How can a site owner recognize a competent SEO? - Random chit-chat

Message from discussion How can a site owner recognize a competent SEO?

Adam Moro

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More options Jul 4, 4:25 am

From: Adam Moro

Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 11:25:21 -0700 (PDT)

Local: Fri, Jul 4 2008 4:25 am

Subject: Re: How can a site owner recognize a competent SEO?

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Great idea, John! I can't wait to hear what people say. Becky,
although I think most of everything you suggest is on-point, I don't
think you understand something very important about off-page SEO.
Benefits from off-page efforts do not die when the money runs out.
Just because you aren't paying your SEO company anymore for link
development doesn't mean the links they developed while working for
you will simply dissappear. It frightens me that someone who seemingly
has a grasp on the fundamentals of SEO doesn't recognize that. That
sounds rude but it's not meant to be. It honestly worries me a bit.

But be careful about the misleading questions though. It's very easy
to tell when someone's doing that and it can actually help the smarter
"snakeoil" types to better profile you. If they know what you do know
about the shady stuff, then they'll know what you don't know as well.

On Jul 1, 12:58 am, JohnMu wrote:

> Hi everyone!

> We just added something to the blog asking for feedback on our page
> about finding an SEO:http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-are-your-seo-...

> I'd love to get your feedback here as well!

> Suppose a webmaster were to come to you and ask for advice on finding
> someone who can help optimize his site for search engines. How would
> you recommend that they get started? Where should they look for SEOs?
> Which questions should they ask? How could they recognize competent
> (or incompetent) SEOs?

> I know that in some cases it's a good idea to learn all of this
> yourself, but in many situations it's just not possible or they just
> need help to make sure that things are right.

> Looking forward to your feedback!
> John

> PS The updated help center page is athttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291

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