No resumes, please!!! I am in the process of changing our business model to more direct/web sales and need help with setting up this SEO/Social Marketing endeavor.  I have interviewed 3 people and could probably go on forever.  Everyone has a different contradictory approach and all are expensive.  What to look for?  It is an amazing feat that I was able to get this far on this site – learn something everyday.

@anitacohen-williams I tend to stay away from developers who say they know it really well, and focus on people whose core business is SEO. Some things are easy to do to help–page titles, alt tags on images, etc.

Keywords, keyword density and AdWords are in my opinion more difficult and very time consuming. Ask for results and references from their clients, and obviously check their claims for page rank

@patriciatedeschi there are many criteria to look for in a seo or social media company but that depends on your business type too. There are some general lines you shall look for in the firm or person you are going to hire, some of them:

>> Check their existing portfolio/clientele, especially check if they are serving for a business of your type/industry, if so go to that client’s website and get an idea of some of their important keywords then search these keywords in google and see the result.

>> Check their own website’s performance in google. Generally any SEO or Social Media company work on keywords like : seo service company, new york SEO firm, best SEO company, SEO in New York etc. (for NYC)

>> BIG CHECK: If ever that consultant promises you to give instant result with guarantee, run away! No SEO company can give full guarantee on instant performance and achievements because SEO is totally depended on Google and no body can predict Google’s next move! So if someone is promising you to give you instant result for high volume keywords (keywords that are widely searched and are popular). It may possible to achieve instant ranking for less popular keywords but think will they benefit you if they are not searched by people???

Patricia, since your business is ecommerce, have you contacted an SEM agency that could help you with PPC, SEO and affiliate advertising? Even the best SEO alone will take a long time. The feedback from PPC is faster, and could help you and the agency identify some keywords that will help refine your site’s SEO. (A PPC campaign requires an investment, so get help with budgeting and ROI – learn what’s a typical click through rate for businesses like yours and run the numbers.) Also, an agency could help you test various offers on the site and through email.

Another approach is to focus on content marketing; again, the best SEO will have limited value unless you give people a reason to come to the site. If you write well, you could provide useful information about health and your area of expertise, otherwise, look at hiring a copywriter (via the SEM agency or oDesk).

Sounds like an exciting time for you – good luck!

@ Patricia Tedeschi 

There will be a lot of people here who will say this is not so, but here goes — SEO and Social Media don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

There are plenty of really good Social Media companies and individuals out there who don’t know squat about SEO.  And the opposite it true; vice-versa.

Look for a tried and true SEO company and get your website ducks in a row.  THEN go after social media.
  
It can be a large task to undertake both SEO and SM at the same time and you can easily be bamboozled by jumping back and forth because you won’t get a good handle on either.

.02 

It’s wonderful that you’re able and willing to write – that puts you in a great position. A good place to interact with SEO and social media professionals is through Meet-up. The events are usually organized around a relevant topic, and they are an excellent place to network. Where I used to live the closest groups were a couple of hours drive away, but well worth the effort to attend, especially the Meet-ups for SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Org.). Other trade groups, such as the AMA often have seminars and networking events that are open to non-members. Keep at it – you will meet people who can help you.

Well… once the website has gotten its overhaul, pick-up a license of IBP: http://www.ibusinesspromoter.com/ and run your website through it. The report is gives you will give you an overlay of what improvements need to be made to your site from an optimization point of view. You can then take what you’ve learned from that report, highlight some of the questions you have in the report & use those questions as the outline for your interviews.

I’m still trying to find the right blend of sm or else I’d throw out my opinion on that too. The one question I do have & you might have this as well is… what is the right mix of dialog / conversation vs product / sales pitch?

I think that just as important as an SEO expert is a content expert. The content comes first and drives your SEO. Yes, the technical stuff needs to be in place ultimately, the content you put out is what will drive you up the search engine rankings and generate the social media response.

Interesting list of questions Nichole (@iamconsulting). Interesting that they stump applicants for an “SEO” position. I would think they could at least provide an opinion.

I’m curious about your page rank question. Although I know the importance of PR has been downplayed lately, would you count someone out who said it does? It may not help your own site personally but I sure like seeing links coming from high PR sites to mine.

I also know what sort of interest my sports blog with a higher pr gets from SEOs.