After spending last week in Florida at the Search Insider Summit, I was excited to see our emcee, Gord Hotchkiss, was recently interviewed for Forbes on his thoughts and ideas on hiring a search engine consultant. The full article can be found here but I’ve highlighted a topic Gord discussed—finding your SEO soulmate.

- Watch out for guarantees—it’s impossible to guarantee top position search results, and a guarantee may be used to leverage you into a bad deal.

- You should do the talking—a true SEO soulmate will want to learn everything about your company and ask questions rather than giving you a sales pitch.

- Ask for examples of successful results—your potential SEO soulmate should readily show you the success of previous or current clients.

- Know their services—you should have a good idea of what they plan to do to drive traffic to your site. There should be no secrets between you.

- Look for a long term relationship—a company who offers a full range of services can better serve your eCommerce site in the long run.

So I ask the question… Have you found your soulmate yet?