Why? Because they can. Their reputation is widely known and they are constantly in demand. Many of them are too busy to spend time haggling over price or technique and why should they? Their reputation is rock solid, their results outstanding, ROI for their work impressive. Companies are lining up to pay for their expertise and to benefit from amazing income generation potential that a well-executed search engine optimization campaign can bring. To quote one of best:

"I choose clients who choose me" - Jill Whalen, HighRankings.com

So how do you recognize top performing SEOs? Most will be regular contributers to popular webmaster or search engine forums and many will have their own newsletter or web log keeping people up to date with latest developments in search industry. Some write regular articles about search engines and have them published in popular search engine portals and resource sites such as Search Engine Guide, Search Engine Watch, Pandia and SEO Today. Or perhaps you've seen their articles syndicated on news channels like Moreover, ClickZ or ZDNet.

Of course some of them are so busy, they don't have time to write articles. But if they have a good reputation, chances are people are talking about them. Of course opposite is also true. Want to know more about their reputation in industry? Conduct a search for their name in search engine of your choice. I don't mean name of their company either - I mean name of actual person who would be responsible for optimization of your site. If you find lots of positive references, they're a keeper. Finding negative discussions or comments? Better think twice. Can't find them at all? Then they probably aren't worth talking about.

Once you've located a top performing SEO, don't expect to call shots. Search engine optimizers have certain expectations of their clients. Let me run through a few of them. To keep your SEO happy:

1. Don't automatically expect a guarantee - Not all SEOs offer them. Not because they aren't good at what they do, but because offering a guarantee can give false impression that SEOs have full control over search engine rankings when in fact only engine has this. Also, while many top SEOs will offer a satisfaction guarantee, many others don't believe a guarantee is necessary because of their public track record of results and because they feel a client should trust them fully before signing on rather than relying on some piece of paper to protect them.

2. Don't choose by price - The most expensive SEOs aren't necessarily best. By same token, don't make mistake of thinking SEO is not worth much. Search engine marketing is not an "add on" or a short term ad campaign - it is a continuously evolving marketing channel that can bring upwards of 50 percent of your total site traffic if done correctly. Therefore you should allocate a good portion of your marketing budget towards it each year.

(WR) = Web Rank, (DS) = Dakota Sullivan

Question 1 (WR) - With Yahoo purchasing Inktomi, how will this affect LookSmart's search results?

(DS) LookSmart, Inktomi and Yahoo are discussing our relationship going forward. For now, it's business as usual, with LookSmart listings being distributed throughout Inktomi network, and Inktomi providing fall through results on LookSmart.com and on LookSmart's hosted properties.

Question 2 (WR) - A recent email from LookSmart Public Relations staff mentions "The Yahoo! deal makes LookSmart prime for partnership (or picking!)". Are LookSmart currently looking for new business partners? Have LookSmart received any take over offers?

(DS) LookSmart already partners with more than 100 major portals, search engines and ISPs including MSN, About.com, AltaVista, Netscape, Inktomi, InfoSpace, Cox Communications and Road Runner in US, MSN in Japan, Australia and UK, Lycos in Japan and Yahoo in Australia. We are continually in discussion with other portals and search engines in US and around world, as we expand our distribution network.

Question 3 (WR) - Following industry backlash last year when LookSmart moved from a directory to a pay per click model, there seems to have been a large loss of search market share and customer loyalty. Does LookSmart now regret their change of business model and are there any plans to counter market share loss?

(DS) The truth is, our customer base has grown significantly since last April. At that time, a number of businesses had paid a one-time fee to be reviewed for our search directory, yet we had no customers paying an ongoing fee. Today, we have more than 30,000 businesses renewing their accounts with us each month, and actively participating in their relationship with us. This spring, we'll be introducing first update to our Small Business Listings product. The update will give customers more control over their account management and performance tracking, new tools to optimize their campaigns, and reduce costs for adding listings and making changes to their listings. Here are some of new features you can expect:

Simpler submission of new listings - automated checks that look for incomplete submissions or potential violations of editorial guidelines, ability to automatically upload a large number of listings for our customers who have applicable contracts (our larger clients), and greater detail around guidelines and submission requirements.

Flexible options for grouping listings together - Multiple listing campaigns can be grouped together within a single billing account or each listing campaign could be set up in its own account, each with its own billing. (Note that monthly budgets can already be set up for each campaign)

Different levels of on-line account access - Several people can be given access to same account, but each person would have their own log in and password. Additionally, each user could be given a different level of access to account; for example, one user would just be able to see campaign information, but not change it, while a second user had permission to view and edit campaign information. This will be highly beneficial to SEOs, agencies or other people who manage listings on behalf of clients.

Ability to set flight dates - Ability to set a specific start date and end date for a particular listing campaign. This is especially relevant to advertisers with seasonal products or promotions. (Note that monthly budgets are already available to advertisers to help manage spending levels)

Question 4 (WR) - That same email from LookSmart Public Relations staff talks about how "LookSmart is plotting against Google". Can you explain this?