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15 Critical questions to Ask When Outsourcing SEO

With thousands, if not millions of websites competing for people’s attention, one could say that the internet is practically a world of information waiting to be tapped. And, we’re referring to just one topic here. Do a quick search of say, “iPhone” on search engines like Google and Bing, and you could be staring at that computer or mobile phone screen for hours on end just sifting through each search result.

This is the reason why many companies employ search engine optimization or SEO to try and get to the top of the search engine results food chain. The better the search results, the more chances you’ll have of getting noticed by web users who tend to have short attention spans.

Let’s face it: managing your website’s SEO can be a pretty demanding task, especially if you’re not an SEO guru yourself. This is why a diverse number of SEO agencies and solution providers have cropped up over the past few years. But how do you separate the wheat from the chaff, as they say? Choosing the right people to do the job can spell the difference between staying on top or sinking to the bottom of search engines.

Questions to Ask When Outsourcing SEO

To achieve success in SEO outsourcing, asking the right questions is a must. Consider the following questions when screening possible candidates for SEO solutions:

1. Are specific results guaranteed?

Any SEO company that tells you it can guarantee that your website reaches a top-ranking spot or say it has a special “connection” a search engine is either deceiving your or are into black hat techniques.

While legitimate agencies will tell you that they’re confident with what they can do to help achieve your business goals based on their past work, others that promise they can give you a specific ranking or traffic level is all smoke and mirrors. It would be prudent to stay away.

What you should look for is an SEO company that could work with you in forecasting general scenarios based on your budget, creating strategies in line with your business goals, and edging out the competition.

2. How long will it take to expect results?

This is possibly the most revealing question you could ask. As an instant disqualifier, dismiss any companies that promise to give you “immediate” results or tell you that your website will be at the top spot of search engine results pages (SERPs) in just a couple of weeks. This means the SEO techniques they’re using aren’t sustainable or perhaps they don’t know what they’re doing. Or worse, they’re not being upfront about how SEO works.

The barebones truth is that SEO takes time. It may seem that a potential company is using delaying tactics when someone there tells you it may take three to six months to start getting results, but in fact this is going to help you understand that SEO doesn’t involve any sort of wand-waving that magically delivers a favorable outcome. There are metrics at work that need to be influenced to improve your SERP ranking.

Keep in mind that different niches come with varying levels of competition. There are some cases where it only takes a few months to see results, while others take some more time to reach some degree of success.

This is where the metrics come in. There will be deliverables, such as the content that needs to be published, links that should be built, and so on. But if you’re not getting anything like this in your monthly reports, chances are the SEO company working on it isn’t doing it right.

When things take a downturn, don’t fret. There are times when traffic may be bad at first before they get better. A good SEO company would know how to make the necessary adjustments in the strategy it employs before the trend is reversed.

But if you do experience a drop in traffic, this shouldn’t be a cause for concern if it doesn’t persist for months before it’s reversed. What you want to keep your eye on is incremental growth in conversions and not just traffic as a whole. Take a close look at SEO-specific metrics such as year over year sales numbers, backlinks, rankings, and qualified leads.

3. How do you measure your SEO success?

Of course, being ranked number 1 is one thing. But translating this into sales is another story altogether. You need to know how your potential partner agency will measure success in its SEO dealings. Will they measure this via traffic, actual sales, or other types of conversions? Or will they combine all this into real results, showing all aspects and metrics of the search funnel? Conversely, stay away from SEO agencies that can’t give you accurate measurements of what they’re doing. 

4. Is your content SEO friendly and relevant?

There’s no question that SEO is highly dependent on quality content to be successful. We live in a content-driven society. As mentioned above, the internet is filled with sites that are vying for one’s attention, so content that can easily be found is a big plus. It’s not just about keywords and the like. Content, such as blogs and texts, should be able to integrate these keywords and search terms in a way that is both reader and search engine friendly. If the potential SEO partner has a team of content creators and copywriters that are experts in building optimized content, that’s a definite bonus!

5. Which search terms will you focus on?

Getting these right, along with determining how these jive with the site and the company and its products is even better. Remember that there is no hard formula for this one. It’s a matter of testing and research to see which keywords/phrases work best for your site and your business. This might take time, but eventually, you’ll have a much better idea of what search terms are actually generating revenue for your business and which ones just contribute vanity metrics. An SEO partner that does this gets added brownie points.

6. How will you integrate SEO with marketing campaigns?

Keep in mind that SEO is just one aspect of the overall marketing thrust. A good Search Engine Optimization partner must be able to mix and match all campaign activities with SEO efforts as though they ‘re crafted from one tree, so to speak. A PR campaign, for instance, for a new product must have the same keywords and search terms as SEO activities. Or at least relate to them in a way that readers and viewers can easily spot the family resemblance. Furthermore, paid search efforts should also be tightly aligned with your SEO campaign, so your future SEO partner should also be flexible and holistic with their keyword targeting strategies.

