Hiring a qualified SEO (search engine optimization) agency can be the difference between your business ranking among the top business on a search engine or ranking second to last. SEO is the backbone of digital marketing and is the technical side that is often overlooked. Over 93% of online experiences are based on a search engine, and 47% of search engine users admittedly select one of the first three listings. Brilliant content and well-researched ranking strategies can only get you so far. An SEO agency will help you with the little details like website security, image optimization, functioning backlinks, content quality and length, loading speed, and user convenience. An in-depth analysis of how your business’s website and digital marketing is functioning will allow your agency to design an improved strategy moving forward.
Your consideration of an SEO agency is the first step in the process of bettering your business’s digital marketing strategy. The steps to follow should be geared towards finding an SEO agency with reputable experience whose personality, goals and values are synonymous with your business’s own. Asking these 7 questions can help you gain a better understanding of the SEO agency you are considering hiring.
How will your agency help me meet my business objectives?
A key indicator of how an SEO agency is going to handle your business is if they have taken an in-depth look at your business’s marketing objectives before presenting you their proposal. A generic spread of few marketing stats, some key benefits of their strategies, and universal tactics meant to enhance your business is a major red flag, as no singular marketing strategy is applicable to every business. By nature, your business has unique needs, goals, and parameters that deserve an exclusive approach to bettering the quality of your business’s craft.
What can you do to get me ahead of my competitors?
One of the most important strategies an SEO agency should offer is an extensive analysis of your competitors. By studying the competitor’s failures, successes, strategies, and stats, a social media marketing agency should be able to offer your business better insight into what needs to be done with your SEO strategy. Asking your prospective SEO agency how they can aid you in not only understanding your competition but surpassing them is an essential component in deciding whether or not they are the right agency for you.
Who will I be working with directly on a regular basis?
An SEO agency’s proposal is intended to be a collection of highlights pinpointing the key strategies they are going to use to better your digital presence and search engine ranking. Often, the person presenting this proposal to you is not the person who you will be working with on a day-to-day basis. Taking a closer look at the members of your potential agency and which of those members will be specifically assigned to your business can help you depict what communication is going to look like between you and that agency.
How do you measure success?
The SEO agency you choose should be familiar with a collection of key performance indicators that they use as a standard. It is by this standard that they should be able to measure their success in improving your business’s social media presence. Some examples of the ways your SEO agency should be measuring their success include increased rankings, increased traffic flow, increased calls and web activity and increased revenue. If your potential agency can attest to past success in these areas, then they might be a good fit for you.
How soon will you see results?
The SEO agency you are considering hiring should make you aware that there is no standard, set time frame for when you will see results, as each of the key phrases your business wants to win for has a different competitive ranking. The reality of SEO is that this timeframe is going to vary, therefore if an SEO agency is promising you to see results in a standard time frame for each phrase, they might not be the agency for you. Keep in mind that to win for a key phrase, it can take anywhere between 3 weeks or 1 year.
