So, the other day a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consultant contact me via email and promised me that he could get 100's of customers to DeskAway if we use his service for a few months. He told me he was pretty reputed in the industry and that I check out his website and blog and judge for myself. Thus began my quest for a reference check online -
First, I went through his blog and website (I believe a blog is more important than the website) to see what his content was all about and that how many people he was already engaging through the number of comments (on the blog).
Next, I searched Google to see how many incoming links the website and the blog were getting. The more incoming links, the better - which means that more people are linking to his content. I checked the blog's PageRank and Alexa Ranking. If there were many highly ranked websites linking to his site then his PageRank would be high. I think it was 5/10, which was not bad.
The YouTube videos on the site helped me see his talking and presentation style. You can learn a lot about a person when you can see and hear them talk!
Then, I checked his previous work and recommendations at LinkedIn. Its like almost everyone has a LinkedIn account these day with a list of all their accomplishments, recommendations etc.
This month I have been trying to use Twitter and make sense of it for my personal use. I decided to check what this guy tweets about. Also, its important to see the ratio between followers to following. It was almost the same - which meant that he could be following a lot of people in the hopes that they follow him back. Also, quick Twitter
search on his name gave me some insight into what others were talking about him.
So, armed with all this information, I will begin a conversation with him sometime next week. Its almost like I already know a lot about him and his works!
There, this was my quick and easy 10 minute reference check! I would love to hear if there are any other tools you'll use.
