How to Choose an SEO Agency
Learning how to choose an SEO Agency can save you time, energy and a ton of money. Hiring the right SEO company should improve your websites’ visibility in search engines and ultimately provide a return on investment. Read our brief guide on how to choose an SEO expert.
If you Choose an SEO Company that Fails
Because search engine optimization takes time, and SEO strategies have to be, well… brilliant. Too bad there isn’t a big red arrow pointing directly at Googles best SEO company. It can be months before you realize that you made the wrong choice in selecting an seo company or local seo agency and because of failures by your SEO partner, you could be facing disastrous results.
If you are in the market for a Digital Marketing partner to handle your SEO, we will cover what questions you should ask your SEO business candidates as well as what to avoid when choosing an SEO Agency.
Understanding Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization has to be professionally researched, well planned and technically executed. Each SEO strategy should be implemented according to the unique business needs and the industry.
Best SEO Company
While there are a lot of SEO agencies in the marketplace, and many wondering what does a seo company entail, not all keep up with the everchanging industry of search engine optimization or can justify digital SEO services. Even with the best intentions, many marketing companies don’t possess the skillset to compete in competitive Google searches.
True SEO agencies spend enormous resources on research, development, testing, case studies, marketing trends, understanding Google’s best practices, and emerging technologies. They also compare seo agencies against each other, research technical seo strategies and digital marketing services, look for advancements in web development and social media marketing, and look for ways for advancements into the national positions seo company seek to achieve.
The Wrong People Offering SEO Services
Everyone has gotten robocalls or a spammy email from companies offering shady SEO services and this is not creating seo company trust amongst the public. Anyone offering to handle your SEO campaign without understanding your companies value proposition should be a red flag.
Scams
Many of them are simply scams you should avoid altogether. Anyone that promises you a guaranteed placement on page one of Google can’t be considered a trustworthy seo company and should be ignored.
It can be hard to tell the difference between a reputable SEO agency and a fraud. Below are some common mistakes you won’t want to make.
Common Mistakes When Choosing an SEO Company
- Choosing “quick fix” SEO firms. Be careful in choosing an SEO agency that promises first-page placement or no.1 position for your website. Never choose an Agency that claims to have an SEO strategy without knowing your business.
- Not knowing what questions to ask to help your business. Good SEO companies should ask good questions that you didn’t think about.
- Don’t choose an SEO agency that develops your site using multiple iframes.
- You should be careful of any SEO agencies that use hidden links and text online.
- Be on the lookout for any SEO Agency that “spins” copy as opposed to publishing original content.
- Avoid any SEO Agency whose team is willing to work with a client site that is not mobile-friendly.
- It’s not a good idea to work with a company that participates in suspicious linking schemes with sites from unrelated businesses or industries.
- Avoid any SEO firm that is buying numerous paid links from unknown sites for rankings.
- Don’t choose an SEO agency based off of unrealistic promises for organic results.
- Be wary of SEO agencies that will let you change the content on an optimized page without consulting the company.
Hiring A Bad SEO Company
Choosing a bad SEO agency can also harm your brand and cause damages to your business by having your website to get deindexed. In some circles, this type of SEO is called Black Hat SEO.
Issues from black-hat SEO can take years and tons of money to correct and can crush a small local business who rely on Local SEO services for business. These bad actors in digital marketing follow unethical practices that violate search engine guidelines in manipulating results.
Black Hat SEO is implementing SEO tactics that are outside of Google’s rules. In many instances, Black Hat SEO exploits a weakness in Google’s algorithm.</font size>
But ultimately back hat tactics will hurt your organic SEO goals. Google’s algorithm has been and will continue to get more and more advanced. So any questionable tactic you use today, may hurt you tomorrow. Stick with a white hat service to help your business.</font size>
Some of these unethical practices in SEO are:
- “Shadow” domains – the use of misleading redirects to channel users to a site.
- “Doorway” pages – a page filled with keywords that are automatically created within the site.
- Attempting to hide keywords on a page (this technique has been defunct since the inception of Google).
