Selecting a great SEO agency for your marketing campaign may be a difficult task. There are tons of agencies out there who specialize in Search Engine Optimization, but how can you trust that each will really push your Google rankings to the top?

It always pays when searching for an SEO agency to not just look into their past and current clientele, but in addition to ask about their achievements. What Google rankings have they attained for past clients? How long did it take? And how much did the site traffic increase? Quite often, it will take around 3 months or even more for rankings to increase on Google and traffic should increase from about 50% upwards. At this stage, you could also want to inquire if the agency offers any subscriptions for post-optimization upkeep. An excellent company should, since maintaining high SEO rankings requires ongoing care.

It also helps to look for an SEO agency that offers a full range of services. 'On-page services' like website analysis, content optimization, page optimization, internal link building and ranking and traffic management should be offered. 'Off-site' SEO services should include keyword research, competitor analysis, external link building, and off-page promotion. It could also help to ask your prospective company for anyone who is required to approve anything before they go ahead with it. If they say 'yes', it's really a good sign they're honest and ready to work closely with you. To boost your rankings, an SEO agency needs to employ quite a few tasks, not only a couple of, so be wary of companies that only offer limited or dodgy services.

The right SEO company is essential to provide the correct SEO services and features to the business. Not every SEO can handle all of the several types of businesses in the market. Hence, some SEO agencies tend to focus on certain niche markets to hone their skills and creativity. There may be special requirements from certain niche markets which only skilled and creative SEO agencies can handle. These may cost a bit more than the other general SEO company operators. It relies on the SEO industry vision and modus operandi.

Every SEO company will operate differently based on their modus operandi and business objectives. Although most have similar offerings and services, some may stand out more than others with regards to service standard and creativity.

Another thing to check for is any agency that offers to increase your rankings through suspect methodologies like spamming, keyword stuffing, hidden text, high-ranking doorway pages and link-farming. These are often known as "black hat SEO" and will get you banished from search engines, which is often hugely detrimental to your business. Also keep an eye out for automatic, bulk submissions to search engines. Automatic submissions are not considered best SEO services practice and it's must more beneficial for you if a business conducts manual submissions. Always make sure that an SEO agency is open about their methodologies used - any secrecy could mean they can be using "black hat" techniques.

You need to keep in mind that high prices within an SEO agency do not necessarily mean the most effective quality. Instead, choose a company according to their clientele, reputation and their very own site optimization and Google rankings. Similarly, if a business is offering you "guaranteed" #1 rankings for a ridiculously low price, it's probably too good to be true. Collecting several quotes is a good way to start and always ensure quotes are supported by a contract, so you know just what you're getting for your hard earned money. It will also help to ask what their payment terms are and should they have any fees for early termination.

Lastly, a trustworthy SEO agency should offer and conduct thorough and specific keyword research as a part of their SEO services. A lot of companies shall include keyword research as a given, but be wary associated with any company that asks you to provide the keywords for their work. While they might ask for your opinion, the keywords used should be based upon their research, analytics and competitor scope, not on the you tell them. As always, they are meant to be the SEO experts - not you! "Guessing" your keywords isn't efficient and also a great SEO agency will research your keywords completely before recommending them.