How to Choose the Right SEO Company

In this blog post we will give you tips on how to choose the right SEO company for your business and things to look out for when pick an SEO agency.

Choosing an SEO company that will work for your business can be a hard thing to do. When you have decided to invest in long term content and SEO marketing, you need to find a good SEO partner for your business that you can work with long term to deliver the results and the return on investment.

Unless you have a good understanding of search engine marketing and digital marketing, it can be hard to know who you can trust. To deliver search engine rankings and online content that will bring new target audiences to your business.

What to look out for in a good SEO company

We have written this blog post to give you some tips on what to look out for and what questions to ask to provide you with an excellent base to work from when looking for a professional SEO company that will fit your companies needs and goals. Below you will find a good explanation of what you should be looking for and what a top SEO agency should offer.

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO refers to various techniques used to increase the visibility of sites in search results. An SEO campaign aims to increase the traffic on your site by optimising the content for targeted keywords, leading to an increase in profits and conversions and building authority and brand awareness.

What makes an SEO company reputable?

A reputable SEO Company will have carried out successful, long-lasting SEO campaigns for their clients. Using search engine optimisation methods builds authority with the search engines and their targeted online audience.

Well optimised and unique content

They would do this by creating well-optimised content that ranks in the search engines for the targeted keywords. But how do you know if they are an expert SEO company when you first start to look for an SEO Partner?

Here are some things that a professional SEO company will provide. Keep reading to find some pointers and questions you can ask to tell the good from the bad.

Honest explanations of SEO results and time scales

Professional SEO agencies should be honest with the results and time scale they hope to achieve. Any digital marketing company that guarantees instant results is too good to be true, and you need to ask if they are using short-lasting black hat methods. That will come back to bite them, and you and code damage your site and reputation in the long run.

Provide and explain the content and SEO strategy

Once a search engine marketing expert has carried out the needed research, targeted audiences and competitors in your business. They should be able to offer you an SEO strategy and explain why this is the best option and strategy to deliver the results for your budget.

Regular transparent SEO reports and delivery reports

Any good and reliable SEO company will be transparent on what work was carried out. The SEO agency should provide regular search ranking reports showing the search engine optimization results.

The SEO company should meet with you to explain the search engine ranking results, the SEO work carried out, and the following stage of the strategy.

Increase Targeted traffic to your website and business

In short, a top SEO firm should offer a great return on your investment for your marketing budget and drive new targeted traffic to your business.

We believe professional SEO offers the best return for your marketing budget and can target ready-to-purchase audiences with your well planned and optimised content. You can also target potential customers by investigating the services and products you offer.

With well-planned landing pages, content and calls to action, you can capture these leads and build your other marketing channels, including your social media marketing and email marketing.

What does an SEO company do?

An SEO company’s job is to partner with you to drive leads, phone calls, store visits, purchases, and more through search.

Good SEO agencies should offer a good return on investment for the business SEO investment. Provide SEO strategies for their clients to drive new audiences to their website.

Improve your visibility online and build authority

Partnering with a top SEO company means you connect with a company whose goal is to improve your visibility in search engines.

In short,the definition of an SEO company is a company that partners with businesses like yours to boost your visibility in search engines. Increased visibility in search engines means more traffic coming to your website and — ultimately more leads, phone calls, and sales.

Characteristics that make a great SEO company

You will come across hundreds, if not thousands, of web marketing services. What makes SEO companies a good fit? Here are some ways to spot a good SEO company.

Keywords the SEO agency ranks for on the search engines.

An excellent place to start is to see what keywords they are ranking for. If they rank for competitive national keywords around SEO companies, agencies or services, they show they have the ability.

As you can imagine, SEO Keywords are some of the most competitive globally. So if they can rank for some of these, they have the ability and know-how to rank content.

Online reviews and reputation management.

Another great place to start is to look into their reviews online. Any good digital marketing company should look after their clients, collect good reviews, and build a good reputation online.

Your reputation online is essential in building a company’s reputation online and building authority in their niche and search engines.

A good SEO strategy starts by researching a company, its competition, and its target audience.

They should ask you many questions and dive deep into your company to find out who your target audiences are.

At SEOi, in our initial discussions with our clients, we always ask what they offer and break the services or products into categories. We will then ask what the most important to promote, and the most profitable.

They should ask what you want to achieve with your SEO campaign in the short and long term.

What your company’s plans are in the future.

A good SEO Agency should carry out in-depth research into your company. Research your competition and target audience.

This allows them to build an SEO Strategy encompassing targeted keywords and content marketing.

Has the SEO Agency Carried out an in-depth Site and Content Audit? Read more on this later.

