As an SEO Consultant myself, I can assure you that as I look around at the competition I am usually able to quickly see if the SEO services offered are of value to local business owners.

Here’s my top 7 list of items to look for when interviewing your SEO consultant and getting your internet marketing handled properly from the beginning.

1. Beware the web design firm that also offers SEO services; most are not well versed in proper SEO and will certainly not be able to deliver the level of SEO consulting most local business owners require.

– For Example: I have witnessed many web design firms stuffing keywords into the code of a web page calling it SEO – which is far from what real SEO is. In fact meta tag keyword stuffing can get your website penalized with search engines such as Google.

2. Most SEO consultants offer keyword research; however keyword research alone leaves many aspects on the table since the future is being driven by “market research”. Online Market Research takes into effect Google’s ability to compare a website to an established authority and quickly determine if a website is simply using keywords attempting to rank in the search engines as opposed to being an actual authority on the subject. Performing Vertical Marketing Research with a tool such as “ThemeZoom” is an absolute requirement in today’s online SEO activities.

3. Does your SEO consultant offer (or for that matter mention) link building techniques. Link building is more than half the battle when it comes to search engine rankings. A good SEO consultant has an established link building process in place. If your SEO consultant doesn’t include “Article Marketing & Syndication” in his link building plan, find one that does.

4. Does your SEO consultant have a plan for ranking your website or is he randomly choosing the most obvious keywords to rank your website for. Your SEO efforts should contain keywords that are specifically targeted to you and your business first and then grow into a broader market, essentially building from the low to the high volume keywords. This practice builds on itself and can give faster results as opposed to a haphazard unplanned approach.

5. Always check the source code of your website after SEO consulting has been performed to ensure that no “keyword stuffing” has occurred. To do so simply right click on your web page and choose “view source” to make sure your page doesn’t contain any list of keywords which don’t also reside on the content of your page. Search engines will penalize a website who uses keywords in the page code that don’t reside on the web page itself.

6. Does your SEO consultant really have past client experience? Ask your SEO consultant to place a word of your choosing onto the page of a current client site as proof that he actually has access to client pages that he has specifically optimized.

7. Make sure your SEO consultant understands the tools provided by Google, such as their “Webmaster Tools” and “Analytics” services. Request that you have proof by getting a look at the consultants Google Webmaster Tools interface as proof.

Any good SEO consulting firm will be able to provide those 7 basic things (and hopefully much more).

I would also avoid consultants who offer search engine submissions since that process is very outdated and only an SEO newbie would attempt to offer such a service.

As an SEO Consulting Firm; Web Market Authority is able to speak to all of the above concerns and many more. If you’re a local business owner ready to take your website to a new level of online success we are ready to show you the way. Click Here to download our Internet Marketing Services and Pricing White Paper.

Note: Web Market Authority and our Northern Virginia SEO Services division is one of only a few entities with the ability and training to use the above mentioned “ThemeZoom” application to perform Vertical Market Research and apply the data to an effective SEO campaign.