If you are planning to hire a search engine optimization company, you’ll find that there are thousands of companies willing to fight for your business. Search engine optimization done in the right manner has the potential to transform a business, but unfortunately, this industry also attracts its fair share of scammers. Since no specific regulatory body exists to check the advertising claims made by SEO companies, it is the responsibility of individual businesses to research the competency and experience of different companies to choose the right one for their specific requirements. Here is what you need to do to qualify SEO companies.

The most relevant thing that matters in this industry is the results achieved by an agency. Anybody can make tall claims regarding their tactics but the only thing that matters at the end of the day is the results they have achieved for their clients. When it comes to results, there is a difference between short-term results and long-term rankings.

There are ways to manipulate search algorithms to achieve good rankings for a short period. However, sophisticated search engine algorithms do not allow such web pages to remain at the top of search results for a long time. Such web pages are thrown out of the index after just a few days or a few weeks. When you are checking results, it is essential for you to focus on the long-term results or long-term rankings.

An agency that attempts to hide the ranking results they have achieved for some of their other clients is not worth your time. When you’re researching agencies, it is crucial for you to focus only on agencies that are willing to share the results obtained by them for some of their existing clients.

Another important thing that matters is the number of people working at the agency. Since anybody can start their agency, there are thousands of self proclaimed SEO experts that are run by a one or two person team. There is nothing wrong with such agencies, but you should only go with them if you are unable to find a well-staffed agency. You do not want to be left hanging behind in case that one individual decides to shut down his business one day and you have to start from scratch again. So, try to find agencies that are well staffed and have many experienced professionals to take over in case your specific account manager leaves the company.

Overall, these are some of the relevant parameters you should carefully consider when qualifying SEO companies.