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How to Choose An SEO Company: Your Ultimate Guide!

How to Choose An SEO Company: Your Ultimate Guide!

You need SEO services to make a strong presence online, and only the right SEO agency can help you achieve that goal.

But what if you end up with an incompetent one? You know the answer - all of your investment, time, and effort will directly go down the waste. 

Many businesses are still making this mistake because it’s really hard to find reliable SEO services from so many options out there.

To help you avoid that loophole, we created the ultimate checklist that should be in your consideration when looking for potential SEO companies for your short-and long-term SEO goals.   

What Does an SEO Company Do?

The primary job of an SEO company is to make your website more visible to google and in turn, attract leads and boost revenue. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process to make your website rank higher in google’s search results. 

SEO companies deal with different aspects of SEO to make your content more visible. They’ll offer you complete packages and individual services that will help your web pages appear at the top whenever your visitors search for something related to your business.   

You’ll get services like SEO website audit, on-page SEO, local SEO, link building services, link clean-up, and more from an SEO company. Some of them also offer additional services like developing a content strategy, content creation, web design, and improving conversion rate. 

How to Choose an SEO Company

Clearly define your SEO goals

The first step to choosing the best SEO company for your specific business needs is to assess all your requirements thoroughly. Each company has some specific goals they want to pursue. An SEO company will be able to help you with things like this: 

  • Boost your e-commerce sales
  • Engage more users
  • Increase the number of leads/conversions
  • Improve the branding
  • Reduce your website’s bounce rate
  • Incorporate a more targeted marketing strategy
  • Increase organic traffic to your website
  • Reputation management

These are just some examples of what an SEO company can do for your business. Setting your goal will help you achieve that goal faster. 

Find an SEO company that tracks your data

It is really important for an SEO company to be able to track and measure all your company data and create an improvement plan accordingly. A good SEO company will be able to track your data and identify improvement areas. 

Your ideal SEO company should be able to track down your phone calls, contact forms, site visits, click-through rates, and many other areas where you can improve. This will help you make decisions based on numbers rather than relying on someone’s intuition. 

Define your SEO budget

SEO consists of a bunch of small tasks like local SEO, keyword research, voice SEO, getting backlinks, optimizing page/content, and more. Most SEO companies offer bundle/package services focusing on different spectrums of SEO practices. 

It wouldn’t be wise to opt-in for a service you won’t need as it won't provide much value to your business. Additionally, hiring a good SEO company won’t be cheap. That’s why you need to create a definitive SEO budget as per your needs so that you can stand by it in the long run. 

Get SEO company reviews, case studies & testimonials

The best way to know about your potential SEO company associate is to collect information from the current users. Go through the public reviews, case studies, and testimonials to find out how the company operates and what change it can bring to your business. 

According to WebFx, around 14% of companies look at the case studies of a potential SEO firm before deciding. This will give you an idea about how that company works and what results they are generating.  If the company doesn’t match your vibe, you shouldn’t invest in them.  

Don’t just google “Best SEO Company” and randomly pick one. Make a checklist, do your homework, and find the best possible match for your specific business. 

Meet the SEO company and ask questions

This part is crucial. You have to face the company you want to hire. Whether it’s a direct meeting or online, meeting the SEO company will help you get some clear answers on what you need help with and how they can help you. 

The company will usually guide you through some strategies on how you can improve your SEO rankings. Building a sustainable and trusted partnership with your SEO provider will help you in the long run. 

Don’t hold yourself back from asking questions. Check how passionate the company is, what is their attitude, are they trying to upsell, and most importantly, do you understand what they are presenting? If the answer to all those questions is “yes”, you’ve got a green signal to go ahead. 

Look for strong transparency and reporting

There is no “secret formula/recipe” in SEO practice. Absolutely no one (maybe not even Google) can guarantee overnight success or some secret shortcut to make your site rank in a definitive way. If a company offers you something like that, it’ll be better to stay away. 

A good SEO company will maintain transparency at almost every level of their work process and provide you with real-time reports. The entire process of improving SEO rank is documented so there is no “secret sauce.” Don’t fall for that nonsense. 

Some companies will offer you cheap services as well. However, that doesn't bring sustainable results, and your website may even end up penalized if Google suspects you are using some shady techniques. 

Evaluate their customer service and attention

This is a good way to evaluate your potential SEO companies. Customer support is always a crucial part of business development and you can assess a company based on the quality of customer service and satisfaction they provide. 

A good SEO company will do you no good if you face issues but can communicate with the experts. You can expect good customer service, quick fixes, and long-term solutions from your SEO company regardless of time. There will be multiple ways to contact them. 

The more customer-friendly your SEO company is, the better. 