7. What will you do to maintain our SEO presence once we’ve set things up?

It’s a lot of work to create a site that is SEO friendly, write copy, create content, and build links during the first few weeks. That’s called the setting up phase so naturally, getting it off the ground with all this activity is a given. But once the dust settles and you wind down to a daily/weekly routine, you need to know what your SEO partner will be doing to earn that monthly retainer. Will they still be producing SEO-worthy copy and content? Will they continue to build links that will drive traffic to your site and your store? It’s things like these that you need to figure out. Again, this could spell the difference between long-term SEO success and lingering at the bottom.

8. How will you get quality links that will drive traffic to our site?

This is admittedly what makes a good SEO partner—the ability to get and place quality links that will drive authority for their clients’ websites. Building quality links that are relevant to your brand’s products and services is critical. It’s not easy but it can be done. Ask for a few samples of their past work. Even better, try to see what kinds of results these links brought while you’re at it (using an SEO tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs). This way, you can get an idea of what they can for your site. 

9. What’s your success story?

Yes, it’s all about how successful a partner was in increasing website and sales traffic for a client. Don’t be shy to ask about who their past clients were, what they did for them, and how successful they were in their Search Engine Optimization efforts. A partner that is proud of what they’ve done and has something to show for it would clearly be the right one.

Important Technical Questions

Another approach could involve asking questions that encompass services, technical matters, and how well a partner knows your industry, among others. The questions for these can go something like:

10. Will you be performing services that complement your SEO efforts?

As mentioned earlier, it isn’t all about doing Search Engine Optimization nowadays. Complementing these with Marketing and Public Relations activities would be much better and may drive more people to your site and store. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to meet the team who will be doing the SEO and other activities as well. This way, you’ll actually get to know the faces behind all this. And ask about how many times you’ll be meeting each month, how many hours they intend to put in per month, and the like. In the end, it’s about knowing who will handle your SEO activities, what they’ve got lined up, and how they intend to go about these.

11. Will your SEO activities involve making technical changes?

It must be made clear from the onset if technical changes will be made to your website. The last thing you want is to find your site non-existent all because the SEO partner agency made a few “adjustments” in the name of increased results. A good rule of thumb is to plan out all the technical adjustments that need to be made so that everything is clear from the get-go.

12. What do you know about our industry?

Being a good SEO partner, just like anything in life, means doing your homework in order to get it right. This is what you should be looking for in your SEO partner—one who understands your industry and can make the most of this knowledge to drive home results. We’re not saying that partner be an expert in the field. That’s your job. But knowing enough to get to best results in the search engine and sales charts is key. Nothing is worse than a partner who is merely “winging it” as they go.

13. Will you be needing our team members on a regular basis?

Needless to say, this is a given. The more important question is: how often will they be needed by the SEO partner. This must be determined from the start in order for the right members to manage their time and availability each month. This way, a steady and uninterrupted workflow can ensue. Plenty of resources can go to waste when work stops all because of a miscommunication.

14. Are you in any way, connected to our competitors?

In plain and simple terms, do you have a conflict of interest? Not only does this personify the saying No Man Can Serve Two Masters. It likewise opens up a Pandora’s Box of possibilities, chief among these is espionage. Sure, that may be quite extreme but there has to be some amount of ethical behavior here. One must choose which company they wish to work with. 

15. Can we get out of the agreement without much complication?

Before signing that contract, make sure that you can easily terminate the agreement if you’re not happy. Nothing is worse than being stuck with a partner that you’re not happy with or one that doesn’t produce the desired results. Not only is this a waste of money but of time and energy as well. All this can be addressed when building out your SEO contract. Make sure to include legal details, contingencies for when things don’t go as planned, and of course, comprehensive cancellation terms.

Key Takeaway

In the end, get to know your Search Engine Optimization partner before signing on the dotted line. Get to know their success stories as well as their weaknesses. Get to know the team you could be working with, and understand what they can do to help you and your business make it big in today’s information-filled landscape—both in the virtual and physical world.

Looking for a reliable SEO partner? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help grow your brand!

In-House SEO vs. Outsourced SEO: Which Should You Choose?

In this era of growing internet penetration, businesses of all kinds can benefit significantly from having a strong online presence. In particular, search engine marketing—including SEO—has been proven highly advantageous for many companies.

If you’re one of these companies, you may be planning to build your own SEO team, but the question is, should you do it in-house or outsource SEO activities to the experts? 

It can be challenging to choose whether to hire professionals for an SEO team directly or to outsource it to a third-party firm. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages; plus, there are a plethora of other factors to consider. So, let’s weigh up the pros and cons to see which is the better option for you.

