Before hiring any vendor, it is important to do your homework. Hiring a comapny to perform Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is no different. There are many poor quality SEO firms out there that, if hired, may harm your website performance more than help it. The shady SEO companies will fill your ears with sales-speak and technical terms. How do you know which SEO firm to trust?

In addition to the usual vendor qualification questions like “how long have you been in business?” and “do you have references?” here are 5 questions to ask a potential SEO company.

1. Who will be performing the SEO?

If the answer is “our web guy”, don’t bother. Web designers are not SEO practitioners. Many web design companies offer SEO, but because their core business is web design, they aren’t up to date on the latest SEO techniques.

Also be wary if the answer is “you will be assigned one of our SEO associates.” That typically means that an inexperienced employee will be responsible for optimizing your website. You want to know that the SEO will be performed by someone with a few years hands-on experience. You don’t necessarily need a team of individuals, but definitely someone experienced.

2. What specific SEO tactics do you use?

Pay close attention to the answer. Be very careful of working with companies put too much emphasis on keyword rankings or meta tags. Successful search engine optimization campaigns are well rounded. Depending on your industry, the answer should include a mix of technical SEO (i.e. canonical tags, site architecture), content strategy, link building, local SEO, social media marketing and, of course, on-page optimization.

You also want to make sure that you understand how they will perform the tasks. The SEO company should explain their process in layman’s terms. They should answer all of your questions in detail and even offer examples. If the SEO company says they have an automated process, or “submit your site to search engines,” run!

3. Do you guarantee rankings?

The answer should be “no”. No one can guarantee rankings. If the package the company is presenting to you is based on #1 rankings or their service is free, politely decline. As an aside, your company should not focus only on keyword rankings. Yes, you want to rank well on search engines, however, that is not the only metric you should be concerned with.

4. How do you determine if my SEO is successful?

The answer should depend on the website and the KPI’s that you want to track. If the SEO firm has not asked you about your goals for your website and your KPI’s, then you may get an answer like: “Google rankings and website traffic”. Driving traffic to your website is useless unless those visitors are actually interested in your product, service, or content.

Have the SEO company give examples as to what metrics they would use to analyze your website in comparison to a client in a similar industry.

Generally speaking, successful SEO is determined by qualified traffic. Qualified traffic is gauged by visitors who stay on your website longer and perform a desired action on your site. Sample metrics to listen for include increase in average time on site, decrease in bounce rate, and increase in conversions.

5. What reports will I get and how often?

Ask to see a sample of their typical client reports. If the report is graph heavy with little or no explanation, then it’s possible the company is regurgitating Google Analytics reports. Along with showing the traffic to your website, at a minimum the report should explain what SEO activities they worked on the previous month, changes in sales, links, signups, or rankings, and next steps. Generally, make sure the reports they intend to provide are measured against your KPIs and goals.

While interviewing SEO companies, if you see any of the above on the company’s website or hear references during a discussion, proceed with a caution. The SEO firm you hire will be part of your team, ask as many questions as you feel is necessary. The good SEO firms will answer all of your questions in detail.