Looking for the services of a search marketing company is not an easy task. There are a lot of 'cowboys' out there who are rogue IT employees claiming they have expertise in an industry that is a science.

1: Do some solid research and know what you are paying for before making enquiries. Are you looking to use Pay Per Click search advertising (Google Adwords for pain sponsored listings) or do you want to achieve natural, organic Search Engine results, or both?
If you have some understanding of exactly what you are looking for and what you hope to achieve, you will be able to assess each search marketing vendor more successfully.
You will also be less open to believing sales pitches from people claiming to be search engine experts. Make sure you are aware of what costs are involved with sponsored listings so that you don't pay a profit margin for something you could pay directly for your self. Be wary of people who constantly justify them selves. If a real expert is before you, the evidence will be clear.

2: Check the natural, organic search engine results of the companies you are speaking to. If their own company website doesn’t rank in Google’s top 10 results for top search engine related terms, then they clearly lack some credibility and expertise in the industry. Why trust a search engine marketing firm that can t even get their own website ranked! Be certain that terms they do promote to you aren't location specific such as 'website design and promotion perth western australia' - Who is going to type that?!?

3: Search engine marketing is a science. Its not a skill you can pick up in a day course at tafe or a unit you study at university. Many search engine firms offer search engine marketing as an add on service that they up sell. More often then not, this is something that is outsourced to a specialised search engine marketing firm anyway.
The only difference is that you end up paying profit fees for the website design firm when you could go straight to the search engine marketing firm.

4: Ask for case studies of the search engine marketing firms previous work, and ask who their clients are. Don't pay money without seeing some solid facts about what their previous work is and actually go to the search engines and check that what's in the case study is actually true!

5: Look for return on investment. You often buy what you pay for. Don't waste valuable money on a service that is dirt cheap and dirt in quality. A professional service requires a lot of work and hours and the pricing reflects this time put into your campaign. Also don't fall into the trap of paying $5000 for someone who is just going to build a bunch of links to your website.

6: Be realistic about your expectations.
If you are a small property firm then don’t expect to rank #1 for “real estate” with a $1K annual search engine optimisation budget. As an indication of the competition, Australia’s real estate firms may be spending $100K + per year to achieve their page one results. Highly competitive industries like this may require ongoing work. If you wish to compete make sure you have an appropriate budget for your market.

7: Results should be measured long term, but don't be stupid! A lot of firms will tell you its a 12 month investment and will convince you that you can't see any results for 12 months. This is a joke. Three months is a timeframe to see results. Every three months should be used as an evaluation. If your not improving at the 6 month mark then you will be hard pushed at the 9 month mark and after 12 months you've just wasted a years budget. If they tell you that they can't deliver within three months, move on! Your only talking to a scammer.

8: Firms that tell you they can't guarantee you results. These firms are the scammers that aren't confident in their own ability and want a scape goat in the event they can't deliver. A good search engine marketing firm will put their name on the line and offer you a guarantee on your money.

9: Search Engine Marketing may not transform your business. It all depends on your target market. Some markets have thousands of visitors that will search your industry and come to your website. Other markets aren't searched that high. But at the end of the day, the aim is to reach customers over the web. We've certainly see a transformation in every client we've dealt with.

10: Ask the search engine marketing firm who they would choose from your top choices. Its a good way to test their attitude and their customer relationship skills.