Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential part of online marketing. When you search for something using a search engine, the results you get depend on the keywords you used in comparison to keywords on each website. In order to be relevant, websites must incorporate SEO into their website, so searches lead to information they provide visitors. If you are not familiar with SEO, you can hire a company to handle it for you. Here are some tips for choosing an SEO company that will not leave you in the dark. With the most recent SEO Google Updates, SEO must be approched from an intelligent standpoint rather than farming out the work overseas or to a less reputable company. When it comes to SEO content is King. If the content you are producing digitally is high quality and unique as well as relevant to your industry, SEO will take care of itself. Many companies offer empty clicks or amazing results under an unrealistic time-frame, the rule of thumb here is if its too good to be true it probably is. Optimizing your website and ranking well on Search Engines takes time, work and most importantly engaging, useful content.
Their Research Program
All good SEO companies have research programs, which determine how they do web research. Web research is a big part of their job because it tells them what keywords need to be used on your site, as related to what terms others use when searching for information online. One of the things to find out about an SEO program before choosing them is what their research program entails and who handles these searches. Many times “wing-it” is the strategy, a good SEO company can explain to you how the research is performed and how to implement it into your digital strategy. This information can be presented to anyone, even someone without any prior SEO experience or the knowledge of industry lingo.
Experience with SEO
Verifying prior work and experiencing with SEO is also essential. Not just the number of years working with SEO, but knowing that they are keeping up with all of the new updates and changes in the Search Algorithms. Google is the largest search engine currently being used, and has changed their search algorithms several times in the last few years. If the SEO company knows what they are doing, they already know how to provide SEO benefits for your website, regardless of how the searches change. Keeping up with the updates are part of the game.
Their experience should also include learning about each individual website they work for, incorporating and analyzing their coding, navigation, links, design and content with their SEO efforts. Analyzing competitors sites and keywords is also important, because that helps them know what you should do and what to avoid, so you can show up before the competitors in search engine results.
Questions to Ask
Once you have narrowed down your options, there are some things to go over before choosing one to hire for your SEO efforts. This includes asking for references, asking about their results on the major search engines, asking about pricing per page optimization and overall pricing, learning about how your SEO is maintained over time, and what strategies aside from basic SEO that they work with.
Mistakes to Avoid
Additionally, here is a list of some common mistakes to avoid when it comes to choosing an SEO company.
- Never choose an SEO company that guarantees you a number one spot in searches.
- Avoid SEO companies offering a quick fix, such as improving your links or adjusting the content you already have.
- SEO companies that don’t keep up with recent algorithm search changes aren’t going to help you maintain your SEO and should be avoided.
- Don’t go with an SEO company buying paid links from unknown sources, this will have a negative effect on your overall placement.
If you follow these easy tips, you know you’re choosing an experienced and well reputable SEO company.