How to Hire the Best Search Engine Optimization Agencies

Do you ever feel like everyone else knows something about digital marketing that you don’t?

It might not be that your competition knows anything you don’t, but rather that they hire people that do. Search engine optimization agencies are groups that help significantly with web traffic, conversions, and sales. Without agencies, you’re left to fend for yourself.  If you wish to find out more about social media advertising companies be sure to check out EngineRoom.

It can get tricky to hire the right agency, though. We’re going to run through a few tips on how to hire a great SEO agency today. Hopefully, the ideas below give you some direction on where to start looking for your digital marketing experts. 

Let’s get started. 

1. Understand SEO Basics

Search engine optimization is essential. At the same time, a lot of business owners know very little about how it really works. 

We know that it’s the process of tailoring a website to rank well on Google, but how much more do we know? What are the mechanisms that increase search rankings, what methods can we use to improve SEO, and how much should those methods cost? 

These are all basic things worth knowing before you sit down with an SEO agency. The more you understand the process, the better you can gauge your potential results according to the money you’re spending. 

So, we recommend taking a look at some fundamental SEO ideas and studying them. That way, you’ll be able to spot honest and effective agencies when you see them. It’s your marketing budget and you should know where it’s going. 

2. Ask for an SEO Audit 

An agency won’t know what to do with your website until they have a good look at it. That means you shouldn’t get any promises or ideas on results before the audit is done. 

The best thing to do is ask an agency to run an audit before they pitch to you. This shouldn’t be a big request, considering general SEO audits don’t take long. If an agency refuses to run an audit, there are plenty of other agencies that will. 

3. Watch Out for Big Promises

While agencies help a great deal when it comes to SEO, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. 

Digital marketing isn’t a tool to become immediately viral or rank at the top of search engine results pages right away. It takes time and effort to generate the influence that you’re looking for. 

Agencies that promise incredible results right away aren’t to be trusted. In most cases, they cannot deliver on those promises. In other cases, they provide quick results but do so with harmful tactics. 

There are ways to boost search engine rankings with very little time or money, but those benefits come at a cost. Google recognizes shady tactics to achieve search results and it punishes websites that use them. 

Google punishes harshly for harmless website errors and attempts to cheat the search algorithm lead to your site getting unindexed. So, while it might be nice to have a day or two of results, Google might remove your site the next time it crawls the web. 

4. Establish Reasonable Goals

When you talk with an agency, tell them what your goals are. Have a clear idea of what you’re looking for, run it by them, and see what they have to say. 

If they’re confident that they can help you meet your goals for a price that works for you, you have a standard for them to work off of. It’ll become very clear whether or not it’s working out within the first couple of months of your relationship. 

A great way to figure out which agencies to work with is to do establish your goals in meetings with a number of different groups. Shop around before you make your final decision so you can get a feel for who might really help your business get where you want it to go. 

If your goals are unreasonable, you’ll hear them from the agencies you speak with. Multiple groups telling you something can’t happen is a good indication that it’s not possible. 

The whole process of “shopping around” will give you a decent idea of what you can expect from an agency and help you pick out the groups that you feel most confident about. 

5. Prioritize Communication

Even if you know a little bit about search engine optimization and what its purpose is, there will always be things your agency does that you’re not familiar with. 

The particulars of the way your marketing budget gets spent might be mysterious to you. That’s why it’s important that you trust and communicate with the agency. If you’ve got questions, they should absolutely answer them. 

When the agency you choose doesn’t communicate with you and won’t respond to your emails or phone calls, it’s time to find a different agency. The whole process depends on open communication so that the SEO firm can help you achieve your business goals. 

Ask your potential SEO company how they handle communication. 

6. Ask for Content Creation

A great SEO company will almost always provide options for content creation. Content is the vehicle that drives web traffic, and the more content you produce, the better you’ll do. So long as the content is well-researched, keyword-optimized, and useful, it will help you out. 

It’s difficult to find time in the day to create that level of content though. You’re running a small business and you don’t have the mental space to research keywords, write articles, and monitor the metrics. It’s a lot of effort. 

So, ask whether or not the company produces content for its clients. Ideally, the company provides a number of different types of content that could help your business succeed. 

Want to Learn More About Search Engine Optimization Agencies?

Hopefully, the ideas above gave you a good idea of how to find great search engine optimization agencies. There’s more to learn about the digital marketing world, though. We’re here to help. 

Explore our site for more SEO tips, digital marketing insights, and a whole lot more.