Some of the things to look for in a professional SEO agency
Finding an SEO agency to handle your search engine presence needs isn’t all that hard. After all, there are thousands of businesses out there that can offer that exact service. A lot of problems that many website owners have is finding an SEO agency that’s reliable and can achieve the results you desire.
There are, in fact, many other agencies out there who claim to be able to offer professional SEO services but fail in every aspect of the service. If you’re currently on the lookout for a professional SEO agency that can handle your needs, take a look at some of the below things you should look for before parting with your money.
Previous clients
The professional SEO agency will have information on all the previous clients they have served. Most of the time, these are big brands that have only hired the agency because they can do exactly what they say they can. If you’re looking for the best results in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), it’s important that you research past clients and even look to obtain references from them. If an SEO agency doesn’t display a list of the work they have completed, the chances are they aren’t an established agency or they haven’t yet quite proved themselves in a hugely competitive industry.
An example of an SEO agency who’s doing this correctly can be seen through Ascensor. This SEO agency in Leeds has a dedicated page for case studies on their website, which features a wide range of clients that they’ve helped. Each case study details the brief, project and results of the campaign which allows you to see exactly what they do for their customers.
Good search engine presence
If an SEO agency is as professional as they say they are, they will have a good search engine presence themselves. Insert their website link into a top search engine to see what keywords they’re targeting and how they’re competing in the SERPs. A professional agency will have a competitive search engine presence and, should they not, they haven’t spent time working on their own website – which would suggest little effort will be put into yours.
What steps do they take?
If an agency wants payment up front before they even consider taking your website forward, the chances are they’re not as professional as they say they are. Many businesses out there will try to pull the wool over your eyes by saying they can get you to the top of Google within a week for a specific keyword. However, once you pay them, you’ll likely not hear from them again and your website won’t be going anywhere in the search engines any time soon, unless it’s to the bottom of the SERPs.
Take a look at the SEO professional’s website to see what marketing methods they use but, also, to see what steps they take to ensure your website has the best chance of competing in the search engines. They will usually start with a consultation to see what they feel they can achieve, and to see what targets you’d like them to meet. Once this process is finished, they will research the industry you serve to give them a better idea of the competition they will meet. They will brainstorm ideas to see what marketing trends your competitors are taking advantage of, and they will make alterations to such methods to better suit the needs of your website. The planning process takes the most time to start with, but they will quickly implement several marketing techniques to get your website off the bottom of the SERPs.
A detailed consultation
Once you’ve found an SEO agency that you feel could take your website forward, it’s time to schedule a consultation to ensure both parties are happy going forward. A consultation should include your overall ambitions for your website along with several targets. This would also be the perfect time to suggest a budget that you can both stick to. After a few months of hiring such services, it’s good to sit down again to have a look at what the company has achieved for your site in the search engines. Most of the time you’ll need to rethink your targets and look at other marketing ideas to ensure you’re happy with the end result. SEO services are expensive but, once you get going and they’ve created a foundation for your website to thrive from, you’ll find that an SEO professional will need to spend less time marketing your site, making it a lot cheaper in the long run.
Finding the right SEO agency to take your website forward doesn’t have to be hard work. If you do all the basic research in the search engines and you’re happy with the SEO agency you’ve selected – you’ll find that most of the companies out there will be able to meet your overall targets. However, if you do not do the necessary research before parting with your money, you could find out that you lose out considerably but, probably more problematic, your website could end up being penalised by the search engines because an SEO agency has been taking it upon themselves to implement black hat marketing methods.
