• By John Cunningham
• Published 08/3/2009
• Article Writing

The times are hard and the immediate future is not looking bright either. There is more reason for us to be discriminating when deciding to spend money on anything, such as if you are a company looking to hire an SEO service provider. The goal of SEO is to return your investment in the form of increased sales, maybe not overnight, but in the medium or long term. As such, it is important that you know the types of providers that you can buy SEO services from. SEO service providers come in different types, mainly according to size and the way they operate. The first, and probably the highest in terms of number, are the freelance SEO providers. Some freelance SEO providers have day jobs and do SEO in their free time. And because SEO involves many different techniques, most of these freelance SEO providers sub-contract the techniques that they are not experts in to colleagues. We have nothing against freelance SEO service providers, especially if they have a good portfolio of clients who can vouch for their professionalism and expertise. Because no matter what the bigger SEO firms say, there will always be freelancers who can do SEO as good as they can.

If you want to save on costs, you can also choose to buy SEO services from offshore SEO companies. The good thing about the Internet is that it opens opportunities for every one to contribute to its growth, no matter where they are in the world. This is best seen in how SEO has become a

formidable industry in such countries as India, the Philippines, China and Vietnam. These countries are home to SEO services providers who deliver results as good as their US counterparts can, and at a fraction of their rates. If you choose to go with offshore SEO services providers, though, be ready to contend with the language barrier. Providers from India and the Philippines though are educated in the English language, so you will probably have better chances of being able to communicate well with them. Finally, you can also opt to buy SEO services from the more reputable, high-profile providers from the US and the UK. In terms of structure, these firms will have the team members necessary to provide a comprehensive turnkey work. The typical account team will have a project manager who will oversee all aspects of the project; a lead search engine optimizer, who will conduct all the market research and competitive analysis, and track the results once the campaign is launched; a search engine optimizer, who is mainly responsible for the daily tweaks that the lead optimizer will recommend, based on the developments; the programmer or coder, whose job is to optimize the code by developing customized tools and reporting systems; and the copywriter, who will write all the required web copies, articles and other contents according the keyword requirements.

At the end of the day, you choice of where to buy SEO services will depend on different factors, including your budget, your time frame, and whatever specialized requirements that you may have as well.