In addition to the seo companies suggested here, I will add the following points.

- Make sure the seo company can give you the names of companies they have

  done seo work for, and possibly allow you to even call them.    If they cannot

  do that, or are unwilling to do that, yet are willing to ask your for significant money

  in a business model where results will not show for months after you have been

  paying  them money, that would be a big red flag.    

- Try your best to avoid trying to rank for very competitive keywords

    Example:  if you can rank for "car repair atlanta" and find that you are getting significant

    business, that is better than> if "car repair" is much harder to rank for and you try

   to rank for that, don't get ranked for that, spend a lot of money on the way to trying

   to do so, and don't even need that many customers.

-  Make absolutely sure if you sign a contract that they will not own your site at

   that point.

-   Try REAL hard to make sure there is no seriously bad info on them, like on

     rip-off report or scam, etc.    Of course dont' judge a company for a couple

    of bad customer mishaps, look for a serious pattern.

-  Some companies have been know to take technical ownership of your site by doing the seo,

    not tellling you this is in the fine print.

-  There have been cases where some companies perform excellent for a good rate for the first

   year, but then in the 2nd year, demand 3 times the 1st year rate.   In some cases, they

    will even tell you they will call your competitors, pull the plug on you and tell your

   competitor they will get your high position.  

   You may even try thinking of an unrelated industry and a keyword that is about as

    competitive as the ones you would do.    Do a search with that keyword.   Call

   up the top 3 sites that come up and ask to speak to the person / owner who does

   marketing.    Tell them who you are, your website and who does their seo.    This

   is fairly unorthodox, you may get pushback, but you may be surprised what

   people are willing to tell you, as you are sincere and honest and people will pick 

   up on that. 

   Good luck

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