A trustworthy SEO company should offer you a dedicated Marketing Manager to work with you and talk you through the digital strategy and the regular digital marketing reports.

Top SEO agencies should offer an initial free consultancy and advice.

On first contact, a good SEO marketing company should offer free SEO consultation and basic site audit and research to advise you on what they can offer and what you can potentially gain from using their service.

Whether you are a small business or a large organisation, this will gauge what they can do for you and time scales and recommended budget.

How do I spot a bad SEO company?

It is essential to know how to identify an effective SEO company, and it is also necessary to be able to spot a Poor SEO company.

Be Sceptical of SEO Companies That Offer Guarantees and Fast results.

Ask the SEO agency what keywords they rank for on the search engines. They should be able to rank for important keywords for their industry as this is what they are selling.

If the SEO agency does not ask you too many questions at the first meeting and does not discuss your expectations with your budget. This should ring alarm bells.

If they offer you an SEO package and monthly price without researching your business website or competition, this should also ring alarm bells.

A good online marketing company should give you examples and case studies of their work and results. They should also be able to show you testimonials from happy clients.

What SEO services do the SEO companies specialise in?

It is essential to look at what types of SEO services the companies specialise in, as some digital marketing agencies will specialise in a specific kind of search engine optimisation.

They may have a wealth of experience in eCommerce SEO but are not the right fit for your bricks and mortar business where your clients come to your stores in multiple locations.

You should research their site and ask them whether they can show any case studies for their local SEO services and clients like yourself.

Specialist SEO marketing teams

At SEOI we specialise in all types of SEO services and have teams that are experts in their given SEO services. Many of our clients need a good mix of different SEO services to take advantage of each search engine optimisation technique.

For example, an international retailer with bricks and mortar shops and eCommerce stores nationwide and in selected countries across the globe aims to expand in the specified countries.

The company they partner up with should have experience working on international SEO campaigns and strategies, a solid eCommerce SEO, and a local and national SEO for the chosen countries to take advantage of their stores’ enormous local search traffic.

Here are some of the SEO services you should understand

Understanding what each SEO service offers can help you investigate what SEO companies are the right fit for your business goals.

Local SEO companies

Local SEO, to some degree, is a must for all businesses. Even the large national and international companies should have a Google profile page for each location optimised as a minimum.

This helps Google understand what the brand and business are about, and this will help all search engine optimisation.

Local SEO is essential to businesses with a store that clients come to. Many searches through Google and other search engines are Local intent keywords. Small companies can optimise their website for this keyword that is often not as competitive as the national keywords.

You can read and learn more about local SEO and how it works here.

National SEO companies

National SEO targets the whole country for keywords without the local area in the keyword. This is generally more competitive. For example, a local SEO keyword would be SEO Companies in London, and where a national keyword to target would be SEO Companies. 

These will also typically have a high monthly search volume.

You can read more about national SEO here.

International SEO companies

International SEO is a whole different ball game and needs to be planned from the ground up. A business website should be designed and developed to cater to international SEO.

There are a couple of options for doing this, but the digital marketing agency will need to plan out the best choice to suit your goals.

You can read more about national SEO here.

eCommerce SEO company

Suppose you own a business that sells online through your website. You will want the search engine optimization agencies you are investigating to specialise in eCommerce SEO. eCommerce stores will generally have an extensive range of product and category pages.

These offer great potential for keywords you can rank for in the search engines. 

Digital marketing agencies you are talking to should carry out an in-depth SEO audit to see how well your web pages are optimised for the search rankings.

They may need to carry out a lot of on-page SEO and technical SEO to ensure your pages are optimised for the correct keywords and the search engines can find your pages.

You can read more about national SEO here….

What should a search engine optimization agency do?

An expert SEO Agency or reputable SEO agency should start with a meeting with their client to learn about your business, your customers, what you offer, and your goals for the future. 

Some of the questions they should ask are.

• What are the products or services you offer?
• What are your most profitable products or services?
• What are the most important products or services you want to promote?
• What questions do your customers ask before purchasing from you?
• What is your USP (unique selling point)? What makes you stand out against your competition?
• Where do you offer these services?
• What are your plans in terms of expansion?

These are just a few questions they should be asking before starting their research.

Types of research SEO agencies should carryout

Once an SEO team has this information, they can market research. The best SEO companies will start with market research to build a digital marketing strategy. If a digital marketing agency starts planning a marketing strategy without in-depth analysis, they are shooting in the dark.

Here are the basics that should be carried out before building a digital marketing strategy.

Competition and market research

It is essential to understand your target market for your products and services, what they are searching for online, and what part of their purchasing cycle.

A good way to start this is to research the competition. All top SEO companies should have a good arsenal of SEO tools to look into your competition’s content and website to see what traffic they are getting and what keywords content is driving this traffic.

