5 Essential Questions to Ask An SEO Agency
TechsPlace | SEO agencies are a dime a dozen. If you’re looking for someone to assist you with your SEO campaign, there is a lot you have to go through to make sure the SEO Agency you’ve chosen is the best for your business. The common things you would do include:
- Research the reputation of the company, including customer reviews (both online and references from them)
- How many years they have been operating. The more, obviously, the better.
- Seeing the results, they generate in the long term for their clients.
- The costs of their services, and how they compare, both in prices and results, to other SEO agencies.
However, there is one thing that you always do: ask the SEO agency questions about their services. But what questions should you ask them, so you get the best team to help your business? We have five of the most essentials questions to ask an SEO agency.
1. Do you follow the best standards of the industry?
You want to know if the agency you’re hiring follows the best practices of the industry. Ask them to explain their SEO processes to you, and how long before you see results. You want to hire an agency that doesn’t over-promise results and recommends only the best practices, white-hat techniques, and follows Google’s Webmaster Rules.
If they go the other direction and tell you that they can deliver results super quickly, it means they dabble in black-hat strategies and, therefore, do not follow the best practices of the industry. That can lead to Google penalizing your website, or worse, taking you off their server completely. It’s why you should always go with an agency that follows Google’s Webmaster Rules, and significantly, delivers results by doing it.
2. Do you have experience in my industry?
There is no question about it: some SEO agencies work better with some industries than others. Some are experts in marketing for construction companies, renovations, and cash for cars. It’s just part of their repertoire. Others have a wide spread of experience, but they might have never worked in your industry.
Now, while they might learn about it and nail it in the long-term, you want an agency that has experience in your industry. They’ll know how to generate results fast and how to help establish your business as the number one company. It takes a special type of agency to understand the finer details of your industry and what works and doesn’t work. Ask them for information about similar cases they’ve worked on to see if they can live up your standards. Only then can you know if the agency can deliver on the requirements needed in your industry.
3. How do you target the right keywords for my business?
Although you might have some idea about what keywords you want to rank for, will they get you the results you want? If you’re a lawyer and you want to rank for local SEO with the keyword related to your city, will it generate the traffic and leads you to want? This is where asking the agency about their opinions on keywords matter.
They might suggest a variation of the keyword or another one entirely. It’s through the research they conduct that they can determine if the keywords you want to rank are worth your investment. Some keywords can take you months to rank, while others guarantee that you rank within a few weeks. You might not like their ideas or suggestions, but it might be required to help you with your SEO in the long-term. You should hire an SEO agency that is upfront about the goals and the strategies they intend to implement.
4. How do you measure SEO success?
Every SEO agency has its own predated ways in which they measure SEO. But the best of the best know that there are some critical KPIs that should be measured. Look for a company that offers measured results by establishing attainable goals and targets (based on your objectives), what they will do to achieve it, and how long it will take. This provides a comprehensive approach to measuring success.
The company should also send you monthly, or bi-monthly reports and updates that include valuable data such as Google rankings (based on specific keywords positioning), website traffic (including the bounce rate), visitor demographics (are they your target audience?), time on site, lead conversions and the quality of those lead conversions. The more information the agency provides you, the better you can measure success. And more importantly, the better they measure your progress.
5. What happens if I want to cancel or pause the contract?
SEO agencies work on contracts. Most times they go for six months, while some go for a year or two. Depending on what you’ve agreed on, you could find yourself in a locked-in contract with the agency. That could be because it might take to generate results (which is why you need to be on a longer contract, and highlights the company is committed to helping you succeed in the long-term).
Unfortunately, things happen. Economies struggle, business slows down, and you might have to end up canceling your contract or pausing it for some time. Therefore, you have to know what happens if you part ways with the SEO agency.
Will there be a fee you have to pay? Will you have access to your website? What about passwords and login details? These are all part of an umbrella of questions where you have to find out what happens if you have to drop or pause the contract. Regardless of whether you have locked into a contract or not, you have to understand what happens if you do select to part ways.
These five questions will help you gain a more in-depth insight into the SEO agency and whether it is worth hiring them in the long-term. Remember to take your time, assess your options, and determine the agency that will generate the SEO results you want for your business.
This article is contributed by guest author on techsplace.com.
