Any business that wants to make use of the internet to grow must include SEO in their online marketing strategy. And the best option, by far, is to outsource SEO from a professional SEO company. But finding a professional agency that provides top-notch services and is reliable can be hard to accomplish.
In this article, you will find all the methods you can use to differentiate between a mediocre SEO agency and a professional SEO company. Keep in mind that only the companies that can pass all the tests mentioned below will be able to produce the best possible results for your business. So, you should only work with an agency able to accomplish this.
Essential Outsource SEO Services Any Online Business Must Use
Before anything else, you need to make sure that you outsource SEO services that your business needs. There are many different SEO agencies and services that you will find on the market. But only the ones that cover all the needs of your business should be considered. So, you need to ensure that the agency you will work with provides all the services mentioned below. But it must also be able to create a custom strategy based on your company’s needs.
Regular SEO Audits
The first types of service you should always look for are SEO audits. These services have many uses, and they should be regularly implemented. First, an audit is essential in the creation of a personalized strategy for your business. Second, regular audits will help you see all the results produced by the SEO efforts of an agency. Lastly, the audits can also be used to optimize the strategy based on the changes produced by the SEO efforts. You can find more about audits here.
Technical Services
Like any other type of business that you can build, there is a foundation that you need to start with. In the case of an online business, the foundation is the website. And the first pillar you need to build is the technical structure of the site. So, technical SEO services will help you solve any technical difficulties that your site may deal with. These services are essential to guarantee the performance of your website and you should treat them as the foundation.
On-Site Optimization
Once you know that the foundation of your website, the technical structure, is taken care of, you can start optimizing the contents of the website. Of course, the contents used in different industries, and even different companies of the same industry, can vary greatly. So, the agency you choose must be able to personalize their services based on your company’s needs. Moreover, you need to make sure that the focus of these services is the content.
Off-Site Services
Lastly, a top-notch SEO company must also provide services for off-site optimization. Keep in mind that search engines will also take into consideration the online reputation and authority of a website. So, if you want to maximize the ranks and traffic that your site will get from search engines, then you need to invest in this part as well. Yet again, the services that focus on top-quality content will also have the most success.
The More Experience a Professional SEO Company Has, the Better
After you make sure that a professional SEO company provides all the services that your business will need, you need to start checking the experience it has in the industry. Keep in mind that SEO is one of the newest marketing methods. So, it continues to evolve. Although most of the changes are based on the updates that search engines make to their algorithms.
In this situation, an agency that was able to adapt to the changes and resisted for more than a decade in this volatile industry will surely have several advantages compared with their competition. So, if you want the best possible partner for your online marketing, then a company with at least 10 years of experience in the industry is mandatory.
Experienced agencies understand the best how this industry works. As a result, they can find the best methods and customize their services the best. You can be sure that the collaboration you will have with an experienced outsource SEO company will be the smoothest. Even the normal tests and strategy optimization will be easily accomplished with the help of a thorough understanding and enormous experience.
Check the Quality of the Professional SEO Company’s Website
Although it is almost impossible, you need to make sure that even an experience agency didn’t resist in this industry for a long period solely because of luck. So, the next part you need to check in the process of finding a professional SEO company is the quality of the website. Even the busiest agencies will find enough time in a decade to optimize their own website. And your task is to find these agencies.
But what exactly are you looking for? Well, the easiest method is to look for a blog or a part of the website that accomplishes a similar goal. Keep in mind that the more content a website has, and the better the quality of the content is, the better the ranks it gets. So, you need to make sure that the quantity and quality of the content you find are top-notch.
The main qualities that the content you find on an SEO agency’s website are information, ease of reading, and compelling. If you can’t learn anything from reading the content, then you can start looking for another SEO company. The content must also be easy to read and understand. And lastly, you should feel the need of starting a collaboration with the agency.
Make Sure the Professional SEO Company Posted the Recent Results It Produced
Another method you can use to determine the level of an agency is through the results it produced for other clients. And a top agency will always post the results it accomplishes. It is a great marketing method that showcases the capabilities of an agency. So, there is no reason to lose this opportunity to understand the capabilities of the agency.
