What to look for from SEO services
Online, SEO services are one of the quickest growing fields used by online professionals and SEO services are becoming known as the number one tools for online business owner's to have in their arsenal.
However, with the sudden explosion of interest in SEO services there are also many people that advertise their expertise without really practicing correct SEO tactics to propel your website to the top of the search engine rankings. Like anything else in the world, in order to get the most from the company you choose you need to be aware of what to look for from companies.
Ideally you should employ an SEO expert based on previous results - tangible proof they know what they are doing. Then once you are paying a company, look for an increase in traffic that is directly attributable to their services. This can sometimes be hard to trace and can take some time to materialize, because even the best SEO services usually take about three to four months to show any meaningful results. So those that offer "instant" results may be misleading, or at least embellishing the truth.
So, if it takes time, then actually by only looking for recommendation you will be judging a company through recent accomplishments for other clients. Before contracting with any SEO service company, you should ask to see a list of references or websites that they have worked with in the past. If they are truly a legitimate company they should have no problem providing you with references from clients they have worked with in the past as well as their website URLs.
With this information in hand you can then travel to the various websites and look at their webpage rankings as well as run searches on your own in the major search engines to see how they fair in general searches. This will give you a good idea of what to expect they can do for you.
Additionally, you should look at the type of tools and expertise that they have to offer you and decide which avenues you personally want to see utilized on your website. Some companies will take a more organic root by targeting your website with organic web design techniques. You can judge from previous performance and discussion with the company which SEO services that fall in line with your goals.