Most SEO companies offer search engine optimization services in so called packages. For example SEO company "A" offering package X, which includes directory submissions, keywords research, on page optimization, link building etc, but SEO Company "B" offers all those SEO services plus social book marking and video marketing.

How are you to determine which SEO package is right for you?

In our opinion the only thing that matters is where your site ranks for your targeted keyword phrases and how many of those new search engine visitors you site convert to buyers or leads for your business.
Most SEO companies use the same search engine promotion methodologies. Starting with keyword research, competitive analysis, website audit, content optimization, link building, social media marketing, and finally visitor and conversion tracking. The question than is;

How do you choose a SEO company that can deliver top search engine positioning and a positive ROI for your business?

This is a very tough question to answer in one sentence. but the most important barometer is their client references and most recent top 10 results on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

You also want to ask questions like:

• What are they going to do on your site? Are they going to add a site map, improve internal linking, optimize content etc?
• Are they going to make a lot of visible changes on your site?
• Are they going to add/edit existing content? Who will pay for the content creation? Who will approve the content that will be posted to your site?
• How will they track the ranking results. visitor stats and conversions?
• When can you expect to see your site ranking in the top 10 top 5?
• Are they using methods that will help your site's ranking with universal search on Google?
• What happens if your site's ranking drop or your site gets penalized due to their work?
• How will they build links to your site? Where will the links come from? How many links per month will they build?
• Are they going to use social media, twitter, facebook, linked and video and content sharing sites to promote your site?
• Who will be your main contact at the SEO company? Can you call them email them etc?

There are big differences in the ranking guarantees SEO companies offer. Some offer no guarantee of any sort, others may make guarantees that cover only Bing and Yahoo, but not specifically Google.

Most of our clients have hired SEO companies in the past. They all had been disappointed by their SEO company's performance and the fact the SEO company took their money up-front and didn't achieve the rankings they promised. This has left our clients with a general mistrust toward SEO's and internet marketing agencies.

We would recommend at least checking out past references and testimonials of the SEO company you consider hiring, even if they don't offer a ranking guarantee.

SEO pricing can range from a few hundred dollars a month to thousands of dollars. The pricing set by SEO companies largely depends on their reputation, previous client's results, and their client's budget for SEO.

These companies can be very expensive, in some cases charging fees of over $100K per month. The more profitable a SEO company is, the higher their pricing becomes, since they can pick the wealthier clients they want to work for.

In essence, just like with buying a brand name item, you end up paying for the name and their huge advertising and sales team's budget. At the same time you don't want to hire the cheapest SEO company, charging bargain basement price of $50 a month for their services. You can budget at least a one thousand dollars a month for a decent SEO company to work on your site.

Each keyword phrase carries a certain level of competitiveness. Pricing for SEO largely depends on the "keyword difficulty" factor. For example, if your site is already ranking in the first 50-100 on Google for a specific keyword phrase. The SEO company will take that into consideration in their pricing.

Of course ranking in the first 100 on Google for a very competitive phrase like "car insurance" is much different from ranking for a phrase like "los angeles property management company".
While the phrase "car insurance" has a few million competing pages, the "los angeles property management company" may have less than ten thousand competing pages.

Submit a SEO quote request to at least 3-4 SEO companies to evaluate their services and pricing and see which one fits your SEO budget.

SEO or search engine optimization targets the organic search results on Google, Yahoo and Bing, but there are other channels to attract targeted visitors to your site. Your SEO company should be using some or all of the internet marketing strategies in their SEO campaign.

Your site should have a blog. Blogging is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and post timely updates about your products and services.

You should create a LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Myspace account. In addition create profiles and participate on discussion groups and forums related to your industry and market.

Start a content creation campaign to distribute high quality ezine articles on ezine sites, and other social media publishing platforms such as Scribd, Hubpages, Livejournal, Propeller, Slideshare , Folkd, Reddit etc.

Video marketing on Youtube and many other video sharing site is a great way to get your company or brand name out. Viral/Buzz marketing is the low cost effective strategy to get people talking about your brand or website.