To win or lose leads us to the query, “Should I engage an SEO company?”
It comes up more often than I anticipate in a business development capacity, and the answer need not be “yes,” either. Not every business needs to work with an SEO expert or any SEO firm, and many people aren’t prepared to accept one.
Here are some assessments to do before hiring that SEO agency.
Should I Work with an SEO Agency?
If you have internal resources devoted to SEO, hire an agency.
It is the year 2022. It has been a long since anyone could engage an SEO company and tell them to “perform that SEO thing and get us results” with no internal work. You must invest time and money internally if you want SEO to be successful for any business. To prioritize SEO work among the many other efforts, the organization is working on, you also need buy-in from the top down.
Secret Tips from Top SEO Companies to Drive Your Traffic and Sales
If you believe your analytics data, hire an agency.
Any reputable SEO or digital marketing company wants to address data integrity concerns before establishing goals or moving forward with a project. How can we truly know what is possible if we don’t know how much money we have in our bucket and what gaps need to be filled? Before beginning SEO, there are many things to track (and track confidently), from double-counting sessions to having e-commerce tracking set up to knowing your conversion funnel.
(Have you already made the switch to GA4? Start obtaining that year-over-year data before Universal stops collecting data on July 1, 2023, even though it is not nearly as intuitive as Universal).
If you have development resources available, hire an agency.
Why pay for recommendations in the first place if you can’t use them? If you sit there, even if you’re going in the right direction, you’ll get run over. Make sure you have the tools necessary to implement the advice from your SEO provider. You require dev resources, especially if your agency is carrying out a technical audit, whether it be for title tags, redirects, internal linking, or a hundred other potential adjustments.
If you have the money, hire an agency.
A medium-sized or large-sized corporation may spend $120K or more on a 12-month project. A committed team, a project plan and strategy, goal-setting, content strategy, and technical SEO are standard components, so hiring a skilled employee in-house is probably not less expensive if that budget is only valid for a year (salary, benefits, fixed costs).
Finding a reliable individual consultant to give the site a boost could be a smart decision if, for some reason, you don’t have enough money to engage a reliable organization. Both independent consultants and employees of agencies who accept clients on the side are in plentiful supply. We frequently see people use a small SEO budget to argue for a larger one. Additionally, it never hurts to inquire about a three-month sprint or pilot program from an organization you adore but cannot afford.
The phrase “Seer generally isn’t the most expensive, but we’re never the cheapest” is frequently used in business development. If you discover that Seer’s price point is out of your price range, we’ve done some thorough vetting. Visit the trusted SEO agencies on our recommended list.
If you find an agency that doesn’t fit your culture, don’t hire them.
I want to ensure that Seer fits our prospects just as well as I wish Seer to serve our prospects. Many agencies can indicate that they can’t function in your culture if your plans could alter at the drop of a hat, depending on what the CMO says. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an agency to be an extension of your team and interact daily, hold weekly calls, and send reports on a weekly or monthly basis, you need to find out how they communicate with clients to make sure it meets your requirements.
Avoid working with agencies that will tie you to a 12-month contract.
Everyone desires to be treated fairly. You shouldn’t be required to pay for another five to six months of something that isn’t working for you if you need to stop after six to seven months because you do not see results
Therefore, having 30- or 60-day termination clauses for either side should be included in your contract. You should also ensure the agency will get along with you and has a strategy in place if you need to switch agencies.
If an agency doesn’t prioritize money as the most crucial goal, don’t work with them.
Any company that begins their pitch by saying, “We can get you ranked for XYZ,” should raise the red flag to gently remove the phone from your ear and place it back on the hook. Hang up.
Rankings don’t pay your bills, and your chosen agency shouldn’t gauge its success using rankings. Rankings are a terrific early sign that things are going well, but they are only a vanity metric if they aren’t accompanied by traffic, conversions, and income improvements.
Not sure about the tracking or statistics on your website?
