If you have read through this book and taken the time to consider whether or not you have the time, resources and ability to employ all of the search engine optimization techniques given here and decided that it would not be feasible for you to take on all of this on your own, then its time to consider hiring outside help to do it for you.

Not all real estate agents and brokers do have the time required to put all of these practices in place and it’s a sign of wisdom to recognize that fact before trying to accomplish something that may end in disaster due to lack of time to focus on all of the steps effectively.

Just because you can’t do this all on your own doesn’t mean you’re your sight has to remain relegated to the unseen pages of search results.

If you’ve got an advertising budget but not the time or inclination to optimize your website or page yourself, then consider hiring professional help to take care of your site’s optimization.

An SEO consultant can either advise you on how to optimize your website or handle it for you as well as handling the updating of content and changing your keywords on a regular basis.

They will make sure that your interior and inbound links are working properly and that you continuously have fresh content on your site that is relevant to your keywords and phrases.

Because of their experience they will be able to pick the keywords and phrases that will increase the traffic to your site. You won’t have to worry about getting all of your pages indexed because they will handle that for you and make sure that your site gets noticed by all of the search engines.

It might seem like a costly alternative but this is not necessarily the case. It all depends on how you look at it. If you are paying a webmaster to host and maintain a site that the search engine spiders seem to have never heard of then you are already losing money.

Some businesses instituted a website just to be able to say they have one but if no one is looking at it then it’s a waste of time. Sure it’s nice to be able to show it to friends and family or print it on your business card and stationery to let your offline customer’s know it exists but your site needs to be generating commission producing leads so optimizing it is well worth the expense.

Besides with all of the money that you can make from your site, the profit potential may far outweigh the costs of using an outside SEO consultant.

• Different Types of SEO Consultants and firms
• Determining Your Optimization Needs
• Expertise
• References
• Start the Bidding Process
• Beware Consultants That Appear to be Unethical

There are different types of SEO consultants and firms. Some are independent freelancers who will come up with an SEO strategy for your website and implement it for you.

There are also advertising agencies that usually engage in media advertising but have gotten on the SEO bandwagon. Because of their success with the media they may know time proven strategies to get your site noticed.

There are also interactive agencies that include you in the SEO process. Before you pick one you need to decide what your personal search engine optimization needs are.

You might not want to launch a full out optimization campaign but want to implement only a few techniques. Perhaps you are a single person agency with no desire to expand and just want to boost your personal sales by a small to medium percentage.

Hiring a consultant does not mean you have to spend thousands of dollars on a complete campaign. You can hire one to handle just that aspect of SEO that you are interested in. For example, perhaps you only want help with keyword planning.

Perhaps you’re tech savvy and know all about how to write in HTML code and insert meta description tags but may be woefully short on marketing strategy ideas. A consultant can help you design a customized strategy that you can institute yourself.

If you are planning to use an outside SEO consultant, before you start to look some up, determine exactly what it is that you want them to accomplish for you.

You will also need to consider if you want to use an online agency or a local consultant. Online agencies can work well because in the world of telecommuting, you can meet with them via video conferencing, or talk to them on the phone or through one of the many instant messaging systems that are in place.

If you’re the type of person that likes to meet with someone in person to sit down and discuss your needs, then you should choose a local consultant in your area if there is one available.

When choosing an SEO consultant it’s important to ascertain what their area of expertise is. They may specialize in keyword marketing or paid placements.

They may be expert writers who can easily handle ghost writing fresh articles and blogs to use as content on your site, or they might specialize in web copy and design newsletters that will capture the attention of every viewer with their compelling titles and intriguing content.

This might be well and good for general businesses but real estate is a marketing specialty. No matter what other area of expertise they may get high marks in, one of the most important ones for them to have is knowledge of the real estate industry. Any consultant that you hire should know and understand the following:

• Fiduciary relationships
• How appraisals are derived
• How mortgages are obtained
• How stressful the process of buying and selling real estate is so they will know how to appeal to your viewers
• They should understand real estate market trends and know whether it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market and why
• Understand and be able to discuss the difference between a buyers agent and a sellers agent
• Without this knowledge the will be unable to choose the correct keywords or plan a strategy that will be as effective as one who is a real estate industry expert.

Now it’s your turn to get to sit on the other side of the search engine table and do some comparison shopping on your own. Naturally since these are SEO consultants, you can be sure that they have their own optimized websites or at least they should.

Thanks to the knowledge that you gained from this book, you can take an inside look at how optimized their own site is. Making sure they didn’t employ any tricks to get to the top of the search engine ladder.

Still, even after you have studied the pages and feel secure in their optimization techniques, you will need to get references from them and actually take the time to check them out.

You can also visit the sites of trade organizations that list legitimate SEO consultants. One such organization is Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization.

If you already know someone who has used an SEO firm and have gotten great success with their site because of them, then you can get the name of that firm and find out if they meet your specialized criteria.