How To Choose The Right SEO Agency
If you’ve decided your business is ready to take the leap and choose an SEO agency, it can get a bit overwhelming.
It’s important to choose the right SEO company who’s on board with your requirements as well as a company of people you have a good working relationship with.
Here is some advice to keep in mind so you’re a little more clued up on what to look for.
And we’ve added some suggestions for how a positive client-agency working relationship can really make the difference if the marketing is to be successful.
Here is some food for thought if you don’t know how to choose the right SEO company
Think about what your outcome is for your website before you do anything.
- A) Have your copywriters been creating content but it’s just not getting traffic?
- B) Have you got a super active blog section with super detailed, fantastic content, but you’ve noticed your main product pages don’t rank?
- C) Are you held back on your domain authority (DA) because you have hardly any external links?
Sound familiar? This could be why:
- A) If your pages haven’t been assigned the right keywords and then fully optimised in the best practice way to target this, that could be why your pages don’t rank. You might be targeting keywords that are just really competitive. Also, there might be something more technical going on like major indexing problems in your sitemap, and fixing this would be your resolution. So you need an SEO agency to help you with keyword research and technical investigation.
- B) Having an active blog is a great thing. But if you focus your efforts too much on your blog because you know “it’s good to drive traffic through long tail keywords”, your main service or product pages might suffer. You need to make sure the pages that end up in a sale are optimised for organic search. And then use the blog to support those pages. So you need an SEO agency to optimise your priority pages for on & off page SEO.
- C) Links! If your pages are well optimised for your target keywords, have you checked your competitor’s DA? If they have a better link profile because they have more or better quality links, that could be why they’re ahead. So you need an SEO agency to help you build more quality links.
So you now know what you want from your SEO company, great news. But what should you look for?
Here are 10 pointers to consider when you’re looking for an SEO agency
- See how they outline their process
There is an art behind best practice, and SEO is no different. Are all of the cogs that make up the SEO wheel included, like the below? Remember, there’s a lot involved in organic search, so an agency needs to follow the right techniques with day to day SEO.
2. Be sure you and your agency have the same goal
You know your business better than anyone.
So it’s key for all parties to be on the same page, whether that’s ecommerce growth or a lead generation project.
If you can get a positive feel for an agency you can see as an extension of your own team, not a separate agency, the relationship will work well.
3. Have a look at the track record
When you’re making an investment, you want to know you’re putting your money in the best people to bring you results. Getting results in organic search is a long term game, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again.
But it takes time, effort and a lot of research. So check out their portfolio of clients.
This will help to give you an idea of the size and type of brands they’re previously worked with, it tells you they have experience in what they do, and how well the task in hand went.
4. Check out some real life customer testimonials if they have them
There’s nothing better than real people shouting about the great things a hard working team of specialists has done for a business to bring it more business.
So check out if the agency has any client testimonials for you to see.
5. Check if they keep up to date with the industry they’re in
If a company doesn’t know the latest trends and changes in their own industry, there’s a real question lingering.
But because there are constantly new snippets of news and updates in the world of SEO, it’s vital to choose an SEO agency who is aware of that movement.
So check out their blog and take a look at their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram and see if they’re in the know.
For example, if you’re interested in any of the below, you can access all of our latest content over on our links page.
6. Look for a positive company culture
It’s a well known concept to like the people you work with, if you can.
So get a feel for what they’re about, what vibe they give you and see if you could picture working with them over time to bring you great results.
7. Try to gauge a good feeling when you visit them
A phone call is a good start.
But it’s even better to kick things off in person, where possible.
In 2021, that can be a challenge, so organise a virtual meeting as soon as possible with all the right people who need to be in the know and see if your creativity meets theirs.
Try to see if you’re all on the same page before going further.
8. Find out if the agency is upfront about budget
Again, this is an investment for your business, so you will naturally want to make the right one.
That means ask questions about how the agency’s costs work.
We might have mentioned before that SEO can be a slow burner… So you need to work out if your budget works with the agency over a given time period.
9. Learn how they do things
If you’re wondering how to choose an SEO agency, bear in mind that different agencies have different ways of working. For example, they may stick to a more structured approach each month, or they may do more research to find new, innovative opportunities outside that ‘best practice box’. Have a think about which approach you’d like to see.
10. Don’t be afraid to ask, and be asked, questions
When you’re choosing an SEO agency, have a good chat with them.
This will help you get a feel for the type of people you might be working with.
- Are you looking for a company to get on with the task in hand and then report regularly on the progress?
- Or, do you prefer to have more open, frequent communication to work together as a team?
Decide what you’d like from an SEO company.
Be sure to ask potential agencies questions, whether that’s SEO knowledge, reporting queries or how they work as a team.
What will help you build confidence in each other?
As you chat to each other to learn if it has potential for a positive, smooth client-agency relationship, they may ask you questions too. They’re going to be working with you or your marketing team to get more people to your website and get more sales through it.
So they need to understand the ins and outs of your business, brand, how you work as a team, and your priorities.
How a client-agency relationship can work best
- good communication between all – regular, clear contact can really help all parties to learn from one another and keep aligned
- building trust over time – an increase in trust can not only mean a more effective, successful professional relationship, but also allows more time to focus on the task in hand, to drive more results
- expectations managed on both parts – it’s important to outline and agree what is planned and expected from everyone involved to ensure all parties are happy with the plan and the contracted schedule can stay focused and effective from the start
- establishing the most effective way of working/file sharing – having a quick, easy way of sharing documents and project plans not only saves time and means everyone gets hassle-free access to schedules and key documents, it also allows the submission of brand, content guidelines & product/service information to ensure everything is factually correct
That’s a wrap! You might also like:
- Is SEO worth it for businesses in 2021?
- How does Google rank your websites?
- Top 10 link building myths
Discover more useful SEO tips on our digital marketing blog and why not follow us on social media? The links are just below for you.
