If you’re looking to hire an SEO agency, you want to ensure that you’ll be working with the best. But with so many firms claiming to be the best, how can you weed out the ones making false claims so you can find a reliable SEO partner that’s worthy of your investment?
Even if you don’t know much about SEO or haven’t hired an agency before, there are questions you can ask during the selection process that can help you determine whether an agency is worth hiring or not. In the fast-paced world of online marketing, it’s crucial to ask the right questions before hiring an agency. Understanding SEO marketing strategies and how they align with your business goals can make all the difference in your online success.
1. What’s Your Niche?
Yes, they all focus on SEO, but you should ask them what industries their clients belong to. If an agency boasts that it can provide SEO strategies for all businesses from different industries, chances are they’re lying. SEO encompasses so many processes that no agency can possibly claim that they’ve mastered it for all kinds of industries.
For instance, if the agency has never provided SEO services for an eCommerce business before, then they probably won’t have any idea about the complexities and challenges that are unique to that business.
It’s important that you ask an SEO firm their area of expertise and a list of clients they’ve worked for before to see if they fit with your business. It’s better to hire a specialist SEO firm like Digital Neighbor – SEO Agency than a generalist. A specialist SEO agency will better understand your unique SEO needs and create strategies for your industry.
2. How Long Will It Take To See Results?
When it comes to SEO, you need to be patient. SEO takes time. If an SEO company is telling you that you can expect instant results or that you’ll soon be at the top of search engine rankings a week from now, then you better find another one.
Even an experienced SEO agency can only promise you good results after three to six months. Anything shorter than that is most likely a scam. You have to understand that SEO isn’t some magical solution. There are some things that need to be fixed before you can improve your ranking—and that process takes some time.
There’s also the possibility of seeing earlier results but that only depends on your website’s health. For example, fixing technical errors on your business website can help improve its SEO ranking a little bit in a short amount of time. But if your website is already well-structured and has no technical issues, you’ll have to wait longer to see good results.
3. Do You Need To Make Changes On The Website?
One of the most important parts of SEO marketing is on-page optimization. Any good SEO firm is going to make necessary changes to your website as part of its services. If a potential agency doesn’t discuss making any website changes to you, then it’s a good sign that you should be looking for another agency.
On-page optimization is essential as it sets up successful SEO marketing. This is also the reason it’s usually done early in the process. These changes are meant to address any technical issues that are having a negative effect on your website and make it comply with Google’s standards.
You should never be afraid to ask an SEO agency if they’re going to make changes to your website and what those changes would be before you hire them and give them your website’s logins. This is to make sure you don’t end up hiring a firm that’s inexperienced when it comes to on-site optimization. Otherwise, they might seriously damage your website. Keep in mind that you’re entrusting them with your digital presence, so you should ensure that the SEO firm you’re going to hire is reliable and trustworthy.
4. What Kind Of Tools Do You Use?
Agencies use a variety of SEO tools to provide their services such as tracking keywords, creating reports, analyzing traffic, performing on-page optimization, and more. These tools are pretty common and aren’t trade secrets.
As such, they should always be transparent when it comes to the tools they use. This should give you an insight into how they’re going to work with your SEO needs. You should also ask them why they’ve chosen to use these tools. The less information you get from an agency, the more of a red flag it is.
5. How Are You Going To Communicate With Us?
Effective communication is essential for a successful relationship regardless of whether it’s personal or professional. As a client, you have the right to know the results and the reports on your agency’s SEO strategy. A responsible SEO agency should be able to provide a clear communication channel with their clients to enable instant messaging and calls.
It’s best if the SEO company you’re going to hire conducts weekly meetings with you. That’s because there are some agencies who might only speak with you once a month. Avoid hiring an SEO agency that’ll only contact you occasionally by sending you an email or report. Find out what kind of communication tools they prefer to use and ask for their contact information in case of emergencies.
If there’s no clear communication between you and the SEO company, it can be hard to determine whether you’re getting your money’s worth from them or not. You’ll never know what they’re doing and the results of their services because they’re not reporting to you on a regular basis.
6. Is There An Out Clause?
You also have to make sure that there’s an out clause in the contract before signing. This is to give you peace of mind. Results may take some time, but you’ll still want to have a way out of the contract in case things aren’t going as you expect them to be, especially if it’s taking too long for the SEO agency to provide the results they promised to deliver.
Final Thoughts
Find the best SEO agency for your business by asking the questions above first before signing any contract. If a firm can answer all these questions properly and you feel that you can trust them, then you’ve found your SEO partner!
