If you own a company and want to drive traffic to your website, you might handle the search engine optimization for that in-house. Search engine optimization, which some people abbreviate as SEO, can turn your company’s fortunes around if you’re not getting anyone to visit your site. Getting potential customers to come to your website often yields higher profits if you can get them to convert.
You might also hire an outside agency to handle SEO packages for you. That way, you don’t have to hire a full-time SEO staff yourself. You may feel like this is the more cost-effective option.
If you’re hunting for a suitable SEO agency, though, you’ll want to see some particular things from the one you hire. Let’s talk about a few of those right now.
The Price
Much like anything else you’d buy, you first need to consider the price. You should go to the SEO agency’s website that you’re considering and see how much they charge for their various packages. Maybe you find you have the money to get one of the packages they offer, but perhaps they’re not in your price range at all.
You likely have a set amount that you can spend on SEO. If you go over that amount, you won’t see the potential profit margins for which you hoped. You likely can’t go over your budget for SEO, especially if you recently started the company and only have a limited marketing budget.
Maybe you can negotiate with this SEO company for a more stripped-down package. If they won’t budge on the price, you will probably have to use someone else.
Former Client Recommendations and Positive Online Reviews
If you target a particular SEO company that you feel could work for you, you should ask them for recommendations. They will probably give you some former client names that you can contact.
Reaching out to former SEO agency clients amounts to checking references like you’d do for a new employee you’re considering hiring. If the agency’s former clients say they highly recommend this agency, you might feel more confident about hiring them.
You can look around online and see what else you can learn about this agency. If you discover they have an excellent reputation, that can also lead to you hiring them.
You Want Them to Outline Their Strategy
When you start talking to your company’s potential new SEO agency, you’ll want them to lay out their ideas for your business. They should have a comprehensive, multipronged strategy regarding what they’ll do to get clients to come to your website and convert.
They might want to use social media platforms to advertise your company and its services if you don’t do that yet. They may want to focus on local SEO if you operate within a regional market.
Even if you don’t know all that much about SEO when this process starts, the agency you’re thinking about hiring must explain to you what they’ll do for you using simple language that even a layperson can understand. If they don’t seem like they can do that, you might choose to go with someone else.
You Want to Talk to Them About Their Local SEO Success Metrics
Various companies have different business models. You might have a company that operates from coast to coast or even internationally. These businesses need a specific kind of SEO.
You might have a smaller company, though. Many modest-sized companies that operate in regional markets hire SEO agencies because they want to make strides with local sales. You might need this regardless of whether you have brick-and-mortar locations or a strictly eCommerce business model.
Whether you’ve got a national brand or a smaller, local one, you’ll need to talk to the SEO agency you’re considering hiring about whether they have experience formulating successful campaigns for similar companies. If they can point to success with similar companies in the past, you’ll probably want to hire them. If the SEO they do isn’t quite what you need, you’ll have to look at other options.
Their Availability for a Long-Term Partnership
You will need to talk to the SEO agency you’re considering about whether you only want to do a short-term partnership with them or you envision something long-term instead. If it’s the former, they should have no issues with that. If you want a longer-term partnership, assuming their initial SEO campaign pays dividends for you, you should discuss that with them.
