favour, don’t even bother asking an SEO about what keywords they have ranked in the past… and screw the references while we’re at it ok? No really, I mean it.
After an idea born on Twitter took grasp and I found myself writing a resource post on places to find work in SEO, I read a lot of job postings. And the variety of questions, il informed employers and business folks were asking, had me shaking my head. Allow me to explain…
Why rankings and references are dirty signals
Yes, we all know that these are things to ask a potential SEO… but let me burst that bubble right here and now. No one is going to show their failures and all rankings were not created equal.
For example;
Rankings – that SEO company you’re thinking of hiring is showing you all kinds of pretty first page rankings, or even worse ‘#1’ rankings (which is a bit of a stretch). Why? Because without the accompanying analytics, it means little or nothing. Any seasoned SEO has targeted terms they thought were killers just to find out the traffic (and conversions) were minimal compared to other terms in the program.
This means that your prospective SEO company are going to show you magical SERPs that may or may not be successful. And I’d add that any trustable company isn’t about to start showing you their clients data due to non-disclosure agreements. So what does this leave you? Not enough to be getting excited when hiring an SEO.
References; I was listening to a career coach on the boob-tube the other day whom used to be in the HR dept and read thousands of resumes. What he said about references makes as much sense here as anywhere;
“People aren’t going to put the problem people in there. I spend very little time looking at them because these are people they know speak highly of them”
The cards are stacked essentially. I can easily drum up a ton of people to sing my praises, but it is not ultimately going to show the truth, or at least the full picture. Thus this is another area you should put minimal weight on.
How would I hire someone?
I really find talking to them is the best way to go about it. One wants to see what type of grasp and enthusiasm they have for the project. This once more highlights the need to be an educated consumer and at least learn the basics of SEO. It enables you to more readily understand what you’re looking for and what constitutes common practices.
To me, flowery rankings and slanted referrals make for a ‘noisy signal’. Sure, I’d ask what query spaces they’re played in. What they’re favourite tools and methods are… strength’s and weaknesses. These are important factors when hiring an SEO; experience and knowledge.
I will come up with a ‘Questions to ask an SEO prospect’ in the near future – seems a good idea.
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December 4th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Good Information provides. Thanks for the info….
Regards
December 8th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
So what are you supposed to look for and what is wrong with everyone wanting to position themselves in their best light. You probably do it yourself!
December 8th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
You are right in your analysis of what potential clients should be asking but that isn’t necessarily real-world. Thus comes the requirements of keywords and references even if it is shallow.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Yes above mention things are right because nobody mention his or her failure in profile, So it’s better to talk with him/her.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:12 am
Questions about rankings and references are legitimate questions I think. All kinds of these questions have their pros/cons, therefor do not ask a single one
January 16th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Well done! The only thing I would add is that case studies, if they include real business data (traffic, conversion, revenue) are very powerful IMO. My colleague Jim believes that they are the real trump card, although I think that just talking is often the clincher.
January 16th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I think if people are willing to violate their NDA with their past client to get a new client, then they’re not trustworthy for you.
It’s also a good point for business owners to be clear with their SEO what information is OK to share, and what is NOT ok to share, so there may be equal blame there. Looking at it from another view though, soem businesses might benefit from a SEOer mentioning them as a previous client… I just think it SHOULD be a topic to be discussed
January 16th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
@LetsPromote – agreed. I really just wanted to bring some awareness as these particular points are taken far too seriously. Any snake-oil selling SEO can as easily manipulate them as I would a SERP.
Hugo… now that is a little better, case studies have more weight – but it does move back into the whole NDA problem. Min are pretty tight and I really can’t be passing out clients data.
I NEVER bother with either and still have no problems once I explain it and they compare my knowledge/skill set to the next guy. I offer insight into what I would do and how we will measure success – I care about their site and show a high degree of insight.
@Jeremy – that’s the kicker. Back in the 80s there were horror story after horror story of crappy home renovators – when the DIY craze hit in the 90s and consumers became more educated, it became harder on the fly by night types. Business owners should have at least a grounding in the basics to not only hire an SEO, but understand what they are doing for them and associated reporting.
All great points gang…thanks for the comments
January 17th, 2009 at 12:45 am
Great post. I had one guy tell me about this other SEO that he hired that helped another company achieve #1 for a mid to high level competition phrase. He then proceeded to hire the guy to help him go after a mid competition phrase, and the guy optimized his content but never built any links so the website had 0 links. After he mentioned what the other guy had achieved I checked out the competition and the #1 guy he had previous ranked had more then enough links and strength already coming in just the original website must have been done completely wrong not to rank!
