SEO: what to know

What the job involves, what changes the price, and what to ask a pro.

What seo is

An SEO specialist improves how your website appears in search results by auditing the site, fixing technical problems, improving content and building quality links from other sites. Businesses hire SEO help when their site is hard for search engines to read or when their pages do not match what customers search for.

Signs you need it

  • Your website does not show up for the searches your customers use when they look for your service
  • Your pages load slowly or do not work well on phones, and you are not sure what to fix
  • Your site was redesigned or moved, and traffic dropped afterward
  • Your competitors appear above you for searches you should win, and you do not know why
  • Your site has many pages with the same title or content, and search engines are confused about which to show

What the pro does

  • Audit the site for technical problems such as broken links, slow pages, duplicate content and crawl errors
  • Research the searches your customers use and compare them with what your pages say
  • Improve the page titles, headings, descriptions and content so they match those searches
  • Fix the technical issues in the site code or settings, or give your developer a clear list
  • Look at the links pointing to your site and identify any that could hurt your standing
  • Report the changes, the reasons for them and the measures you will watch over time

What changes the price

Every job is different, so we do not publish prices. These are the things that move the quote up or down.

  • The number of pages and the size of the site
  • How many technical problems the audit finds and how many need a developer's time
  • How much new content must be written or rewritten, and by whom
  • The number of locations, languages or product lines the work covers
  • How much link research and outreach is included
  • How often the specialist will review the results and adjust the work

What a written quote should spell out

  • The audit scope, including the pages, the tools and the checks covered
  • The list of fixes, which fixes the specialist makes and which the developer makes
  • The content work included, and the number of pages to be written or rewritten
  • The reporting schedule and the measures the reports will cover
  • Whether link building is included, and how links will be sourced and checked

Questions to ask before you hire

  • What will you change first, and why does that matter for my site?
  • Can you show me results from sites you worked on, with the details of the work?
  • Will you guarantee rankings, and if not, what do you measure?
  • Which tools do you use, and do I need to pay for any of them?
  • Will the links you build be from real sites that users visit?
  • Who owns the content and the reports you produce for my site?

Red flags

  • Guarantees first page rankings or a set amount of traffic
  • Buys links or uses link schemes, and will not explain how links are sourced
  • Asks for your site login without a written agreement on what they will change
  • Sends a report full of technical jargon but no clear list of what to fix

What you can do yourself

You can check your site's pages for titles and descriptions, test your pages on a phone, read the search console reports for your site and fix broken links yourself. Hire an SEO specialist when the audit needs a full review, when the site has technical problems a developer must fix or when you need content and link work done at scale.

Licenses and permits

No license is usually required for SEO work. Ask instead for references from clients with sites like yours, examples of audits with the details removed and a clear description of the methods used; check with your state or local business licensing office if the specialist operates as a registered business.

SEO questions

How long does SEO take to show results?

It depends on the site, the competition and the state of the site when work begins. No specialist can promise a date or a position, so ask for the measures and the review schedule instead.

Do I need to hire a developer too?

Often yes, for technical fixes. Ask the specialist which fixes they can make and which need a developer, and get that split in writing.

What is a link audit?

It is a review of the sites that link to yours, to find any that look spammy or low quality. Ask the specialist how they decide which links to flag and what they do about them.

Pro reviewers

Pros who offer seo remotely can improve this guide, like Wikipedia. We check every edit before it goes live. Every approved edit is credited in the edit history and on the pro's profile.

Edit history

How guide reviews work

How it works

  1. 1. Describe the job

    Pick the service, add your ZIP and a sentence about what is going on.

  2. 2. Pick the pros you want

    See screened pros who serve your ZIP and choose who you want to hear from.

  3. 3. They reach out

    They contact you the way you chose: phone, email or in-app messages.

More design and marketing guides

Find a pro near you

Find a pro

About this guide

Request seo