Despite the title giving us a golden opportunity to blow our own trumpet here, we’re going to keep this informative. The SEO services market is certainly busy, and many business owners will be familiar with phone calls or mailers from agencies looking to supply their services. But what should look for when hiring an SEO company? And what are the red flags?
How to Choose an SEO Company
1. Look for Previous Work – SEO Case Studies
Case studies are a great way to see an SEO agency at work. Whether the potential company has case studies listed on their website or not, it’s worth asking them. And don’t just ask for a list of rankings achieved. Ask for one or two clients you can call up and speak to personally.
Speaking to a couple of businesses who have experienced the service of any SEO company is a great way to get an insight into the techniques you could benefit from too. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of the businesses you call, not only about their results, but the quality of communication and service they receive too.
2. Beware the “One Size Fits All” Pricing.
If an SEO company can quote you a set price before looking at your site or even enquiring as to an idea of your keywords, the service isn’t bespoke, that’s for sure! And with SEO strategy, the variation in competition from industry to industry can be massive. Any prices quoted should only be quoted after extensive research into your keywords and the search engine optimisation activity of your competitors. From there, they should be able to have got a full picture of what needs to be done to achieve your business goals.
3. Don’t fall for THE “Number One in a WEEK” promise!
Nobody can guarantee you any rankings in Google. What an SEO specialist can do is to show you previous examples of sites they have worked on and assure you that the same principles and expertise will be applied to your website. But Google (and the other search engines) are, at the end of the day, search engines that SEO companies do not influence whatsoever. Promises of this nature should sound some alarm bells!
4. Expect transparency from your SEO firm.
It’s unlikely that an SEO company will write down all their methods step by step. They’d be out of a job if they did. But you should expect a degree of transparency from any SEO company.
You should have a good idea of what is being done both on-page (to your website itself) and off-page (in terms of acquiring links back to your site from other sites). A good SEO company should be comfortable enlightening you on the strategy and utilising white hat SEO techniques that produce long term results.
Choosing an SEO company is a massive decision… so don’t be afraid to ask any questions and for explanations of anything in plain (non-techie) English!