In-House SEO Teams

Having an in-house SEO team means directly hiring professionals to do SEO work for your company. This sounds like the ideal way to go, but depending on your SEO goals, nature of your business, budget, and many other factors, you might have to think twice about building an in-house team.  

Pros

  • Convenience

Having SEO Specialists in-house means you can easily reach out to them—and in person nonetheless—in case anything needs immediate attention. No need to communicate digitally and waste time waiting for a response. 

  • Knowledge about the business

Your employees should have an intimate understanding of your business even without having to do research, and that comes in handy when your marketers do other tasks related to SEO, like making Social Media or blog posts, bidding keywords, etc. It also helps in making their outputs consistent. 

  • Saves on costs

Cutting out the SEO agency would save your monthly budget, as you won’t have to pay set up costs, monthly retainers, or other hidden charges for hiring an agency. You can always provide an excellent salary package for your SEO specialists and save on your marketing spend as long as your process is efficient.

  • Fosters collaboration

The best SEO strategies involve teamwork, especially since it relies on different tasks to be carried out by different employees. No doubt this can be made seamless by having an in-house SEO. When your search team is close and understands the business as well as its overall direction, you will potentially discover more SEO opportunities.

  • Full control of the processes at all times

An in-house SEO team will give you some level of transparency regarding their techniques, procedures, and other information; but, they can also provide control over what strategies you want to implement and how. A third party may not be so transparent with how they do things, and might not follow the direction and guidance of their clients to the letter, especially if operations and practices aren’t easily movable. 

Cons

  • Knowledge decay

This refers to a lack of new information, updates, or improvements to your team’s knowledge about their tasks, and this often happens when they work on the same goals over and over again, always utilizing the same techniques. In-house SEOs can quickly sink into a systematic pattern of work that never evolves with the times, which could make your strategies stagnant.

  • Possible huge costs

The salary for a full-time, experienced SEO Specialist could easily be more than $3,000 a month, while some agencies offer low-cost packages that start for less than $1,000. You don’t need just one specialist, though, as SEO requires multiple moving parts and it’s impossible to find one who’s an expert in everything. More hires could mean more expenses, therefore further ballooning your payment.

That is why it is essential to look at all the costs and benefits thoroughly if you’re deciding between an in-house or third-party SEO team.

  • There’s little accountability

When something goes wrong or if the strategy fails, you can choose to fire your in-house SEO expert, though that doesn’t help that much to fix your problems and there’s little accountability beyond that. The worst part is, if you do take that person off the team, you’d have to take on the blame and fix things yourself. 

Outsourced SEO Teams

On the contrary, you also have the option to hire a third-party SEO agency. Since digital marketing is now acknowledged as an essential strategy for business growth, firms that offer such services have grown in number. As much as SEO is a quintessential part of any digital marketing strategy, you should first determine if hiring outside help is what’s best for your company.

Pros

  • Lets you focus on core business functions

When you hire an SEO partner that can genuinely help give you high visibility on search engines, you take that load off your shoulders and will have time to focus on other business functions that need your attention, which is especially helpful if you’re an SMB owner who still needs to plan out different strategies for growth. For larger businesses, it saves time spent on possibly going through multiple interviews to find in-house specialists. 

  • Cheaper cost 

For some organizations, hiring an SEO agency may make more sense because it generally costs less than paying for salaries and benefits of multiple professionals. Through an agency, you have access to a whole team of professionals with the right skills set, even those outside of SEO. However, you don’t always have to go for the cheapest one—remember that the cost of service often reflects the quality of work.

  • Offers a unique perspective 

SEO agencies have worked with other clients from different industries, so they are used to going outside of their comfort zone or thinking outside the box. Through this, they get to provide clients with fresh perspectives and avoid the paralysis that can sometimes happen from being too familiar with the brand and its products and services. This experience also gives them a unique outlook to provide insights from their work with other similar companies.

  • Accountability

To assure accountability from an SEO agency, you need to make sure that you reach an agreement that will oblige them to provide feedback based on what they have done each month. Doing this, and having them report to you regularly, will guarantee accountability, whether they’re doing a good job or not.

  • Expertise and resources

Experience also plays a big part when it comes to creating an SEO strategy for your business. An experienced agency that has worked with clients from various industries would have relatively more insights that can help you determine the route to take for your SEO. Aside from expertise, tools resources are also vital in SEO. Any established SEO partner should have a considerable toolset that you can add to your SEO arsenal. 

Cons

  • Finding the right one

SEO companies have popped out left and right over the last few years, making it harder to decipher which one really offers the best services for the buck. Merely looking at their websites won’t tell you if the agency is going to meet your needs or if the people working there are truly knowledgeable in the field.

There’s no denying that there’s a chance you might get “scammed” by some agencies, and this underscores the importance of doing your due diligence when looking for an SEO partner to trust. You can always read testimonials, reviews, and any information regarding your preferred company’s performance. Try to meet with them first personally before picking an agency. 

