While Search Engine optimization (SEO) is very important to your web site, especially if you want to expand your web site's exposure, you need to make sure that it is done properly. Your web site cannot afford to fall victim to the bad practices of SEO. Also, if you pay for a Search Engine company to do your SEO work for you, then your wallet cannot afford this either. So, do be careful that you do not pay too much money for too few results. You also need to be sure that you do not fall prey to bad SEO techniques. In order to ensure that this does not happen, there are some really important steps that you should take before you hire a company or an individual to do SEO work for your web site. These steps include:

1. Before you even talk to this SEO person or firm, you are going to need to find out how well-known and experienced they are. Make sure that you ask them for their list of clients and whether any of them are available for you to talk to. You should then contact these clients to find out if they were satisfied with the SEO work that this person or firm did for them.

2. Spend some time examining their portfolio so that you will know what kind of results they have accomplished.

3. Make sure that you have them explain to you how they are going to optimize your web site so that those people who are using your keywords in the major Search Engines are able to find your site. Stay away from those techniques that Search Engines consider spam: using doorway pages, hiding text in the background, utilizing re-directs and other such methods that have been blacklisted.

4. You should get at least 3 proposals, all from different SEO companies or people. Then you will need to look at these very carefully so that you can see if there are any similarities. This will help you to know who is being honest with you and who is trying to sell you something that is not going to work. You will also be able to look at the different prices that you would be charged. Of course, you will need to remember that the cheapest service is not always the best service. On the other hand, the highest priced service may not be offering you a complete and feasible course of action. So, you need to try to find a service that is going to give you what you want within the price range that you can afford.

5. Before you even pay for the service, you need to make sure that you get everything in writing. You will then need to read through this document very carefully to make sure that it covers everything that you have discussed, including what methods will be used to achieve the results you want. Once you are sure that you have read and agreed to these documents, you will want to have them signed by both parties. (For very large jobs, you may wish to consult with a lawyer before signing anything.)

6. Be sure that you clearly state what the terms of payment are going to be. While you are not going to find any SEO person or service who is willing to do work for free or work that will be paid on a performance basis. However, most will not shy away from a base plus performance incentive package. You also should not pay for everything up front. Instead, you should pay 50% up front, then 50% once the work was completed. All of this should be as clearly defined in your contract as is possible so that everyone who is involved will be protected, just in case expectations are not met.

What it all boils down to is that you need to have a basic understanding of SEO terminology and methodology.