Do you think it's better to go with a BIG SEO company or one person that really knows what they are doing?

[Brian Combs]

I've created and managed a large agency, and I currently work as an independent, so I believe I have some insight to both sides.

The large agency has the advantage of size and, hopefully, breadth of experience in their people. Over the last few years, SEO has diverged into a number of different disciplines and practices, and it's unlikely that anyone can truly be an expert at all of them.

All this expertise comes at a cost, however. Large agencies have high overhead, and are generally expensive.

They also tend to have teams of differential abilities. If you get on the A Team, that's great, but if you end up with the C or D Team, watch out!

And the people you work with in the sales process might not be the same as those you work with once you sign. This isn't necessarily bad, but it is something to be aware of.

With a sole practitioner, you have the advantage of dealing with the same person the whole way through the process.

And while some of us have been doing SEO for a long time, it's hard to compete with the breadth of knowledge and experience that a team has.

The big disadvantage is that a lot of individuals are doing SEO just to fill the gaps until they find their next "real job". Once that happens, you may find him or her a lot less available.

The toughest thing is that it's hard to know if you're getting what you pay for. SEO is an inherently nebulous activity, and there are many opportunities to hide the actual results. Some firms/individuals don't even like to talk about what they're doing for you (the input), much less focus on the results (the outputs).

It sounds like your skeptical meter is on a high sensitivity. That's a good thing.