There are plenty of things that the amateur website owner can do to help his website to rank well, and there’s lots of information available at various different forums and blogs on the internet. However, for anyone wanting to make a real break through in the Search Engines, particulalry, those in very competitive areas, engaging an SEO professional is the sensible approach.
Two of the main benefits are experience and economies of scale. An SEO professional will have learnt what works and what doesn’t through experience. He will know websites that are worth getting links from and those that are not. He will also be working on a number of projects at the same time, thus cutting down on a lot of the research time that the amateur website owner would need to do.
If you’re engaging someone to do SEO, make sure you speak to the person who is going to do the work. Beware their are SEO resellers out there who sell you a package and then sub-contract it to someone else. This may not give you the best experience. Find someone who will work with you, will report back on what they’ve done and are prepared to show evidence that their input has improved your search engine ranking.