Check if they provoke thought leadership and knowledge transfer

As I've already mentioned, there is no secret formula to succeed in SEO. A good SEO company will actively try to educate its client base. As a customer, you should have access to an information-reach knowledge base. 

The knowledge base will help you get a general idea about why and how things work. A good SEO company will try to provoke thought leadership through knowledge transfer. 

Check beforehand if your SEO company shares the latest advancements and trends in the form of blogs, social media posts, or research papers. 

Do they have customized, fair pricing?

SEO isn’t cheap, but it isn’t too expensive either. Just as you shouldn’t go for the cheapest option, you also shouldn’t bite more than you can chew. Most SEO packages are scalable/customizable, meaning you can make your own pack at a fair price. 

On average, businesses spend around $1500-$5000 each month on SEO (WebFX). Just as you should have a definitive budget for your SEO operations, the company should provide you with customizable, fairly-priced packages that won’t become a burden on you. 

Specialization in the service you need

An SEO company will consist of experts from multiple SEO sectors. Some of them may be really good at backlinks, but can’t optimize content. It’s only natural. Nobody can be expert at everything. 

What you need is to check if the company has the right experts for your specific needs. Go through the “About Us” and “Team member” sections of your SEO service provider. It would be a bad choice if what you need is local SEO and the company can’t provide proper support there. 

What’s a “Bad” SEO Company?

A bad SEO company will lure you in through attractive deals or unrealistic expectations. As time goes by, you’ll find it harder and harder to work with them on a long-term basis. You’ll fail to find transparency and attention in their work and it’ll be a lot harder to progress with your website.  

Some of the shady practices of that particular SEO company may cause your website to get permanently banned by Google. There are people literally scamming other people in the name of SEO. 

That’s why you need to be careful about choosing a good SEO company as a long-term partner. There is enough room to be skeptical about your SEO partner if you notice any of these practices: 

  • They provide a “quick fix” to all your SEO problems 
  • They almost guarantee your success, almost
  • They create an SEO plan for you, without meeting you 
  • They won't know the right question to ask about your business
  • They try to use multiple iframes to develop your website
  • They use hidden links and text online
  • They have a tendency to “spin” copies instead of providing new ones 
  • They don’t emphasize the site being “mobile-friendly”
  • They take part in shady linking and domain schemes
  • They try to “buy” backlinks or build a “doorway” within your website 
  • They stay silent if you change the content of an optimized page
  • They try to hide keywords on your page
  • They are working with fake WHOIS information/aliases
  • They are okay with using scumware or spyware to generate traffic

 

Why Is Choosing the Right SEO Company Important?

Selecting a good SEO company is crucial to growing your online presence. On the other hand, damages done by a shady agency can be irreversible and you may end up losing your Search Engine Result Page (SERP) altogether. 

That’s why finding the right SEO farm for your specific business needs is a bit tricky. However, if you follow the guideline I've presented today, your risk factors will reduce significantly. 

A good SEO company doesn’t have to be the most expensive one. Each company has a slightly different target and a good SEO company can help you achieve that in a steady and sustainable way. 

Common Mistakes and Misconceptions

The biggest misconception about finding a good SEO company is many people think that expensive refers to high quality. That’s not true in most cases. Ever the number one SEO company in google’s search results can be no match for your specific business needs.

Here are some most common myths and misconceptions people tend to fall for when choosing the right SEO company for their business: 

  • The best-ranking SEO companies aren’t necessarily the best for you 
  • You can’t rank much higher with just the SEO counseling 
  • No SEO company can guarantee organic search results
  • You don’t need to “buy” backlinks
  • All SEO prices aren’t the same. The price will depend on a lot of factors 
  • Citations are not equal to backlinks
  • You’ll need a lot more than just backlinks to rank higher 
  • Local SEO is very much important for small local businesses
  • Any SEO isn’t good SEO. you’ll need a specific strategy to move forward
  • You can’t optimize your website just once, it’s a continuous process. 

 

Pro Tips on How to Choose an SEO Company

Choosing the right SEO partner isn’t something you can do on a whim. It’ll take a good amount of research and skepticism to find out the best candidate for your business. According to our expert team, these are the things you can keep in mind to find the best SEO company for you. 

Look for an SEO company that: 

  • Is good and supportive with their customer 
  • Can track your website’s data to find legit issues 
  • Works with the metrics that matter to you the most 
  • Provides transparent client reviews and testimonials 
  • Offer sample of successful SERP results
  • Has a long and solid background 
  • Offer website monitoring, backup, and maintenance
  • Provides a detailed and sound content marketing strategy 
  • Share their process of traffic generation and conversion rate optimization
  • Provides in-depth reports and analyses on demand

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