  • Cultural boundaries 

SEO is a global industry, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise if you end up setting your heart on an agency based offshore. Cultural differences should not be a turn-off, as long as you understand that there may be dissimilarities between you and the agency in some matters due to cultural boundaries. In some instances, it has led to issues, but it generally does more good than harm.

  • Additional expense

When it comes to price, quality should always be a factor to consider. Cheap agencies can be good or bad for your business, and so can the expensive ones. And although hiring a SEO agency involves additional monthly costs associated with service fees and retainers, a focused partner will likely have a highly-efficient operational system in place, which means getting more out of each dollar spent.

  • Less control of the processes

Outsourcing companies have the responsibility to regularly report the work they did for you to keep you in the loop. However, when it comes to SEO agencies, the business owner usually doesn’t have a hand in every aspect and process. A reliable SEO partner will ask for your recommendations and guidance, but ultimately, they may end up using strategies that they themselves deem is fit for your business, even if you don’t necessarily think that it’s the right one.

Outsourcing and Its Implications to Scalability 

Every business aims for growth, but that will always be a challenge to do so, especially with the ever-changing market conditions. A thriving business means that clients and their demands will also increase, and if you’re still working with the outdated systems that you started with, you’ll likely fail to keep up with those demands.

No patchwork solution will be enough; instead, you have to prepare by regularly improving your solutions and processes for the future, so that you can also stay competitive. In this case, scaling your business means building a model and putting systems in place that can be grown or shrunk, depending on your needs at the time. 

The importance of scalability

When you have solutions in place to handle increases, you maintain your business’ efficiency and the quality of products and services you offer. These, in turn, can reinforce good customer relations business reputation. From a financial perspective, scalability can lower what you’re paying out, and you get more for what you pay. 

Small businesses need scalability even more, as they have the biggest potential for growth. Scalability on one or more levels allows them to hold onto and build market share. However, they have to be more careful with their limited resources, as they may fail to foresee what they might need or where the market might go in the future.

How outsourcing SEO can help scalability

One of the solutions you can look at to improve scalability is outsourcing, as this option would allow you to ramp up production without having to go over your budget for recruitment and retention. You’re also assured that personnel adequately trained on what they need to do for you.

It’s also easier to shrink the size of your team with outsourcing, as you don’t have to get into the nitty-gritty of terminating employees, and because you’re only scaling up on an as-needed basis. For example, outsourcing would allow you to scale up during peak seasons or when you’re starting a new project, until such time that you’ve achieved the goal of your project and you can reduce the size of operations. 

It goes without saying that you only pay for what you use when it comes to outsourcing SEO. This means that you can retain a significant amount of budget that would otherwise be spent on overhead costs, and still get the expertise you require full time, albeit only temporarily.

Other organizations may also opt to outsource non-strategic tasks in order to optimize their core competencies while bringing in more value to their businesses. These tasks are ideal to contract out because it won’t require you to hand over access to sensitive information, and you can cut down costs and time. 

Outsource If You Must

In reality, no single option works for every company. Outsourcing or doing in-house SEO would each work best in specific situations. For instance, a start-up or SMB that has limited budget may find it more beneficial to hire an outsourced agency that offers low-cost packages, but an established enterprise that has more on the line in terms of reputation would want (and afford) in-house specialists.

Keep in mind, building a SEO team isn’t always black and white. For example, some companies may choose to hire small core SEO team in-house to focus on strategic decisions while an outsourced SEO partner handles the bulk of the execution.

Situations can differ depending on many factors; that is why it’s vital to have a deep understanding of your business’ nature, goals, and resources before choosing between in-house and outsourced. But, just in case you opt to hire a partner for your SEO needs, SEO Company will work with you to find the agency that matches your needs!

Looking for a New SEO Agency (11 Red Flags to Look Out For)

In the nascent stages of the internet, getting the coveted top spot or ranking on the first page of search engines was as easy as repeating a keyword on your webpages. But this was long before Google took over the industry and upped the standards.

Today, it’s crucial to work with a credible SEO agency to help your business establish its online visibility and authority. In this digital era, where roughly 93% of online experiences begin with a search query, building an effective SEO strategy is mandatory. In fact, 61% of marketers say their top inbound marketing priority is to enhance their SEO and grow their organic presence online.

With the rise of businesses looking for SEO professionals, many SEO firms have emerged to “fake it till they make it.” They over promise and under deliver, which results in unmet goals, wasted resources, and lost time.

Thankfully, there are ways to see if a firm can live up to their promises. To help you find an excellent SEO agency that delivers real results, here’s a rundown of the red flags to watch out for and what you need to look for instead.