But it is essential to check only the results produced in the last 6 months to a year. Why? Because the changes in this industry make the results older than a year irrelevant. You can be sure of the skills of an agency only by checking the most recent results that were produced in the short period of 6 months.
Another method that you will see recommended is to check for agencies that have experience in your industry. So, you may wonder if that’s important? Well, not so much. Although experience in an industry can be an advantage, it is quite easy for an agency to learn and adapt to new industries. So, the difference caused by this factor is minimal.
3 Last Tests You Should Use Before You Outsource SEO from an Agency
If an agency you found was able to pass all the checks in this article, then you can almost be sure it is a top one. But, before you outsource SEO from it, there are 3 more tests you can make. You can use these tests if you want to reduce your risks to 0. But you should also remember that using these methods will cause you to lose time.
Contact Some of the Agency’s Clients
The first method you can start with is to communicate with other clients of the agency. This method is designed to help you find information from other sources besides the agency itself. Although you can check the online reputation of an SEO company, direct communication with the agency’s clients remains the safest method. You can also use this method to find information that you couldn’t through the other methods mentioned in this article.
Use the Free SEO Audit or Quote
Many of the top outsource SEO companies will provide a free SEO audit or an SEO quote for new clients. And this will benefit both the agency and you as the client. First, the agency will gain all the information it needs about your company to make a preliminary plan for a long-term collaboration. As for you, with some basic SEO knowledge, you will be able to gain a basic understanding of the agency’s capabilities. So, it is a win-win method that most of the top agencies are using.
Start with a One-time Campaign
The last method is to start with a one-time campaign. This will allow you to see directly the SEO efforts of an agency. But you should not focus on the results of this type of campaign. Why? Because it will take a few months until you can see the results clearly. Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term method. And the results that can be seen in a short period are very limited. So, while using this method, you should only focus on the quality of the SEO efforts.
Any business that wants to make use of the internet to grow must include SEO in their online marketing strategy. And the best option, by far, is to outsource SEO from a professional SEO company. But finding a professional agency that provides top-notch services and is reliable can be hard to accomplish.
In this article, you will find all the methods you can use to differentiate between a mediocre SEO agency and a professional SEO company. Keep in mind that only the companies that can pass all the tests mentioned below will be able to produce the best possible results for your business. So, you should only work with an agency able to accomplish this.
Essential Outsource SEO Services Any Online Business Must Use
Before anything else, you need to make sure that you outsource SEO services that your business needs. There are many different SEO agencies and services that you will find on the market. But only the ones that cover all the needs of your business should be considered. So, you need to ensure that the agency you will work with provides all the services mentioned below. But it must also be able to create a custom strategy based on your company’s needs.
Regular SEO Audits
The first types of service you should always look for are SEO audits. These services have many uses, and they should be regularly implemented. First, an audit is essential in the creation of a personalized strategy for your business. Second, regular audits will help you see all the results produced by the SEO efforts of an agency. Lastly, the audits can also be used to optimize the strategy based on the changes produced by the SEO efforts. You can find more about audits here.
Technical Services
Like any other type of business that you can build, there is a foundation that you need to start with. In the case of an online business, the foundation is the website. And the first pillar you need to build is the technical structure of the site. So, technical SEO services will help you solve any technical difficulties that your site may deal with. These services are essential to guarantee the performance of your website and you should treat them as the foundation.
On-Site Optimization
Once you know that the foundation of your website, the technical structure, is taken care of, you can start optimizing the contents of the website. Of course, the contents used in different industries, and even different companies of the same industry, can vary greatly. So, the agency you choose must be able to personalize their services based on your company’s needs. Moreover, you need to make sure that the focus of these services is the content.
Off-Site Services
Lastly, a top-notch SEO company must also provide services for off-site optimization. Keep in mind that search engines will also take into consideration the online reputation and authority of a website. So, if you want to maximize the ranks and traffic that your site will get from search engines, then you need to invest in this part as well. Yet again, the services that focus on top-quality content will also have the most success.
