Actually, there are a lot of things to check and many questions to ask the agency before you decide. At first contact, make sure you feel comfortable with the persons you speak with. There are 4 areas you need to ask about during your inquiry - PPC Advertising, Copy Writing Ability, Content Writing, and Keyword Building

PPC Advertising

Choose a search engine marketing agency that can do PPC. PPC is an important strategy to use when you are promoting a new web site. It brings in quick targeted traffic and it tells you which keywords you need to concentrate on. If you hire a good SEO firm that gets results with PPC, it can be a continuous source of good traffic and income.

Copy Writing Abilities

A SEO agency needs to write good copy. Ask for samples of the clients websites, pages, or sales letters that they have written. Check with their clients to see if this is actually their work. You want the agency to write copy that will bring you new buying visitor to pay for the agency’s services. Make copy writing a must when choosing a SEO firm.

Copy writing should be done from an emotional view with stories and examples. The writing should give the reader a feeling that they make a good purchase when they buy and prepare them for an upsell.

When the visitor buys, you want them to feel excited about your product and not to have buyer’s remorse the next day. Buying and conversion at your website not only depend on copy writing, but also on graphics. The appearance and presentation of your site will also encourage the visitor to buy. Check with the agency to see if they go graphics.

Content Writing

The content that you need for your websites or for promotional articles must be exceptional. The articles that you use to promote your website must be unique and original content. An exceptional search engine marketing agency can give you this content. It is constant original content that will keep your website alive.

Keyword Building

The search engine marketing agency’s main purpose is to get you plenty of traffic and to help you convert that traffic into customers. This is done by getting your site to rank on the first pages of Google, Yahoo, and MSN. How is this done? You do this by concentrating on certain keywords. You will not be able to rank on first page for all of the keywords that exist for your product or service.

How do you get on the first pages of the search engines? You do this by targeting keywords that relate to your product or service. You choose 2 – 3 keywords for one of your web pages and have the SEO firm optimize your pages. You have to create web pages for the different keywords you want to rank for. Choosing the keywords with three words is easier to get on first page than for keywords that are one or two words.

Then you need to have the search engine marketing agency promote these keywords and each web page using article writing, web directory submissions, press releases, blogs, social bookmarking, and many other promotions that can get you back link and traffic to your site.

Picking a search engine marketing agency to work with will be a difficult task. But remember what that agency should be doing for you. There main purpose is to get you traffic that will buy from you. This is done with good copy writing skills, good content, and selected keywords that visitors chose while searching for your product.