11 Common Red Flags to Look Out for in an SEO Agency

1. No (or very minimal) digital footprint

One of the key responsibilities of an SEO firm is to help businesses build their online presence by ranking on the first page of the SERPs. If the agency you’re eyeing has a questionable digital footprint or none at all, that speaks significantly about whether or not their online marketing efforts work.

Find out if they can walk their talk. If you think their tactics don’t work for their own site, how can you trust them to optimize your business site?

Look for an agency that ranks on the first page of the search results. If their site holds “position 0” or the top spot in organic ranking, then all the better—they know what they’re doing. That’s not to say the higher a company ranks, the better it is, but it’s still a good indicator of expertise.

Tip: You can conduct a bit of research about which SEO firms apply their strategies in their own company. For instance, you can look for the top agency in your area by typing the keywords “SEO agency” and your location (e.g., “SEO agency in Brooklyn”) in the search engine. The top companies that appear in the first page of the SERP are those doing a fantastic job of optimizing their own site. Hence, they can probably do the same for your business.

2. Low-quality content on their own website

Since the SEO industry is highly competitive, you’ll find SEO agencies that produce strong content on their own site, from landing pages to service pages. If you see one that has poor or thin content, then they will either rank low (or not at all) for the keywords they’re targeting. Their website content should be a part of your deciding factors, especially if you plan to entrust your website’s content marketing materials to them.

Additionally, you can quickly and easily identify if a firm is legitimate and produces quality work based on their website’s brand info, such as the “About Us” page and “Mission and Vision” page. If they rip off content from similar business sites, you shouldn’t trust them with yours.

Tip: Read a few of their blog posts and service pages. Keep an eye on grammatical errors, repetitive keywords, and writing style. Go one step further by running it on a plagiarism checker to see if they’re copying content from another site.

3. Setting unrealistic goals or promises

SEO is excellent for increasing your online visibility and ranking on the search results page, which should be your goal if you want to find your ideal clients and grow your business. But if an agency gives improbable assurances, be warned.

“We assure you’ll be on page 1 in the first month.”

“We guarantee you’ll rank no. 1 for your target keyword in the first four weeks.”

When you hear these too-good-to-be-true promises, best believe they’re just that–promises. In this field, only a few things can be guaranteed, and they’re often supplemented with data-backed tactics to drive real results. So, if your SEO agency sets unrealistic goals and over promises a lot, this should be a cause for concern. Chances are, they won’t fulfill these, or they’ll use “black hat” techniques.

Tip: Look for companies that propose actionable goals. Search engine algorithms are ever-evolving, so you want to find an agency that is fully competent and delivers data-backed results.

4. Insisting on a long-term contract

Because of its unpredictable nature (e.g., Google’s algorithm, current marketing trends, level of competition, etc.), the same strategies that work for your campaigns today may not be as effective tomorrow. So, if an agency insists you sign a long-term contract with them, perceive it as a warning.

Instead, regular discussions between the client and the company should be conducted to analyze results, adjust metrics (if necessary), and reevaluate strategies. You can’t know for sure that the SEO tactics you plan months in advance will work and reach its targets. SEO campaigns are a month-to-month effort; it should be projected as such. 

Tip: Steer clear of agencies that persuade you to sign minimum contracts of 12 months. Look for agencies that are willing to do a test run first (one month), so you can think carefully before committing to an extended contract (6 to 12 months). You can renew it anyway when you see favorable results.

5. Inconsistent or non-existent communication

Good and effective SEO tactics require a lot of back-and-forth communication between clients and the SEO agency. The first few days of working together will be for devising strategies and going through adjustments or learning curves. This is important to help the firm find their groove to meet your needs. It’s a continuous progress, but generally more important at the beginning. Indeed, communication is a key part of the process.

If an agency refuses or outrightly ignores your inquiries, questions, and concerns early in the game, that’s a clear sign that they might not meet your requirements.

Tip: Do consider the company that asks for feedback, recommends ideas, and requests for consultations to ensure that they meet your needs and your business goals. Like a good leader, an excellent SEO agency knows when to reach out for questions and collaboration to make their strategies work for your business. 

6. No transparency with their processes and strategies

Most companies might give you a spiel filled with SEO jargon to catch your attention and make you think they’re 100% experts in the field. However, reputable SEO agencies will walk you through their techniques, processes, and approach in implementing their methods. If they refuse to share them because they’re “too difficult” to explain, you might as well expect the worst.

SEO is indeed a complex field, but a credible agency will help you understand what they’re doing, how they do it, why they’re doing it, and how it will benefit your business and prove your ROI.

If they’re confident about their capabilities and performance, they’ll be transparent from start to end of the project.

Tip: Don’t hold back on asking questions, especially if you’re not that knowledgeable about the field. This should help you filter out the dishonest and less-than-experienced agencies.

