7 Tips for Working with an SEO Company
Master the art of SEO and boost your online visibility with this comprehensive guide. Understand how SEO can propel your website to the top of search engine results, helping you attract more visitors actively searching for services or products like yours. Learn to differentiate between organic ranking improvement and paid advertising, and discover why many businesses opt to work with SEO experts despite potential risks. This guide also provides essential tips on choosing a reputable SEO company to avoid those exploiting industry complexities, ensuring you invest wisely in your site's long-term success. Equip yourself with knowledge to enhance your online presence effectively and safeguard against unethical practices.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making a web page or website more visible by search engines such as Google. People are searching for services or products like the ones you offer on the web every day by typing words into search engines.
For example, if you’re an interior designer in Dallas, Texas, and someone types “Dallas interior design” into Google, you want your page to be one of the top results.
Page one on Google is the Holy Grail of anyone who wants to be found online. When was the last time you scrolled down to the third page when you were searching for something? Ideally, you want to be in the top 5 results.
So how do you get there? You can pay for it with advertising – these are the items you see listed at the very top and down the right column on Google, for example. Or you can optimize your site to increase your natural or "organic" rankings.
How do you increase your rankings? Well, the specific algorithms are closely guarded by the search engine gods, but there are some well-known ways to optimize your site. Even though the methods are mostly free, many businesses choose to work with SEO companies.
There are two main reasons businesses work with SEO companies. First, SEO experts stay up-to-date on the latest changes and cutting-edge knowledge on what works. Second, do-it-yourself SEO can be incredibly time-consuming.
But here’s the problem. Many SEO companies exploit the naivety of site owners. Because many people are overwhelmed by the complexities of SEO, it’s pretty common for unscrupulous types to take advantage of your ignorance and charge exorbitant amounts for their services, or use unethical tricks that can get your site blacklisted by the search engines.
To protect yourself from sharks, here are some guidelines to consider when working with an SEO company:
- Find out how your site will change. Some of the best looking websites are virtually invisible to search engines, because many web designers know nothing about marketing. In some cases, SEO might require a complete overhaul of your site. In other cases, you will need to change your site architecture, make back-end tweaks of your code, or rewrite your copy.
- Check out their reputation. This is a good time to dip into your network for a recommendation. Because slimy SEO consultants have created a bad name for their industry, you’ll need to be particularly careful in vetting people. Be sure to ask for references, and check out their references to see that they appear to have integrity. Evaluate their list of clients and check their rankings. Additionally, check the firm’s rankings. If they can’t get rankings for themselves, how will they get rankings for you?
- Determine the company’s capacity. SEO is time-intensive and requires a wide range of skills. Will they be able to dedicate enough resources to you? Can they take care of the big picture, or will they send you elsewhere for many of their suggestions?
- Ask for an ROI analysis. You should know how the return on investment will be calculated, and prepare your team for tracking by setting up appropriate internal processes. (How will you know if business came in from the web?)
- Aim for transparency. If a company is insistent that everything they do is proprietary and must remain top secret, run. The consultant should be able to tell you their procedures, give reports on keywords, and provide reports on competitors.
- Do your research. Become familiar enough with the basics of SEO so you’re not easily impressed by geek speak or lofty promises. It's not as complex as many try to make it out to be. There are aspects of SEO that a consultant can’t control, so if they make claims of quick ranking, this is a red flag.
- Manage your expectations. SEO doesn’t happen overnight. It’s something that evolves over months, so you might have to be patient. Try to rank for long-tail keywords and easier terms first.
SEO companies can be important partners in your online marketing efforts, so working with a good company will be worth the investment. If a company is willing to put some work into earning your business, checks out when you research them, and doesn’t ask you to sign a long-term contract, you’re not likely to get burned.