How to Hire an SEO Agency
Because we are an SEO agency, we know the value of what SEO consulting provides and how it can propel a business online. Rather than telling you that we are the best SEO company, why not look to the search engines themselves on advice on how to hire an SEO company?
You made your way to this page, probably ready to hire an SEO or looking for advice on how to go about it. You could take our word it, but it might sound biased. So, let us see what Google has to say about hiring an SEO company.
How to Hire an SEO? – According to Google
On February 14th, 2017 Google Webmasters released a helpful video on sourcing and finding good SEO’s to work with.
The video, entitled, “How to hire an SEO”, speaks directly to that, addressing some important items about the fundamentals in deciding about hiring the right SEO company.
Google’s Maile Ohye shares her advice for hiring an SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) to improve the searcher experience on your website.
The video is a highly recommend watch, but here are some of the tips…
Sharing Some Advice to Help You Hire a Useful SEO
Understanding the meaning of SEO is important and dispelling what it is not is even more important.
“SEO looks to improve [upon] the entire searcher experience.”, is introduced early in this video to explain in simplistic terms what SEO does. From there, if you can improve your website’s ability to answer questions, relay important and useful content, and organize it a way that searchers would appreciate, the return is the reward of a better search position.
On the other hand…
“SEO is not black magic.”
Google dispels the notion that there are no quick fixes or overnight rankings. SEO takes time and patience. If an SEO company guarantees overnight rankings, it is time to look for another SEO agency or consultant. For sustained rankings, an SEO company needs to focus on quality, no shortcuts and the ability to work with what Google envisions as good search results.
Is your business ready for SEO?
Another thing that Maile Ohye mentions is that “An SEO is only as good as the quality of your business or website.”
So, what does this mean? She goes on to explain, “a successful SEO helps your website put your best foot forward so that it ranks appropriately in the spot where an unbiased potential customer would expect your site to be seen.”.
In other words, you may not be ready for SEO yet if the perception of your business is less than stellar by your clients. Google wants to give the best results to searchers, and they know a lot of information about business already based on things like reviews and activity.
Reputation management might be a better spend of your dollars in this case. Fixing what is broken first is vital. That way, if by chance you have a successful start to your SEO, with more eyes on your business, a poor reputation will not spill over into new clients.
How Long Does SEO Take?
“In most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”
Unlike Google Ads, which is like turning on and off a light switch for top page placement, SEO takes time, but the light switch stays on for long periods once top page placement happens.
Top SEO agencies understand this, and out of ethics, will never tell you that #1 rankings can be achieved in a day, week, or even a month. Rather, a good SEO agency should understand that focusing on quick wins early on, will improve your visibility sooner rather than later.
No matter if you are looking for Colorado Springs SEO, Denver SEO, or anywhere in the country, the search engine optimization timeline is tied to what the competition is like in a specific area.
What to Look For in an SEO Company
Aside from the video we introduced early, Google provides a wealth of information on hiring an SEO with some good advice. You can check out one such article here on best practices, but in case you are short on time we summed up the major points.
Selecting an SEO
- Be committed to implementing the recommended changes – At Infront Webworks, we have the skills to implement recommended changes regarding SEO directly on your website, so you won’t have to. If you prefer, we can also work with you or your dev team to help implement changes to effectively help your SEO. The bottom line is that time changes are important to implement, so be ready to do so.
- Interview your potential SEO – Asking the right questions is important. You want to get a sense of their abilities. Questions should be about the experience in your industry, location experience, how long they have been in business. Here, you want to get a general sense of workflow, communication and can the SEO agency or person get results under Google’s Webmasters guidelines.
- Check your SEO’s references – Asking if you can get references is completely okay. You are planning on spending money with a company and you should know what kind of work they do. You can tell quickly if an SEO company is all that they say they are based on past client work. A step further, ask the company if they have case studies you can view. Getting a good sense of past work is vital.
- Request a technical audit – A technical audit is very useful. It can tell you what needs to happen to make your website rank successfully. Beyond that, it can also clue you in on how good an SEO company really is. We always run a high-level audit so we can fully understand a client before signing them on and we will provide you with the results if requested. We also offer in-depth audits for SEO should you have a full team that understands implementation. Full and in-depth audits are also available for request for an additional charge.
- Decide if you want to hire – The last step is…Do you want to hire an SEO agency? Putting together the information we discussed will help you to better your decision and ultimately tell you if this is the company for you.
As you can see, there are many things to consider when looking for and hiring an SEO agency. Infront Webworks is prepared to answer to any of Google’s best practices on hiring an SEO. Our commitment to clients and providing ethical SEO services is what has made us a leading SEO company in the United States.
Looking to hire an SEO? Let us start the discussion and see if you would be a good fit. We have provided professional SEO services for over 20 years to thousands of satisfied clients. Will you be next?
