Ten Questions to Consider When Interviewing a Search Engine Marketing Firm

There are many questions to consider asking when interviewing a search engine marketing firm for the medical and dental industries. Here are 10 good ones to ponder.

1. Can you show me examples of clients in a similar sized market within my industry that have front page ranking?
2. What specifically will you do to achieve high ranking for me? (note mention of the word “proprietary” should raise a red flag)
3. Do you offer exclusivity? (you probably don’t want to work with a firm who will be optimizing your competition)
4. Do you offer a guarantee? (nobody can guarantee organic placement, look elsewhere if you are promised the world)
5. How will you track my progress? (look for a company who uses a non-proprietary statistical program like google analytics. You want to have an objective way to measure the progress of your campaign).
6. Will you own the strategy that is built for you? (website, content, domains, analytics)
7. Are they building the website in a proprietary format? In other words, are you unable to transfer the website away from their servers?
8. Will you be leasing a link structure/campaign? OR Will you own the links they acquire for you?
9. Does the company have experience in the medical or dental industry?
10. Are they going to host the site and email? Is this an extra fee?