SEO......Company or Freelancer?

I think the only prudent course of action is to fully vet whomever you plan to do business with. Know what some of the blackhat methods are, and question your potential vendors accordingly. Large or small, there are folks who may engage in blackhat techniques.

You should also ask for references and research the clients they provide.

Both have their good and bad points. When you go for SEO companies, the charges most likely will be higher, but you get more variety of services from them. For freelancer, the charges are usually lower, but they do not always give you what you need for your sites. Look through the reviews from past users and you have to judge for yourself what you are looking for.

go for company mate. it will be cost more for you. but they have some responsibility on their work.

I think if you are smart, hardworking person and have a goal to become a good seo specialist = company + freelance. In results you'll have great experience and portfolio.

Black hat methods are not bad... they simply work. Even Moz had black hat methods posted on their website until awhile ago... You trust Moz don't you?

Most big company's simply outsource to freelancers. As long as you find a good freelancer you should be ok.

I have to agree that a mix of the 2 is best. Have an in house SEO guy that can fill you in on the every day happenings, but don't rely on him to compete with massive companies with a much larger budget. Freelancing can always add to the investment.

Hey,

Personally, I would recommend hiring a freelancer who is a professional at what they do.

I have come to notice that dealing with one person and establishing a relationship with them will go a much longer way.

Companies, of course, have many customers and you just can't get the 1 on1 attention from a company that you can from an individual.

By the way, Elance is the best place to find professionals for affordable prices online, in my opinion.

Hope this helps!

-Josh

Spoke to a potential client yesterday that's had 4 (two well known large ones) different SEO firms represent them in the last 3 years.

He now has 3 cheap ass micro sites, with accompanying ads on google and bing local.

Between these 4 crappy micro sites and the local ads with accompanying citations he's now sporting 3 different addresses with 3 different phone numbers. His NAP consistency is screwed.

I did his keyword research then ran him through a rank checker showing his position in the top 50 returns for his top 20 key phrases across google, bing, and yahoo.

He came up one time on the 4th page of google for a facebook page he didn't even know he had. And it has the wrong address listed.

Large firms are more marketing hype than anything. They call me all the time to tell me that my sites are under performing and that they can solve it for me for only...... Wait.....

$99.00 per month for the basic package.
$199.00 per month for the silver package.
Or $299.00 per month for the gold package, which includes a website!! OH MY!!

Get with an individual provider or small local agency. Preferably one where you can get in your car and drive to their office in 20 mins or less.

That way you can get to them and strangle them quickly if they tank your internet presence.

If you're a small to medium business be prepared to pay between $500.00 - $3000.00 per month though. Real SEO costs real money.

As a freelancer myself I can tell you that freelancers who are professional do everything to maintain their reputation because we want more business and repeat business comes often from word of mouth. We value clients and do what we can to assist them at all times.

what do you mean by carrier? what are you carrying?

SEO Services over here at Warriorforum are the Best.....

Company

Pros - Have a large support base and are more likely to perform reputable work
Cons - More expensive

Freelancer

Pros - Cheaper
Cons - Single source dependent. If he/she is sick, you've got no point of contact, and no work going on.

If you really want a very good service then no doubt go for the company because companies won't give u any excuses, they give u only better services

I think freelancer is the best option to have!!

Before you hire a freelancer or agency you must understand the basic principles and fundamentals of seo so that you know exactly what to expect.

When I first started I used agencies for my seo, then as I started to learn and expand I hired a few freelancers and trained them.

Wow tons of great responses. So some of you say use Freelancers? Cheaper but some downfalls. Just starting out this may be a better option.

Is there agreements out there that keep you safe? Or contracts?

I assume you should ask for tons of references if using a freelancer.

Both SEO Company and SEO Freelancer are good. I suggest you to go with the whom whose portfolio is truly impressive and which one's strategy is quite good in-compare to others.

Why look further when you have so many talented forum members? Can't you see the number of testimonials some get? Look for the service that is the longest running and has the most positive reviews. You can't go wrong with that. Those type of sellers understand their reputation is worth in gold.

Both are good. But according to me as for quality services you should go for seo company which has its name in the IT field. But if you are looking for services at cheap prices then you can hire freelancers.

it is always better to go with a reputed company, make sure that you are provided with latest list of developments while they work on your site. If you have ample time, you could also consider doing some link build strategies like social bookmarking, forum, blog posting all by yourself.

As a SEO freelancer i am very satisfy with my job and make better money from my profession.

Thanks

I prefer to go for Company which provides First-Class SEO services rather than an Body.
Because Company provide you complete detail, reports based on weekly/monthly as per client request.

If your budget is low and you see some of good work of freelancer then go for him.

If your budget is high and you don't want to take any risk with your website then hire a company which offer professional SEO Services.

Here's what I recommend, regardless of whether it's a firm or a freelancer. Ask to see a sampling of their past clients and check them out in SEMRush.com. Look for any sudden, dramatic fluctuations in search engine traffic. If you do see such activity, compare those dates against Moz's history of Google updates.

If you do see apparent overnight losses of traffic on dates that correspond with Penguin and/or Panda updates, I'd consider looking elsewhere.

A company is just a bunch of 'free lancers' that got together.

Find what ranks websites. Take your idea, find person(s) to replicate this process for you.

There actually many Companies who use Black-hat methods to optimize your website, it’s not just the freelancers. What you can do to prevent this is stipulate exactly how you want them to optimize your website, tell what to do and what not to do. Have an idea of the type of black-hat methods and insist that they do not use those methods. Or like many other entrepreneurs you can learn to do it yourself and get the job done the way you want it.

Companies usually fail to deliver custom solutions and they'll charge you for edits/rework. IMO a freelancer would be your best bet. Customer service is something to think about too.

A SEO company is better. It will be ensured on ranking as well as indexing.

It depends! There are pretty good freelancer on the internet, you just need to really filter them. You can hire some freelancer via oDesk or Elance. Make sure to conduct an interview, ask for complete plan before, ask for sample project, and ask everything that relates to the project.

It is also the same when you choose a company. Some just promises good results. So whatever you choose make sure to investigate first.

Then I hear lots of freelancers use black hat methods which are bad.A SEO company is better.

Hi
SEO Companies: For giving SEO Projects to company there are many advantages, they will work properly as well as we will get the weekly work reports. and the roi
Freelancer: The customer will not be knowing whether the freelancer is working or not, he will give only monthly reports.

I think both have their own benefits. If you are working in a SEO company, you will get experience, income as well as promotion. But if you are working as a freelancer, you will get only experience and income.