The need for and importance of dynamic SEO can’t be ignored. It is that one driving factor on which your entire online presence is dependent. If your website fails to show up on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing you would never be able to reach your business goals. Seo helps in increasing your online visibility which in turn results in more visitors coming to your site and engaging with your business. To put things in order, SEO increases brand awareness that leads to higher sales which results in higher profitability for your business.
If you plan to avail SEO services you must get in touch with the right SEO company or SEO consultant. However, finding the right SEO agency is a tiring task. It takes patience and in-depth knowledge of digital and inbound marketing. If you’re a novice, chances are you can select the wrong SEO agency. Poor/bad quality SEO services can drastically affect your online presence. It can ultimately lead to the demise of your online brand.
Here is a list of essential questions that you should ask when you’re hiring an SEO company or SEO consultant. These questions will help you get in touch with the right service provider and build a robust SEO strategy.
What Services are Being Provided as Part of the Strategy?
The first thing to consider are the services being provided as part of the SEO strategy. A good SEO agency would never be hesitant to provide a list of services they offer. On the other hand, if an SEO agency is reluctant in telling what they plan to do, take caution.
Transparency is the first factor that helps you separate the good SEO agencies from the bad ones. Do bear in mind that the services being provided will naturally evolve over the course of time. You can’t expect to get the same services at the start of contract as compared to when you’re six months into the contract.
For services ask the following question:
- What services and what quantity do plan you to deliver each month?
- How many hours do you plan to work on each service per month?
- In terms of technicalities, what aspects of the website would you be auditing and fixing?
- How many website pages will be optimized in the start?
- How many website pages will be optimized on a monthly basis?
- How many new landing pages will you create over the course of time?
- How many internal and external articles will you produce each month?
- How often will you be backlinking each month?
- How many hours to will you be spending on campaign analysis and reporting?
If the company responds to you by saying that we will provide the following services in the first three months and then revise our strategy after the initial phase, then you’re in the right hands. A good agency would modify their offerings and plan on action based on the results they get in the initial phase.
How is the Content Being Optimized?
You must be aware of the saying ‘Content is king’. This shows the importance of SEO friendly content. When the conversation leads to the optimization of content, ask the following questions:
- Will you be modifying our existing content or provide new content?
- Why is content optimization important? (this will help you assess their intellectual competency)
- Will new landing pages be created for our website?
How Do you Plan to Tackle Link Building?
Once you’re satisfied with the answers provided for content optimization, ask them how they plan to tackle link building. Link building is crucial for SEO as it helps to increase brand visibility and ranks you higher than your competitors.
However, not all backlinks are good. The wrong backlinks that do not adhere to the Google guidelines can be penalized for spam. For link building ask the following questions:
- What links will be built and how?
- How many links do you plan to build in a month? (Expect to get an approximate answer as this depends on the data gathered from initial SEO strategy)
- Do you operate a database for the correct placement opportunities?
- Are you aware of Google guidelines for backlinking?
- What makes a high-quality backlink? (This will help you assess their knowledge and expertise)
What Technical Changes will be Implemented?
Before you get in a contract with an agency make sure you know their level of competency and expertise. Most SEO companies and SEO consultants are unclear in their proposals and do not highlight the technical website support. Do make sure that they have a team of experts or an expert who will be implementing technical changes on your website.
If they don’t provide services for technical aspects of the website have a technical SEO expert ready for any changes they recommend.
How Aware are you About our Industry?
This is an essential question to ask when hiring an agency. Ensure that the agency you’re working with is well aware of your industry and has at least worked with three clients from your industry. Each industry has specific trends. For example, the health industry is raving about organic products these days, so ideally you would want to hire someone who knows this. Ask them the following industry-related questions:
- Are your resources familiar with our industry?
- Do your writers have proficiency in writing for our industry and can we view some writing samples?
How Much Time do you require from our in-House Team?
This is a vital question that you must ask an SEO agency. You need to know exactly how much support the SEO agency needs from your in-house team. This will help you delegate resources and manage the time required to get things done.
Can you Provide some Case Studies?
A good agency will always provide you previous case studies of clients they’ve worked with. However, if they don’t ask them for a few case studies. This will help you see the results their clients have gotten in the past and what you can expect.
Conclusion
Hiring an SEO company can be difficult but with the right knowledge, it is possible. These questions will help you in availing good SEO services that will make your website SEO friendly.