Essentially you pay an SEO firm to place advertising in such a way as to allow your site to be ranked in first place (preference being granted to the highest bidder). In the end, the SEO firm honored their commitment to move your ranking to number one, but they often do so using a method you could do yourself (advertising) while doing little in the way of long term results. As soon as you stop paying for SEO services, the advertising goes away and so does your ranking.

The rise of illegitimate SEO firms has grown tremendously making it difficult for quality SEO firms to do business in a trusting environment.

Legitimate firms want you to ask questions. They are happy to provide testimonials and may even go so far as to list the services they provided for each client. Ethical SEO firms will help you understand the relationship between the content of your website and the correlation to improved long-term search rankings.

Quality SEO does not resort to hidden words, keyword stuffing or other black hat marketing techniques. A professional SEO consultant understands their job is to help search engines define the best material on the web and help their client become one of the best providers of content for the web.

This double-edged approach takes into account the genuine needs of both client and the Word Wide Web community at large. By attempting to bolster the desires of both, the ethical SEO firm is seem as a partner in trust for both parties.

Managing SEO techniques is something that can be learned (and many site owners are), but if you're going to search for someone to assist you it is in your long-term best interest to find a firm that really helps you and not one that simply props you up until they get paid.

It's not wrong to want quick results, which is why you can always develop your own PPC advertising program. However, you should view this scenario as a short-term solution. Ethical SEO development will assist you, but you may need to be patient while it gently, but consistently works to impress the search engines.