7. Results are not backed by data

Let’s say your current SEO company claims your site got a 150% bump in organic traffic, 150 quality backlinks to your site, and a 60% boost in conversion rates since you started working with them. That all sounds incredible! But have they presented any evidence that proves these numbers are accurate? How are you supposed to believe that your money is well-spent when they’re all verbal and have no actual report to supplement their claims?

As a client, it’s your right to see actual reports of your website analytics. If they only send you Excel spreadsheets, consider that a warning signal since they can easily be manipulated to exaggerate the figures.

Tip: Since you’re allocating a sizable budget for SEO (yes, it can be quite costly), you’ll want to know whether the agency is padding the numbers or not. Look for an SEO company that follows up their online successes with hard data, much better if they pull out reports from relevant tools like Google Analytics and SEMRush. You want to work with an agency that is completely transparent with you, no matter what the circumstance.

8. Extremely low rates or price point

How much does an SEO service cost? Well, quality SEO doesn’t come cheap. You can tell how good or bad an SEO company is by how much they price their services. It’s also a reasonable indicator of their quality of work. If the rate of their services are surprisingly cheap, that might translate to poor quality with minor effects on your site’s ranking.

You don’t have to hire the top SEO firm to get powerful results, especially if you’re a small business focused on bolstering your local SEO. Find the agency that will work the hardest to help your business rank first on the SERPs. Plus points if they offer a reasonable price.

Tip: Conversely, high rates don’t automatically imply better work. Before you evaluate their fees, you must first determine how much you can afford to shell out for the services you need—some charge by the hour, per project, or per month. Once you’ve set a budget, shop around and make comparisons to find the agency that can provide quality work at a price point you’re comfortable with.

9. No reliable client feedback

Most SEO companies have positive testimonials on their website. But, be sure to take that at face value. These are likely to be the company’s biggest success stories. Albeit dependable, they’re not the reviews you should be interested in. Instead, you want to look for feedback from ordinary clients, such as small businesses and entrepreneurs. This gives you a glimpse of how the agency handles businesses like your kind and how well they perform across the board. Do a bit of research to find out what people are saying about the company on third-party review sites to find real, unbiased opinions.

Reviews like these are more honest and unfiltered compared to the ones posted on the SEO company’s site. A reputable SEO can refer you confidently to clients they worked with.

Tip: Ask the company’s clients about how long it took before they saw results, what it’s like working with the company, whether they did deliver their promises, how satisfied they are with their service, and how much it cost them. These should be enough to tell you whether the SEO agency is trustworthy and reliable or not.

10. Poor content marketing tactics

Content is a vital part of every SEO marketing strategy. It’s also a useful qualification when looking for a reputable SEO company. Normally, they will show you a few of their sample works so you can examine their quality of work and to prove that they do deliver well-optimized content. Keep watch on agencies that overlink their articles, landing pages, and other web pages. This link practice gets penalized by Google and other search engines for violating Webmaster Guidelines, resulting in a considerable drop from the search rankings or worse, blacklisting. If they do it on their own site, they might use the same tactic on yours.

Content and SEO go hand in hand and when implemented accordingly, it can help your site top the SERPs. High-quality content earns your site valuable backlinks, and when these pieces of content are optimized, it can dramatically improve your online presence and search rankings. Much like with point No. 2 above, if they’re copying or spinning content from other sites to pass as their own, that should serve as a blinking red light.

Tip: Always do a quick run on a plagiarism checker and grammar checker to see whether their content or a part of it was duplicated from another published post. If you find lots of errors or copied content, that should speak volumes about their quality of work.

11. Ambiguous plans

When discussing with an SEO agency about their strategies, SEO approach, and recommendations to boost your rankings, don’t buy into any buzzword-filled explanations. Any reputable and legitimate SEO service provider knows how important it is to talk about strategies in detail with a client.

This covers short-term and long-term goals for building a brand’s online presence, different methods of optimizing webpages for favorable rankings, technical SEO, and other crucial subjects to achieve the client’s SEO goals. They’ll ensure that they’re getting their message across clearly, so that you understand the benefits of their service.

Tip: If they can’t explain it directly and in simple words, it’s likely that they don’t know enough about what they’re doing and how they drive results. Don’t settle for agencies that woo you by throwing technical jargon around. An excellent SEO company will explain everything to the letter in layman’s terms.

Choose a Reliable SEO Agency

SEO firms that promise fantastic results may be tempting, especially if they offer low rates. But remember that your brand and your hard-earned money is at stake here. Don’t buy into empty promises.

While not all SEO companies are incompetent and dishonest, it’s always best to look out for the warning signs to help you narrow your search and hire a highly regarded SEO agency. Successful SEO campaigns come to fruition because of great planning, transparency, and open communication between a client and the SEO service provider.

