Many Search Engine Optimization companies unfortunately know what this involves. Many times you will see a "one size fits all" package, link popularity development in the form of submitting to link farms, or even the popular "Submit Your Site to 1000's of Search Engines" scam. While the basic principle of each of these ideas are true, execution is extremely important.
Above of all, your web site needs human attention. A real person should carefully analyze your site before any work is done. Get them on the phone and ask them questions. There should be a clear and concrete process that the Search Engine Optimization company uses and fits to each client’s needs. They should also have a clear idea of what your goals are for your web site.
The first thing that should be done is keyword research. Like any kind of advertising, you need to know where your target market goes and how they are going to find your business. The chosen keywords should apply to the theme of the web site. High rankings for these keywords should also be obtainable on your given budget. If you are a web design company servicing only a particular area, then targeting a term such as "web design service" is overkill. The cost for obtaining high rankings for a term such as that will be far greater than what you will make from the exposure, as much of your web site traffic will not be targeted enough.
Once keywords have been chosen for the web site, the content should be updated to reflect them. This may include slight changes to the meta tags, page titles and text headings; or it could involve adding additional sections to the site, rewriting content and reorganizing the web site's structure. It all depends on the specific requirements of the site and target market.
Once the on-page content optimization is complete, link popularity development needs to be done. A link development campaign should be done to acquire quality incoming links to the web site. This phase of search engine optimization should take place as soon as possible and can be continued as needed. Reciprocal linking is fine as long as some caution is used.
There are many sketchy services out there that use huge networks of gambling and pharmacy sites with no unique content. Always make sure that each incoming link can be interpreted by the search engines as a 'vote' by that site for yours. It is worthless and possibly dangerous if the site links out to link farms and Free-For-All sites (FFA's). Writing articles with a link to your web site, getting people to post on forums and message boards, and advertising or getting links to drive targeted traffic to your site are great methods to use in improving your link popularity.
For the most part, you get what you pay for with Search Engine Optimization. A quick fix rarely works, and if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Talk to the search engine optimization company about your concerns and make sure they understand your goals. Read their site and make sure they seem legitimate. Ask for results they've obtained for previous clients. Methods that not effective and have a chance to get a site banned include hiding text or links, participating in link farms, keyword stuffing, repeat search engine submissions, and copying web sites to multiple domains.
Proper SEO does not involve tricks. Web sites that have well written and well focused content, have been advertised in one way or another (including link popularity development), and overall are a good informational resource will get traffic from the search engines. Search engines are constantly updating ways to weed out the spamming and illegal SEO methods, so think long term with any search engine optimization campaign.