The More Experience a Professional SEO Company Has, the Better
After you make sure that a professional SEO company provides all the services that your business will need, you need to start checking the experience it has in the industry. Keep in mind that SEO is one of the newest marketing methods. So, it continues to evolve. Although most of the changes are based on the updates that search engines make to their algorithms.
In this situation, an agency that was able to adapt to the changes and resisted for more than a decade in this volatile industry will surely have several advantages compared with their competition. So, if you want the best possible partner for your online marketing, then a company with at least 10 years of experience in the industry is mandatory.
Experienced agencies understand the best how this industry works. As a result, they can find the best methods and customize their services the best. You can be sure that the collaboration you will have with an experienced outsource SEO company will be the smoothest. Even the normal tests and strategy optimization will be easily accomplished with the help of a thorough understanding and enormous experience.
Check the Quality of the Professional SEO Company’s Website
Although it is almost impossible, you need to make sure that even an experience agency didn’t resist in this industry for a long period solely because of luck. So, the next part you need to check in the process of finding a professional SEO company is the quality of the website. Even the busiest agencies will find enough time in a decade to optimize their own website. And your task is to find these agencies.
But what exactly are you looking for? Well, the easiest method is to look for a blog or a part of the website that accomplishes a similar goal. Keep in mind that the more content a website has, and the better the quality of the content is, the better the ranks it gets. So, you need to make sure that the quantity and quality of the content you find are top-notch.
The main qualities that the content you find on an SEO agency’s website are information, ease of reading, and compelling. If you can’t learn anything from reading the content, then you can start looking for another SEO company. The content must also be easy to read and understand. And lastly, you should feel the need of starting a collaboration with the agency.
Make Sure the Professional SEO Company Posted the Recent Results It Produced
Another method you can use to determine the level of an agency is through the results it produced for other clients. And a top agency will always post the results it accomplishes. It is a great marketing method that showcases the capabilities of an agency. So, there is no reason to lose this opportunity to understand the capabilities of the agency.
But it is essential to check only the results produced in the last 6 months to a year. Why? Because the changes in this industry make the results older than a year irrelevant. You can be sure of the skills of an agency only by checking the most recent results that were produced in the short period of 6 months.
Another method that you will see recommended is to check for agencies that have experience in your industry. So, you may wonder if that’s important? Well, not so much. Although experience in an industry can be an advantage, it is quite easy for an agency to learn and adapt to new industries. So, the difference caused by this factor is minimal.
3 Last Tests You Should Use Before You Outsource SEO from an Agency
If an agency you found was able to pass all the checks in this article, then you can almost be sure it is a top one. But, before you outsource SEO from it, there are 3 more tests you can make. You can use these tests if you want to reduce your risks to 0. But you should also remember that using these methods will cause you to lose time.
Contact Some of the Agency’s Clients
The first method you can start with is to communicate with other clients of the agency. This method is designed to help you find information from other sources besides the agency itself. Although you can check the online reputation of an SEO company, direct communication with the agency’s clients remains the safest method. You can also use this method to find information that you couldn’t through the other methods mentioned in this article.
Use the Free SEO Audit or Quote
Many of the top outsource SEO companies will provide a free SEO audit or an SEO quote for new clients. And this will benefit both the agency and you as the client. First, the agency will gain all the information it needs about your company to make a preliminary plan for a long-term collaboration. As for you, with some basic SEO knowledge, you will be able to gain a basic understanding of the agency’s capabilities. So, it is a win-win method that most of the top agencies are using.
Start with a One-time Campaign
The last method is to start with a one-time campaign. This will allow you to see directly the SEO efforts of an agency. But you should not focus on the results of this type of campaign. Why? Because it will take a few months until you can see the results clearly. Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term method. And the results that can be seen in a short period are very limited. So, while using this method, you should only focus on the quality of the SEO efforts.