If you see a couple of red flags with your current SEO agency, it might be time to re-evaluate. Let this serve as a guide to help you find the right SEO company that can help your content and brand reach the top of the SERPs and drive your revenue.

Looking for a reliable SEO partner? Contact us to learn more today!

How to Hire the Perfect SEO Agency (A Complete Guide)

Every day, Google receives and processes a staggering number of searches—roughly 5.6 billion in total. That essentially means you have the same exact number of opportunities to bring your products or services in front of web users through search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, reports say that companies’ SEO spending may reach $80 billion in 2020. This only underscores how important it is for companies to get their hands on the best tools, strategies, or ideas for SEO.

The challenge lies in overcoming the competition from the billions of websites who are also trying to position themselves in search. Granting that not every website is targeting to rank for your niche, your SEO strategy needs to be on point with the latest changes in search algorithms to give your website a good fighting chance.

Hiring an outsourcing firm who knows the ins and outs of SEO may ease the burden for you, provided you choose the right SEO agency. However, it can be difficult to weigh the options since SEO companies bring with them different sets of pros and cons. The key is in identifying that one agency who meets all your SEO requirements in particular, including budget, range of services, industry know-how, and business fit, to mention a few. 

Fortunately, you can get around the challenges of selecting a good SEO company with this comprehensive guide. We’ll give you a collection of tips and data about SEO outsourcing.

What to Expect from Your Outsourced SEO Provider

Your company can make the following gains through SEO outsourcing:

Less capital costs. Contrary to misconceptions about the high costs involved in SEO outsourcing, your company can have more financial stability when you hire a third-party SEO provider. You won’t have as many costs associated with overhead expenses in hiring, training, and paying the salary/benefits as you would if you were to build an in-house SEO team.

According to Forbes, in the United States, the most experienced SEO professionals are paid as much as $150,000 per year. Compared with outsourcing, where the most that companies charge for monthly retainers is $10,000 per month, it’s quite clear which option can provide significant cost savings. That’s not even mentioning the cost of purchasing specialized tools and equipment if you were to choose doing your SEO in-house.

More expertise. Google’s search algorithms are constantly changing, which might make it hard for your SEO employees—what with many other things on their plate—to keep up. By contrast, an outsourced SEO provider will have a research & development process to track such updates, so your company can stay on top of current trends and apply the best practices in SEO.

Less training. Someone training for SEO has to go through a steep learning curve, but new employees might not be always prepared for this kind of onboarding. A mismatch between your new hires’ ability to learn fast and the many demands involved in SEO work might cost your company more resources than what’s necessary. With SEO outsourcing, there’s no need to worry about your projects taking a backseat as there will be SEO pros who can get to work as soon as they have the green light.

Balanced perspective. It’s true that no one knows and understands your business better than you, but this shouldn’t prevent you from considering a partnership with an external SEO firm. Outsourced SEO providers have years of experience working across a wide range of industries, which can be a great way to implement checks and balances in your company. Ultimately, this can help you come up with fresh ideas for your business as well as discover new opportunities in your niche.

Increased scalability. SEO isn’t a one-time initiative, but rather, it requires a consistent effort before you get the results you’re hoping for. By its very nature, outsourcing SEO is the more logical choice over building a team in-house when it comes to scalability. With the latter, you’ll have to consistently pay a fixed salary to your employees whether your SEO needs are big or small. 

On the other hand, SEO companies offer services that scale to your needs. If you need to ramp up your SEO, they have an entire team ready to work on your requirements. Then, should your priorities change such that you need to scale down, you can choose how you want them to handle your SEO needs—whether it’s on a per-project basis, hourly package, or retainer model.

Questions to Ask Before Hiring an SEO Agency

Here are some guide questions to ask during a potential SEO partner’s pitch:

1. What types of SEO work will you do?

SEO is a multi-faceted discipline that involves technical aspects (crawling and indexing) as well as on-page and off-page optimization. A basic service contract should at least include a technical SEO audit, where the SEO company evaluates different factors on your site and detects and resolves redirect problems and other errors.

Check with the company what specific services your package or contract will cover, including the amount of deliverables they’ll turn out per month and the number of hours it will take to do it. You’ll want an agency that’s completely transparent with these things.

2. How will you improve our search rankings?

Needless to mention, the end goal of SEO is to get your company to rank—the higher, the better—on search. By hiring an SEO agency, you’ll have experts working on your keyword research, building links, and so on, to help you reach your goals. Yet, even with your SEO partner at the helm, there’s a need for you to understand how their process works.

This should keep you feeling reassured that the work they’re doing for you is guided by best practices in the industry instead of a potentially harmful, which isn’t likely to give you the site traffic you’re aiming for.

3. What kind of ranking increases can we expect?

Speaking of ranking goals, your next question might be something more specific—that is, what will your website’s ranking potentially be after launch or months into the campaign? Although there’s no way your SEO agency will be able to give a definitive answer, much less guarantee that you’ll be ranking no. 1 or zero on search engine results pages (SERPs), they should be able to set some expectations for you.

