Today I was aksed by a friend what my experiences are of an SEO company based in Leeds, (I won't reveal the name here) - after asking around, I get a very clear indication that this company is not one that you should be using. In doing research on SEO company reputation, I came across this page: http://www.seopros.org/articles/expectations.asp

SEOPROS (or rather the use it's legal name, OSEOP) is an organisation that promotes the SEO industry and seeks to set SEO standard - which is very diffucult in the ever changing SEO landscape. The page linked above entitled 'Client Expectations of SEO companies and marketeers' lists 11 things that should be expected of a reputable SEO company. These are:

• All the items below should be done in a way that reflects well on your site and does not risk de-listing or blackballing of the site by search engines.
   
• The optimization consultant should develop a keywords list for the site, using resources that provide information on what queries are used most often by users, not simply what you have requested, since it's likely that yours aren't the ones used most.
   
• Make adjustments to titles and meta tags using the keywords list and targeting the right pages for optimization of specific terms (general site analysis).
   
• Optimization of all known HTML elements using keywords which add relevancy to a page.
• Proper submission of the site to all major directories.
   
• Researching of directories specific to your topics.
   
• Tracking of site's status on search engines. Were all pages indexed?
   
• Submission to search engine site reviewers. Besides indexing pages most engines have channels of some sort and these always provide a boost to relevancy. Sometimes boosters are obtained on other engines as well as the one that did the review.
   
• Your search engine marketer should be making suggestions for new content which can be more readily optimized for your most important terms in the keywords list.
   
• Most sites at some point are redesigned. Your search engine consultant should have made suggestions for a more search engine friendly design if needed.
   
• A knowledgeable search engine marketer will provide a list of prospective reciprocal links best suited to raising relevancy on engines which use link analysis.

This list is a bit dated because it does not include things like OVISE (optmising videos in search engines) or social media, but for a traditional view of SEO expectations, it is quite good.