- Working with fake WHOIS information or using a variety of aliases.
- Obtaining traffic from counterfeit search engines or traffic generators as well as scumware or spyware.
The right company will not do this
The result of bad SEO practices can be very damaging to your website and your business. Either it will drag your site’s ranking down to the bottom or worse, remove your site from the search engines altogether.
Unscrupulous online tactics can get your website penalized or de-indexed. For that reason, you have to be very careful in choosing the right SEO Agency for your business.
Finding a Good SEO Company
Finding a good, quality marketing partner, that makes honest predictions and delivers results can be a challenge. Developing a good Search Engine Optimization strategy is not an easy task and should not be underestimated.
There are many misconceptions in choosing who to trust with your online visibility.
Some of the most common misconceptions when choosing an SEO Agency are:
- The best ones are the highest ranking SEO companies.
- To reach to the top of search engines, you only need SEO consulting.
- Organic search results can be guaranteed.
- Any good SEO will do.
- All SEO prices are the same.
- The only thing we need for SEO is a bunch of Citations with correct NAP.
- SEO should cost the same regardless of your business vertical and keyword needs.
Be careful and find the right fit
Make sure that you don’t fall into any of the above traps and you will save yourself countless hours frustration and a lot of money.
It is best that you will educate yourself on what is SEO and how it works. Learning SEO basics will help you to have a better understanding of the processes and strategies used by the SEO gurus.
Asking the right questions of potential SEO firms is an important step in choosing an internet marketing partner.
Choose an SEO Company
In choosing a SEO company to work on your site, you should ask at least the following:
- Ask for reviews from past clients
- Get a sample of results of successful SERPS
- Ask how many years they have been in business and what type of Internet Marketing experience do they have
- How many pages do they intend to optimize for a specific price
- Do they offer website monitoring, backup, and maintenance?
- What is their online Social Media strategy
- Ask about their process for traffic generation and conversion rate optimization
- What is their content marketing strategy
- Ask if they offer reports. What reports can be delivered? What process will be used for reporting on success or failure?
- Do they provide supporting Digital Marketing Services and what are they?
- Do they know your business? If you’re a contractor, are they an experienced contractor seo agency?
Some SEO agencies provide web-page or even sitewide SEO audits. Look at the quality of their free SEO audit to get an idea of what they consider important.
So what makes a good SEO company?
A Quality SEO agency is the one that:
- Can audit a huge website efficiently and effectively.
- Has the skills to improve Search Engine Positioning and website Domain SEO Metrics.
- Can build a website with an SEO-first ideology, built for speed and SEO, using proper URL structure, and focused on delivering an ROI.
- Can provide in-depth keyword research and create a full digital marketing strategy.
- They should be able to explain advanced backlinking strategies such as guest posting.
- A good SEO agency should be able to define your internal linking strategy.
- They should be available after hours and offers good customer service.
- The best digital marketing agencies never promise results.
- Does the SEO Agency offer supporting services to assist in your online SEO campaign?
- Any good SEO lives and breaths reporting so should be able to deliver detailed performance reports.
- Can properly respond to an SEO RFP with all of the requirements requested.
Although online reviews can be helpful, they also can be manipulated by a savvy online marketer. Take all reviews with a grain of salt.
Choosing The Best SEO Agency
Once you find good candidates, the selection process will follow. Check the company’s ability to rank a website, to target the right keywords, to measure success based on goals, and then assess the quality of SEO work and strategy.
- Check their performance abilities by checking their website. Any reputable SEO company should rank themselves. Search for keywords containing “SEO” and the city that they work in or their specific specialty such as SEO for real estate.
- Look for long term rankings. To check whether their website can get traffic in their industry over a period of time, ask for the company’s samples of client results for a period of at least 6 months and whether they have a traffic graph with an overtime upward trend. In some instances, Black Hat SEO firms will rank a site quickly only to eventually fall like a brick.
- Can they target keyword properly? To check an SEOs ability to target keywords, ask for examples of keywords they have targeted and successfully ranked on page one of Google. Have them include search volumes with the keywords.
