10 Factors To Consider Before Hiring a Local SEO Agency for Your Brand
Every month, it seems like one or two new local SEO agency is launched, and each one promises to achieve fast ranking results at cheaper costs. Initially, their offers may seem enticing; however, the bitter truth is that you will only get what you pay for, nothing more! This is why it is vital to understand the things you have to factor in when looking for UK’s best SEO company.
In the rest of this article, we will be expounding on how you can differentiate the “black hat agencies” from the “white hat agencies”. We’ll also be explaining the red flags you have to look out for when making your research. In fact, do you know that hiring a local SEO company that uses black hat strategies could cause your website to be penalised by Google, and this will consequently affect your credibility online?
The 10 things to keep in mind before you hire an SEO agency
The essence of hiring an SEO agency is to draw new visitors to your site. Any SEO agency you choose must be able to optimise your website to suit your buyer persona. Consider these 10 factors to ensure that your investment is secured and you are able to achieve effective results when you hire an SEO agency for your website.
- What is your research methodology?
Search engine optimisation is founded on research. The best SEO agencies worth hiring will always emphasise on the essence of research. This is why it is important that you ask a potential SEO agency how they carry out their research and the kind of data they collect.
- Can the agency deliver effective results as they claim?
It is pertinent that the SEO agency can back up their talk with results. Results are key. Anyone can purchase a domain and tag themselves as the number one agency in the UK. Just because they claim to be the “Best SEO Agency in Camden” doesn’t actually mean that they have the experience and success proof to back their claim.
Hence, you will need to ask them how they scale their results. Ask if they also have any case study. When an agency has long-term good working experience with their clients, they will gladly show you all the positive testimonials they’ve received. We advise you to cancel out any SEO agency that won’t share their results with you.
- What are their rankings and traffic?
You should not rely on only keyword ranking. It is more important to hire individuals who can demonstrate that their strategies have been clearly effective for past clients over the years.
- Are they trustworthy?
The truth is that ranking on Google has no perfect formula. Even the top sites in the world have times when they experience fluctuations in their traffic. A lot of brands have their good seasons and well, the not so good seasons. For instance, a hotel booking company will generally have more traffic during the summer and festive seasons. This is why you need an SEO agency that will tell you the truth. A good SEO company will deploy strategies that will counter the slower seasons as your traffic fluctuates up and down.
This is why DubSEOrecommends that you hire an agency that will not hold back the truth about the increase and decrease in your website traffic. It is necessary that they have a significant understanding of the traffic flow for your business, as well as the effect of algorithm variations on search results.
Free tip: be on the lookout for any SEO agency that guarantees you will never lose your ranking position. Please stay away from them; those promises can’t be kept.
- Consider your reporting process
In any form of transaction, communication will always be key. A good SEO agency should be able to demonstrate the way they will communicate with you. They should also show that they have successfully executed different projects described in your contract.
- What are the criteria for measuring client success
It is important that the SEO agency you hire does not send you inaccurate metrics, instead of measuring the appropriate analytics. They should be able to measure vital key performance indicators (KPIs) such as
- Impressions
- Search C.T.R
- Percentage of new visitors
- Average session time
- Pageviews
- Bounce rate
- Sessions
- Are certain requirements needed for your clients?
The project interview should be a two-way thing. The SEO company should also interview you as much as you should too. They need to clear all your doubts and ascertain whether or not they can meet your specifications before the agreement is signed. You should cancel out any SEO agency that claims they can deliver effective results no matter how small your budget is, regardless of the niche, and also meet all standards.
Keep in mind that each task will cost you a certain amount of money, and it takes a particular time to complete each task. This is why you should work with an agency that charges you the original cost of each task.
- Consider your approach to link building
It is necessary for local SEO companies to implement link building in the deployment of their marketing tactics. As mentioned earlier, there are black hat tactics and white hat tactics that SEO agencies employ. Most especially, when it comes to link building, a lot of SEO agencies resort to short cuts that can later have negative effects on the efficiency of your website.
- Does the agency offer any other services?
It’s better to interact with fewer agencies. If you intend on expanding and incorporating content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, or PPC later in the future, then we recommend that you work with an agency that will key into your vision and help you to achieve your marketing goals.
- What is the most feasible duration to record success?
We advise that you do away with any agency that claims to achieve immediate results. Although it may be possible for them to deploy an immediate strategy, they can, however not guarantee that Google will verify your sitemap and acknowledge updates as fast as the agency has deployed them.
In all, the best way to know which updates are effective is to implement A/B tests and monitor your rankings for some weeks. Hiring a good SEO company to boost traffic on your site requires time and meticulous planning. Make sure you ask strategic questions before hiring just any local SEO agency for your marketing projects.