January 17th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Testimonials on a website/in a brochure fall into this camp as well I feel and are not a good yardstick when choosing any servie provider (not just SEO). After all, most testimonials are written by the service provider on behalf of the client and then approved by them. i.e. “If I write a testimonial for you will you put your name against it”. Worthless!
January 19th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I think what is more important to know than anything else is how that person got the url ranking. The important thing in SEO is really the journey not the finish line.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Nice article…
Personally I would want to still see their rankings, but I think the important thing you said was that you basically want to sit down with them, talk about strengths and weaknesses etc – and I think this is the stage most forget. They get overly excited about the referrals and current rankings.
I always just look for honesty (usually shown when they talk about their weaknesses).
Looking forward to the follow up article about questions to ask an SEO prospect.
Thanks,
Alex
January 19th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
One of my favourite metrics is number of visits per month via keywords, in line with conversions/sales….it tests to see whether you are ranking for stuff of relevance and converting – produces some pretty looking graphs if you ever need to print it out too!
…might be helpful to request that in an interview. I have just asked someone to produce a mini (20 min) site proposal as part of their interview, but really that’s just to provide a talking part to delve deeper into their knowledge….we’ll have to see how effective that is!!
This comment box is teeny – any chance of making it a tad bigger, or at least wider?!
Thanks!
Ben
January 19th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I think the best way is to sit and look at a site with the prospective SEO. And if he/she can’t start making several recommendations to improve the on-site elements and can’t genuinely get excited to start getting you some results off the bat, move on. Enthusiasm is key.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Every website’s need is different, right? The most relevant, quality traffic is what matters – the conversion will come with it. Everyone can pick some very high Google KEI phrases and puts them randomly on the site; but if they are not relevant the visitor would soon leave, this produces a poor bounce rate (a high bounce rate) thus the ranking suffer etc., etc. People looking for a good SEO work do not know enough about it to judge a prospect so at the end all boils down to the recommendation, enthusiasm, knowledge and the overall feel a customer gets from her or his prospective SEO girl or guy, no?
March 15th, 2009 at 8:38 am
You’ve already started some pre-SEO questions there. In addition, asking yourself “will I have to pay additional dollars as they sub-contract out specialty work?” is important. Because rarely will you find one person who is excellent in all of the areas that fall under an SEO campaign. Unless you’re willing to hire a full team, you’ll simply have to find someone who you are confident can accomplish what needs to be done and can either make due with the other areas or sub work out as appropriate. You’ll want to figure this out in your budget. If you hire someone with less experience you may have to sub-contract out more areas of your campaign. However, the more skilled of a person you find the less sub-contracting out you’ll have to do.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Ahh… very good idea for new starter… I think this can help us before hiring an SEO expert..
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May 27th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Very good point about being educated! I think it is very important for a client to understand the basics, they then allow the SEO firm or consultant to actually do their job…
June 1st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
It is a real difficult one this. David is right though when he says ‘talk to them’ it works both ways. Often I get to speak to them and realise we are not a good match. If they try to beat me down on price, I just know they are going to want to pay as little as possible and want a whole lot more than agreed.
I have a couple of clients who don’t mind me passing out their site as referrals (I have made them a lot of money after all). But they got a bit fed up with people ringing them up to talk through things, so asked me to simply place a note on their website saying ’seo by old welsh guy’, this allowed them to confirm I worked for them, and then people can see their results from rankings and traffic etc.
I don’t work for competing businesses anyhow, so it isn’t an issue.
July 11th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Im gonna have to disagree dude. I always ask how they build thier sites and have them show me proof before I hire them. I have people blow smoke up my ass too many times.
July 16th, 2009 at 2:31 am
That’s a very good point. I like what you said in your article. But what you cannot avoid sometimes is the “virtual trust” between you and one you are hiring.
August 29th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hi David, I own a SEO company and you are right about what is shown to the potential clients. But, I will add that the Internet Marketers WILL NOT sell an ebook talking about their failures.Yes, they may mention it, but the title is not gonna be “How I lost $6.567 dollars in PPC in just 14 days!Yes you read right in just 14 days!And I will teach how you can copy my system and start losing money today!” I don’t think the conversion will be good for this product, anyone?
David, thanks for your article. All the best. Gilson
September 9th, 2009 at 4:53 am
Its very informative
I was planning to hire SEO specialist
October 8th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Very good point about being educated! I think it is very important for a client to understand the basics, they then allow the SEO firm or consultant to actually do their job
October 19th, 2009 at 8:37 am
As with interviewing prospective employees, you can only consider any of the approaches as part of your method of choosing the best candidate. A (small) trial project gives you the best chance of evaluating a person’s capability. Then it’s results you can look at after the event rather than nice words you hear before they have done anything for you.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Great Article, I am totally agreed with you on this point.