- What products and services are they using? Ask them what SEO tools do they use? How do they manage their projects? Do you get access to their project management system? Can they offer a Free SEO Audit? If so, how detailed are the results?
The Penalties of NOT Choosing the Best SEO Company
You will want to familiarize yourself with the major Google algorithm updates and penalties. Choosing the wrong company to implement your digital marketing strategy can cause big problems.
Some concerns you should be on the lookout for when choosing who to work with are:
- Outsourcing – Outsourcing specific tasks is not unusual in the world of digital marketing. But if a company extensively outsources almost everything, it can lead to issues on quality control.
- What is their primary link building strategy – Ask for their link building strategy. Do they write content and hope for backlinks? Do they offer PBNs? Do they use black-hat tactics?
- Original Content – How is their content created? Do they have consistent copywriters? Will they use spun content on your website?
Things to Consider When Evaluating an SEO Agency
- Is the company a task-based service provider or long term partner?
- What is their plan and frequency of communication?
- How the company measures success and how the Return of Investment will be benchmarked and forecast. The answer can tell whether the company you choose will stay with you in the long run.
- Get a communication plan that states the component, frequency, and extent of contact. This must align to how frequent and detailed the delivery of updates you want to be.
- Ask about their Project Management skills. How the project will be managed, what is your role, and what is your access to the timelines, resources, duties, and objectives. This has to be interwoven to the communication plan for your satisfaction.
- What is the quality of their reporting and analytics? Are their reports branded to them?
Their SEO Toolset Can Tell You A lot
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of tools used by a reputable SEO agency. SEO Agencies evaluate each other this way when deciding on purchasing an seo company or acquiring an seo company for sale. The type and quality these can provide valuable insight into how a digital marketing company operates. Are they only using free services? Have they invested heavily in their businesses ? How many qualities of good SEO company do they have?
Choose the right process
Google Analytics and Google Search Console are bare minimums for any SEO company. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are absolutely free services for anyone to use and every SEO should be familiar with them.
Many of the larger SEO firms have invested in more elaborate paid websites such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, MOZ Pro and CORA to provide data and provide valuable insight on what it will take to rank.
As a general rule, most serious SEO agencies spend a lot of money on multiple products to properly do their job.
What Reporting is the SEO Agency Using?
Your current and future decisions should be based on facts and credible statistics, not “I think we should try this”.
Ask how the company will use analytics to optimize your site. Any professional company versed in national SEO will be able to explain it well enough to implement any recommendations made. What are they using for analytical data and reporting purposes?
Past performance and traffic in the industry
The right SEO company will have a team that uses a number of current and past data points to help increase the performance and rankings of their national clients as well as those doing local SEO.
It is very important that you not only get quality SEO services from the company you choose but that you also feel comfortable working with them. They should be a long term business partner that shares in your success.
SEO Companies
The best SEO company in the world provides a return on investment for their clients and can act as a resource for all Digital Marketing.
Also, we’ve discussed above that there are many fraudulent SEO companies everywhere that would be happy to take your money.
You have to be always on the lookout so as not to be abused by those scammers.
If possible, ask to meet your SEO service provider face to face.
How do they sound on the phone?
Can you call them within regular business hours and get a hold of the same person?
Choose an SEO Company Wisely
Don’t forget to use these tips for choosing which SEO agency and keep in mind that nothing and nobody can give you the guarantee of getting companies looking for SEO services into the #1 rank on Google results. You want quality digital marketing not another seo company making empty promises. Don’t just pick the local Little Rock SEO company, you should consider agencies with national clientele. There are many considerations in which SEO company to choose and which SEO company to use, how to buy seo services, and how to find reliable seo company. Be careful picking an SEO company that sends random emails, and those that do not give a clear explanation of how they will optimize your site. Knowing how to pick an SEO company can make all the difference in the world for your growing business. Look to a select SEO company that provides local and national SEO, can run national SEO campaigns, has a history and proven track record of success with national and Local SEO and has successfully managed a Local SEO campaign for a local business in your local market.