If you’re also spending on other marketing channels, hire an agency.
Usually, SEO doesn’t function in a vacuum and works well when combined with PPC, PR, email, social media, and brand evangelists. Technically sound websites and optimized content can be provided by SEO, but if other channels aren’t working to increase the site’s authority and traffic, SEO may take a very long time to provide results. Even the best content requires a mechanism to spread awareness and build authority to generate organic traffic eventually.
To develop a successful data-driven strategy, your potential SEO agency should wish to engage with these other platforms and share information. Your search query reports, calls to action that increased email campaign open rates, and an SEO firm will request much more. Finding data-driven opportunities is exciting; the agency you choose should let you know that over the phone or in person.
Yes, if you want long-term success, use an agency.
Most SEO focuses on creating long-term successes and value unless a simple issue with your website can be resolved (such as completely blocking it using your robots.txt file). Paid search is a far more practical option to get those quick victories if you require immediate traffic. You’ll need to spend some money to make some, but you can start selling and learning about customer response with PPC within a day of setting up a campaign.
Before doing anything else, ensure your analytics are enabled and set up correctly so you can track what visitors are doing on your website. Finding the right analytics team may be the first step you should take if you have worries about data integrity, or you could locate an agency like Seer that does both services.
Hire an agency if you’re serious about getting to know your target audience.
Any reputable SEO firm won’t discuss keywords and publish material randomly to see what gets shared. As the authority in your industry, they will want to interact with you. To understand whether we are reaching everyone who is about to enter your funnel and serving those who are ready to convert as well, they’ll want to connect with customer life cycles, life stages that trigger actions, how people use your product, how people search for it, and how people use it.
When should you work with an SEO firm? In the end, you should engage an SEO company when your business has the necessary resources and discovers an industry that prioritizes income and long-term strategy (which includes extra marketing channels).
Behind every search is a person. Every quest has a subject, and your agency should be aware of this and focus on bringing the correct visitors to your website rather than just sessions and rankings.
Watch the video below to hear more about when to hire an SEO:
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How Can An SEO Agency Benefit Your Company?
Simply put, an SEO company will assist in raising your ranks, boosting website traffic, and raising social media engagement.
- They’ll carry out a website audit to look for issues.
- They’ll Establish A Thoroughly Researched Content Marketing Plan
- Create material that is persuasive and contains pertinent keywords and phrases.
- Produce excellent content that is search engine optimized.
- Be intriguing and readable for human readers.
- Content that is of a caliber that will draw links.
- Understanding User Intent Will Increase Conversion Rates
- They’ll concentrate on the subtleties of technical SEO
- Performance of the website: Although website speed may be a minor ranking element, it significantly affects conversion rates.
- Make sure your website has a mobile version: You can find out if it is mobile-friendly by conducting an audit, and this will be necessary as Google switches to a mobile-first index; it is not optional.
- Submitting a sitemap: It can explain to search engines what your website is all about and how to go to each component.
- Check the architecture of your website. Search engine spiders must be able to understand your website’s purpose, which can be done with a solid navigation framework and interlinking.
- User engagement: This is partially related to all the other factors, but it especially has to do with persuading users to take certain activities, which could entail sending them to a funnel or hitting a contact button.
- Creating an atmosphere that gives your visitors the highest enjoyment is known as user experience.
- They’ll keep managing your project.
- Rating and traffic monitoring continuously.
- Selecting keywords to appear more prominently in organic search results.
- Creating material to increase relevance in search results.
- Establishing links to related websites will aid Google in comprehending the purpose of the website and its applicability to a particular niche.
- They’ll Take Care of Your Off-Site SEO Needs
Conclusion
You may either engage a company to conduct the work on your behalf or do it yourself regarding SEO. However, outsourcing this activity might be better if you actively participate in the business. You may have confidence that a top-notch SEO company will gradually raise the volume of highly-converting traffic to your website, which will result in more sales and enhance your overall revenue.
