Just as someone requiring surgery will seek out a surgeon, it stands to reason that if you are looking to position your company’s website on Google, you will turn to SEO experts.
This means hiring the services of a dedicated and specialized agency. How to choose an SEO agency becomes a burning question, and an important decision. You wouldn’t trust any old surgeon without getting to know them first; nor would you leave the visibility of your website in the hands of the first agency you come across.
One way or another, the SEO agency which you decide to hire will become a trusted professional partner. Your brand’s reputation and visibility depend on their experience and skills.
With this in mind, in this article we will consider how to choose an SEO agency, and explain what this strategic partner can do for you, thus helping you to choose the agency which best suits your company.
Before hiring an SEO agency for your company, some aspects should be considered. Doing so represents a significant investment, especially for a small or medium-sized company. But the investment is a worthwhile one, for several reasons:
- Increase visibility. Google and other sites are the no. 1 starting point for searches carried out by users looking to buy products or services online. Positioning your company correctly will lead to increased visibility among a huge number of potential clients.
- Make the most of your website. The creation of a company website requires significant investment. Superficial, ad-hoc SEO positioning will cause you to lose traffic. Think of this as an opportunity to recoup income from an earlier investment.
- Improve your reputation, gain credibility and project trust. Appearing among the first Google search results will make your website seem especially relevant and reliable. Perceptions of your brand will take on greater dimensions accordingly.
- This is a long-term investment. Choosing the right SEO agency today may translate into organic traffic in the future. The sooner you sign off on a positioning plan for your business’ website, the sooner you will be able to reap the rewards.
- Improve your website. Among other goals, Google and other search engines aim to offer their users the best available results. Therefore, the SEO techniques that go towards the positioning of your website reflect this goal: to improve user experience and results in general.
- Increase your impact on social media. A secondary benefit, but a benefit nonetheless. Optimizing your website titles and descriptions makes web link previews more user-friendly, prompting more social media users to share and click.
- Measurable results. The results of an SEO agency’s work are concrete and measurable, which is very useful when evaluating your strategy, and validating or changing your course.
- Profitability. Some believe that putting together an in-house SEO team is preferable to hiring an agency. But doing so at the expense of hiring proven specialists can lead to decreased profitability in the long term.
To determine how to choose an SEO agency, it is important to be clear about what it is and what it does, as obvious as that may sound.
An SEO agency is a company dedicated to improving the visibility and SEO positioning of its clients on search engines, and especially on Google.
The agency aims to ensure that the brands under its management appear among the first online search results conducted by users seeking information related to the products or services which they offer.
Because web positioning depends on several factors, an SEO agency typically employs professionals who are specialized in different areas, such as:
- Content generation: Every aspect of your brand’s content – the pages of its website, blog articles, the descriptive text of a certain ecommerce product, the videos on your social media channels – can be optimized to improve positioning. And this is where an SEO agency comes in.
- On-Page SEO: this covers everything to do with the structure of your website’s pages, such as descriptions and titles. It also involves other techniques, from avoiding URL duplication to optimizing loading speed in order to improve user experience.
- UX (User experience): the visitors on your website are people. So are the ones who end up becoming clients of your company, too. For this reason, SEO and UX should be inseparable at all times.
- Off-Page SEO: This type of SEO focuses on improving the reputation of your website by creating quality links to it (a.k.a. link building).
- Technical SEO: An essential part of SEO which verifies that the separate components of your website are configured to maximize potential organic visibility on Google and other search engines.
Having examined what an SEO agency is, let’s take a look at another common unknown: what an SEO agency can do for its clients. The work is gradual and takes place in different stages:
- SEO briefing together with the client. Client-agency communication is of vital importance. The first step is a document stating shared objectives, as well as details of the services or products which you are seeking to promote.
- Conduct an SEO audit. A brand which hires an SEO agency typically already has a website online, complete with its own content. In order to define a strategy, it’s important to assess the current situation in terms of positioning, including the parts which need most work.
- Create and execute an SEO plan. Once the audit is over, it’s time for action. The agency defines and implements SEO positioning actions, with your approval. This is a continuous process, which takes time and will not yield instant results, so adjustments will likely need to be made after the plan has begun.
- Assess and communicate. Among the SEO agency’s tasks is the generation of regular reports, keeping you informed of results. These reports help the client and the agency to define and agree on next steps.
Things don’t always work out for the best. Not all SEO agencies can offer services that meet the demands of each of their clients.
There are certain criteria which an SEO agency should meet, and certain warning signs which indicate when it is better to steer clear.
- Over-the-top promises. Guaranteeing pole position on searches in Google and other search engines is a pipe dream, especially within a short period of time. If an agency promises you the world, it pays to be on your guard.
- Charging by keyword. SEO positioning does not work this way. Search engines have evolved to focus on searches that involve semantics and general themes. Agencies which provide complete services are more reliable than those which fixate on keywords.
- Unusual link building techniques. Many agencies offer black hat SEO: unethical techniques, some of which are forbidden by Google and other search engines. This type of SEO tends to be counterproductive in the long run. Beware of agencies that claim to generate links for free.
- Surprisingly cheap rates. SEO positioning, well carried out, requires time, knowledge, work and specialized workers. Cheap can turn out to be expensive.
- Limited access to results. When results are obtained, they can and should be shared with the client. Any agency which doesn’t operate in a transparent way should be given a wide berth.
We hope that this article has been helpful in explaining how to choose an SEO agency that will work with your brand to increase visibility and improve your reputation.
To review: before making your choice, it is important to define your needs, research the best matches, be clear about what you want, and be flexible when comparing your options.
Knowing how to choose an SEO agency is the first step towards gaining visibility on Google and other search engines, and enhancing your brand’s reputation.
Here at Sherlock Communications, we have multidisciplinary teams, with professionals capable of dealing with the most varied SEO approaches, whether On-Page, Off-Page or Technical. In addition, we also work with App Store Optimization (ASO) and automated SEO. Request your customized proposal today.
