When it comes to SEO practices, you need to stay ahead of Google’s algorithms. How can you do this without having any prior SEO knowledge? As a business owner, you need to hire an SEO company to manage your website and help you rank highly on search engines.
However, you should make sure that the firm you are hiring has real experience by asking these questions:
- Who are your past and present clients?
Instead of hiring a company that has no SEO experience, you should seek out one that has a positive record of accomplishment with both current and past clients. If you want more insight, you should consider reaching out to the previous clients. Even if it is only a quick call or email, you should make this a standard practice when hiring an SEO agency.
- What is your CEO’s experience?
People who are very passionate about what they do start the most successful companies. For this reason, you should consider company CEOs and founders to see whether they have the same determination and passion. If the head of the company gives speeches at conferences or writes for major publications, this shows that he or she is very passionate and knowledgeable about SEO.
- What is your strategic process?
The SEO company that you are considering needs to communicate its strategy quite clearly. Because there are no guarantees in the world of SEO, you should avoid companies that promise a certain outcome after a specific period. In fact, guarantees should be a red flag that you are dealing with unscrupulous persons.
However, the company should be able to give you an estimated timeline of how long it will take before you start seeing positive results. A successful SEO company will provide you with an outline of the strategies that it will use to improve your SEO. These strategies might start with an audit showing the current problems that your business is facing and their solutions.
The strategies should culminate with a summarized plan of action. Their tactics could include URL restructuring, off-site optimization, and on-site optimization.
- Do you use white-hat or black-hat techniques?
If an SEO company guarantees that you will have the number one spot on search engine results, you need to move on to another one. Such a company might be using black hat techniques to further their efforts. These techniques might work for a short time, but will quickly go south leading to the shutdown of your business site.
An SEO specialist who provides white-hat and ethical techniques is the best choice. Although these methods will not produce immediate results, they will not cause your site to be de-indexed from search engines. The company that you hire should be familiar with Google’s best practices.
- Are you transparent through reports?
Reputable SEO companies will ask you for your Google Analytics, which allow them to analyze your current data for a way forward. Although it takes time for organic results to show, they eventually do. Local SEO experts should provide weekly reports directly from Google Analytics to show you their progress. This data not only shows transparency but also provides results for the work in progress.If a company refuses to share data, it might be hiding something and you should stay away from it. Transparency is the key to success and real-time results.
- Do you have strong communication skills?>
At the core of most successful businesses, there are successful internal and external communications. If your potential SEO Company does not communicate with you on a weekly basis, you are not receiving what you deserve and should look elsewhere.
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