Every company with an online presence knows that increasing its virtual visibility is key to its success. Hiring an SEO consultant is the perfect way to outsource this vital task, but how do you know who is the best resource for your company? There are a lot of SEO “experts” out there who use shady tactics to drive traffic. You don’t want to invest your money in people who won’t get you results, and you don’t want bad search karma. Here are four questions you need to ask any potential consultant before hiring, and the answers you should hear back.

SEO Consultant

How do you select the keywords you’ll target?
SEO experts shouldn’t shoot blindly when selecting keywords. The best ones will use Google’s keyword tool and pull your site’s historical keyword searches to determine which words have the highest potential to convert visitors. These words should then be embedded in your titles, the content of your pages, and in your meta tags. Don’t overcook it – keyword stuffing is a thing of the past, and you could pay the price with a ranking penalty.

How do you obtain links?
Two phrases you’ll want to know about are “black hat” and “white hat.” SEO consultants who follow Google’s guidelines don’t buy links. On the other hand, “Black hat” experts will purchase links and use other shady link-building tactics. While these stolen goods may produce some short-term gains, they’re not worth the risk: your site can be penalized, or even banned, if the abuse is noted. Besides, most search engines look at the quality of the links connected to your website in order to rate your relevance and authority, and you can get quality links for free with a little hard work.

What kinds of reports do you provide?
Be suspicious of an expert who won’t let you view a sample report. A qualified SEO expert will typically provide you with a variety of data on a monthly basis. Most will be happy to show you the applicable keyword research they’ve done, as well as the search volume connected to the keywords they’ve selected. They’ll also review your current site offerings and make suggestions for upfront tweaks you can make – alterations to your URL, titles, number of clicks it takes to reach important pages, etc. They will place a benchmark on your site at the start so your ranking and visitors can be monitored.

How much will my traffic increase?
Nobody can promise you a No. 1 ranking. Google’s keyword tool helps SEO experts estimate the current traffic a keyword is generating. By assuming a No. 1 ranking, a consultant can predict your future traffic. Although this seems illogical, it’s not – the No. 1 site can receive more than a third of the traffic on the internet for the keyword. While your expert cannot guarantee top rank, they will shoot to get you in the top five – right in the center of traffic.