Once you’ve narrowed down your selection to three to five firms, ask each of them to submit a written proposal listing what they will accomplish for you, how they will achieve that goal and how much their fee is.

It’s no different than shopping for a home. Buying a house is probably the biggest investment a person makes and choosing a consultant to help with your search engine optimization is just as huge an investment for you. Your website, therefore a large percentage of your business and income is riding on your selection.

In order for some consultants to make an accurate assessment of what services they can provide you with and the fee for doing so, they may need to take a detailed look at your existing site to see the extent of the changes that need to be made. Once they have audited your site, they should be able to present you with an itemized list of the services that your site will require to optimize it and include a fee schedule for each service.

If you will be hiring this firm for a one time optimization that you will then maintain yourself, then the costs should be lower than a firm that will be responsible for regular SEO maintenance of the site.

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