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Written by: Full Impact Studios
Or, if you’re looking for someone to help you improve your company’s search rankings, a better version of this question might be: “ How do I find the right SEO specialist to help my business?” 
Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as easy to find as it should be. That’s because we live in a day and age where business web design and Internet marketing can make or break your company within months. It’s no surprise, then, that so many people are calling themselves search engine optimization consultants… even though they don’t have the training, background, or reputation to back it up.
So, how do you find the SEO specialist or expert to work with and avoid the people and companies who would like to take your money and give you very little in return?
The answer is in knowing exactly what to look for. Once you get past all the hype and marketing, here are the five qualities that actually make a difference when it comes to choosing the right SEO specialist:
1. Experience and Results
Naturally, one of the easiest ways to distinguish the best SEO experts in the field is to examine the results they’ve been able to achieve for other clients and partners in the past. You don’t just want to see minor improvements in Google positioning (or even major ones); instead, you want to see that they were able to help the company to identify the most important keyword markets , develop a plan to improve search positions over time, and then use those positions profitably.
In other words, you want to know that they actually did something, and that the effect went beyond a short-term boost.
2. A Broad Approach to Search Optimization
While business owners and executives tend to think of search engine optimization as a single activity, the reality is that it involves a number of different steps and processes, including: on-page optimization, technical adjustments, and off-site activities like link building. Without special attention being paid to each of these factors, the work your SEO consultant does for you will always be incomplete (as will the results).
For that reason, you want an SEO expert that takes a broad view of your strategy and incorporates all the important elements into the mix. Great SE advisors have a good sense of what Google any other search engines actually want, and how they crawl and index your site, so they can put all the right elements into place. That takes more work than just changing a few tags, for example, but the results are a lot more powerful and sustainable.
3. An Emphasis on Conversions
Although many in business think of a top search engine ranking as a goal all by itself, the reality is that getting traffic through Google should be a means to an end. That’s because you need to generate conversions – that is, get visitors to actually do something on your website – before it can impact your business. For that reason, your SEO consultant should know as much, or more, about conversions optimization as they do search engine optimization.
Maximizing conversions means taking a different approach to keywords, landing pages, and other important SEO elements. This is an important part of your campaign not to overlook.
4. An Adaptable SEO Strategy
Even someone who doesn’t know much about the way search engine optimization actually works will probably recognize that Google and the other search engines are changing all the time. In response to these algorithm shifts, some SEO consultants find themselves chasing one fad after another. The best, though, simply use adaptable strategies that adjust over time.
Another important factor related to adaptable SEO is following Google’s Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird algorithm updates , which have drastically changed the way Google evaluates and ranks websites . Google looks at matching keywords, quality, how recently content has been updated, geography, and even social signals are now being factored into search results on a one-by-one basis.
A true SEO expert isn’t going to be tied to any particular tool or tactic. Instead, they’re going to keep studying and learning to ensure that they’re always working from up-to-date information and SEO best practices.
5. The Right Reputation for Service
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if your SEO specialist is effective and affordable if you find them difficult to work with, or if they don’t incorporate your goals and requests into your campaign. To put things another way, you should understand that your vendor works for you, and should be easy to communicate with on an ongoing basis.
An unhelpful SEO expert might have the right tools and education, but not the attitude you need to help your company grow. That’s why it’s important to take all these factors into consideration when evaluating candidates and making a decision.
Once you know what you’re really looking for in an Expert SEO specialist , choosing the right partner to help you rank well in Google becomes a lot easier. That’s because your ultimate goal is to find someone who can devise a winning strategy, has gotten the right results in the past, and cares about the future of your business.
Why take chances with something so important? At Full Impact Studios , we have served as SEO specialists to dozens of Los Angeles companies just like yours. No matter where you’re starting from now, we have the skills and expertise needed to help you reach one of the prime positions on Google and the other search engines… and the experience to help you turn those search rankings into profitable sales opportunities.