I have worked in seo for nearly 10 years and I am sad to say, the professional side to the business has always been very small. SEO is essentially controlled by sales organisations, rather than qualified technicians who genuinely understand how search engine optimisation works.
Sales organisations sell their own ‘unique’ solutions, essentially sales packages, based on your company size and how much they feel confident of squeezing out of your business.
Fees are commonly charged monthly, which is bizare as SEO really doesn’t need to be done time and time again each month. SEO is the process of optimising individual web pages for specific words or phrases you wish search engines such as google, yahoo, bing etc, to find you for.
Some agencies justify monthly fees to cover link building, social media activity, directory listings etc – activities that can be potentially very harmful to your seo page rankings.
If you are looking for great seo advice, I would recommend you search for a local seo consultant or seo engineer who can sit down with you in person. A good consultant will learn about your business, understand what you can and can’t do online and work with you to form a strategy that meets your needs.
An seo consultant is going to charge you for the time they spend working with you and they can outline their expectations within an agreed timescale.
Only work with people you feel comfortable are being straight forward and honest – people who explain everything in non-technical terms. If you feel the person genuinely wants to help you improve your business online and they are going to be reliable and effective – you have found the right person!
Good luck!