EZInsights
n
Why You Can
Trust SEO Agencies Again
Somewhere along the way with all the Google algorithm updates SEO companies started to get a bad rap. Companies were left wondering why their $200 a month outsourced SEO service wasn’t getting them to the top of first page in Google in the first month, or why their hard earned money left them with a Google penalty.
If You Are Looking for an SEO Company and Don’t Want to Get Burned • How many writers and graphic designers do they have in-house? This is important, because without them you will not get high-quality content, which you need in a long-term SEO campaign.
1. Cheaper is definitely not better. Sure, you want to spend less. But anything too low just seems fishy. They could be outsourcing all the work to India or the Philippines, so do you really want to put your business in the hands of someone you never met (and can barely speak English)? 2. You can’t expect to barely spend any money and get the world from it. It is harder than ever before to rank in Google, and it can take a lot of time for it to happen. Depending on the keywords and competitiveness, sometimes you may never reach the top.
• Do they offer social media services that optimize social pages as well as build relationships with industry experts and social influencers? If you know a few of their current clients, look at their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ pages.
3. You need to ask them the basic SEO questions about what they do. Transparency is key, and it proves they know what they’re doing.
• Look at how many followers they have, their customer engagement, and how many likes, retweets, and +1’s they get on average for each post.
Questions to ask • Ask them how long they have been doing SEO and how many clients they have. If they can give you the names of a few reputable ones than that is a good sign and find out how long they have been working with them. • If they have client testimonials on their site that is a plus as well. Ask if you can speak to a current client of theirs, and if they can’t provide one, it is because they don’t have any happy clients.
4. Ask for case studies or see if they have client testimonials to see what their customers are saying about them. 5. If they offer guaranteed results just run. In a Forbes article by Joshua Steimle, he shows a screenshot, at the top of the next page, of the kind of companies that offer such results.
No one can guarantee 1st page results in Google, unless they are Google. And we’re pretty sure they don’t and never will offer SEO services.
6. Lastly, and most important, just because you got penalized after working with an SEO company, or they didn’t live up to the expectations, it doesn’t mean that every SEO company is just as bad.
What Should You Look for in an SEO Company? There are a lot of things to ask and look for when you are searching for an SEO company. In no typical order, here are a few to keep an eye out for: 1. Look for an SEO company that can be a “partner” in your business, not ones that just see you as another client. 2. Do they ask questions about your goals, your past experiments in SEO, and try to get an idea of what you want to accomplish? 3. Did they ask for access to your Google analytics as a part of your campaign so they can track progress? 4. They should ask about your website, who created it, who controls it, and who monitors it. 5. Do they ask about your competition, or provide you with what they believe to be your main competitors online?
10. They should have on-going analysis to make sure your site is running properly. 11. Fresh and resourceful content should be regularly posted to your site so that when search engine crawlers come back they see something new. Plus, it expands your website as the more unique pages you have the more authoritative your website looks. If you ask all the right questions and look the time to find the right partner for your business, you will begin to trust SEO again. If your SEO company isn’t asking you these questions, they claim to have guaranteed results, or you’re just tired of going from one agency to the next then drop us a line and let’s see what we can do for you. n
Michael Juba
Content Marketing Strategist at EZSolution
6. They should ask what you are currently doing online, whether it is SEO, social media, public relations or whatever it may be. 7. They shouldn’t just focus on search engine rankings. Rankings, among targeted traffic, leads, conversions, goals, and revenue are metrics they should pay attention to. 8. Before starting any campaigns, they should check your site for any errors and speed issues. 9. If your site hasn’t been optimized you may need to have your copy rewritten. This goes along with 8, that before starting anything you should have the right call-to-actions or your leads and conversions won’t be what you want them to be.
Website, Integrated Marketing & IT Solutions
111 Centerville Rd. | Lancaster, PA 17603 P: 717.291.4689 | F: 717.291.9434 www.ezsolution.com
Helping your business grow!