Specifically, they should be able to explain the different factors that might affect your brand’s organic search position, ranging from something external, such as potential competition, to something technical, such as Google algorithms and updates.

4. What’s your link building strategy?

Since link building is a key component of SEO, you need to address with your SEO agency how they intend to approach it. They might start the ball rolling by telling you how backlinking works, what kind of links your company should invest in, and how they’ll be getting sites to link to you, among many others.

Generally speaking, SEO companies won’t be able to tell exactly how many new links you’ll be getting per month, so consider it a red flag when someone promises to give you a large number of links.

5. How will you inform my company about the changes you make to our website?

You’ll need to give your SEO company access to your website, which means they’ll be able to make changes to it as they go. Be sure you know what changes are being made to your website over time as this will help your web dev track any issues that might arise afterwards.

You can ask your SEO agency to send you reports regularly, so you’re updated on movements in key metrics like traffic source, conversion rate, page speed, bounce rate, and the like.

6. Why should we hire you and not other agencies?

If you’re still undecided whether a particular SEO company is a good fit for your business, this is the ultimate question to ask. By posing this question, you’re giving your target company an extra opportunity to showcase their edge over their counterparts, although you should be discerning when they start making unreasonable promises like guaranteed rankings and immediate results.

Instead, a good SEO company will focus the discussion on what they know about your industry, how they envision the potential partnership between the two of you, and how they have steered happy and loyal clients to success.

5 Steps to Find the Perfect SEO Partner

Here are the steps you need to cover, starting with the research process, onward to the sales pitch, and all the way to the actual selection of your SEO agency.

1. Audit their digital footprint.

Obviously, you shouldn’t get an anonymous entity to be your SEO partner with no signs of digital activity because after all, you’re after a company that does digital services day in and day out. Nor should you make a hasty decision based on search results for the “best SEO agencies” since your research at this point still has a long way to go.

If you want more conclusive results in your hunt for the best SEO outsourcing firms, start with their website. It can tell you a lot of things about their services and expertise, especially if the website is regularly updated with relevant blog posts as this means they’re making an effort to be industry authorities.

2. Set measurable, realistic targets.

It’s important that you don’t get too carried away once you think you’ve found your dream SEO agency. Instead, you need to take time going over your targets with your partner company before signing any contract.

When setting goals, make sure they’re specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely (SMART). Take note of the difference between a SMART goal and one that isn’t in this example:

Non-Smart Goal: Get more business through link building.

SMART Goal: Build approximately 10 links per month to the company website over the course of the next quarter through an outreach strategy with reputable industry authorities.

3. Agree on an action plan.

From the get-go, you need to be aware of your SEO partner’s game plan for your campaigns. A good action plan will detail everything you need to know about a project, including the timeline, type and amount of deliverables, required resources, proposed strategies, and the like. If there’s anything unclear about the details, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask for clarifications and more specific information. Don’t leave any gray areas unsettled. 

4. Determine your budget.

In the beginning, you may want to set a low monthly budget and spread it across a reasonable amount of time. This kind of approach is ideal if a large part of your business depends on SEO, but getting the results you want may take a number of months. By starting low with your budget, you’ll have more flexibility later on if you need to expand it based on the return on investment (ROI) you’re getting.

What’s good about SEO outsourcing is that you get to choose which areas you want to outsource for SEO experts to handle. Meanwhile, if you have an internal team of people who do not have advanced skills in SEO but who may be able to thrive with basic training and hands-on learning, you can also use learnings from your partnership to train your in-house unit.

5. Make sure it’s a good fit.

You’ll be working closely with your SEO agency for a good amount of time, which is why you need an agency that has a similar value system or work culture with your own company. If you and your SEO partner don’t meet eye to eye, you can’t expect to have a healthy and fruitful relationship down the line.

Furthermore, an ideal agency is one who’s familiar with your brand as well as your business vertical, so there can be a proper alignment of goals and techniques across the board.

Which SEO Company Is Right for You?

In this highly connected world, SEO may be the best way to reach your target audience. You need to take advantage of every search on Google and other search engines as an opportunity to let people know about your business. If you can get this right, you’ll be able to strengthen your online visibility and make your brand top-of-mind among consumers.  

On the other hand, if you’re not quite sure how SEO works or which SEO practices can bring the best results, you should probably leave your most pressing SEO work to experts.

Use the guidelines we’ve laid out for you here to help you identify your dream SEO agency. We at SEO Company will be more than happy to help find a great SEO partner for your business. Our vast network of reputable partner agencies will make sure that your website performs well based on Google’s standards and your own business goals.

Contact us today for assistance finding the right SEO partner for your business!