This can give the digital marketing strategist a good idea of what is working for your competition and what content to create to beat them.

Keyword research

Now the marketing strategist understands your business and your target audience. It is time to carry out essential keyword research. Keyword research can offer Hugh insight into your target customers when done correctly.

You can find out more about keyword research here.

Understand your target audiences intent

It can help you understand what your target audience is searching for online at all stages of the purchasing cycle. This can help plan your content and optimise it for the targeted keywords your potential clients are using when searching or researching the products and services you offer.

Find valuable keywords

Building a good list of valuable keywords will keep driving qualified traffic from the search results. SEO experts will also group their keywords into intent. Is the target audience ready to purchase?

Are they researching different options that offer what they are looking for etc.?

This gives the SEO expert the information and keywords to build a great SEO strategy to for-fill the clients SEO needs and SEO goals.

Website and content audit

Good SEO Firms will carry out an in-depth website and content audit. Looking into your organic rankings and organic traffic that your site is getting at present. As well as looking into how well your pages are optimised for worthy keywords.

Easy SEO wins

This can unearth some easy wins that can produce great results with good quality on-page optimisation for the targeted keywords. Your web page is ranking for some good keywords on pages 1, 2 and 3 of the SRPs (Search Results pages).

It shows the search engine already thinks you are a good result for that search term, and with some on-page optimisation, they could be a quick and easy win.

Content and website audit

A site audit will also give a good picture of your on-page and technical optimisation quality. Again, this can lead to some quick wins with web development and site layout and content restructuring.

Backlink audit

It will also show your site backlink profile and highlight any poor backlinks that could be hurting your site. a Top SEO company will do this work before they develop a plan and SEO strategy.

Now they should plan an SEO and digital strategy.

Once an SEO firm has carried out all the necessary research to understand your business target audience and marketplace, they should plan a killer SEO strategy to deliver present and future business goals within your marketing budget.

A good SEO company should include and deliver in your digital marketing strategy.

• Quick Wins from rankings with some on-page, technical SEO and restructuring.
• Have a good list of Long term target competitive keywords
• Short term long-tail keywords and not as competitive
• A content plan to build ranking and build trust with your target online audiences
• Content plan to build brand awareness and viral content to be shared on social and attract backlinks
• Build a list network of high-quality blogs and relevant websites to reach out to and guest-post to provide link-building opportunities.

What should a search engine marketing company be able to provide

Search marketing is entwined with all online marketing, so it is essential to have experts in their team that specialise in all these different online marketing methods and digital strategies.

Web Development Services

Web development is essential to delivering good SEO results. A professional SEO marketing company will have a team of expert web developers and designers to work on their client’s sites and content.

Website Structure

A website structure is important to offer a good user experience and for visitors to your site to find the information they are looking for. A good site structure lets Google easily find your content and categories and can see you offer a wealth of information on that subject, building authority with the search engines and improving your rankings.

Site Speed and User experience

Another large part of the user experience is your site speed. A slow-loading site is a great way to lose visitors you have worked so hard to gain through your SEO. Google has enhanced user experience and forms a big part of their ranking factors over time.

If an SEO company does not test this or mention it to you, just start building links. Then you should question if they are a good SEO agency.

Web design services

Web design is also an essential part of making the most of your site and the content you are adding. There is no point driving people to your site and content for them to leave because it’s not attractive or hard to read. You can read more about SEO web design here.

Convention rate optimisation

As a professional SEO company, you need to drive traffic to our client sites, and we also need them to click the calls to action, contact our clients, and purchase from them. That is when our clients see a great return on investment and realise the power of our service.

Optimised calls to actions

A digital marketing expert will know the importance of well placed and optimised call to action. These help the visitor move to the next stage of the buying cycle and let them know what you can do next to make a purchase or contact us.

Content marketing and creation

Content is what drives all online marketing. Content marketing and search engine optimization are one. You need content to optimise and build new keywords your company wants to rank for in the search results you need to create unique content.

The same can be said for content that is not optimised. There is no point in creating content that no one will ever see.

Keep your traffic engaged in your content.

An essential signal to the search engines when traffic lands on your site through the search results is how engaged the visitors are, bounce from the page, and spend on the page.

If you rank number 1 for a keyword and then google, see the people who search and click on the search result, go to your content, and leave within 30 seconds. What does this say to google?

Engaging content ranks and converts visitors into customers.

Yes, that is right. You are not the right choice to be put at the top of the search results, and you will not be there for long.

Video and reach media production

A great way to show what you offer and keep your visitors engaged is to add video and images. This helps you get your message across as it is easy to watch a video, and when people are on a site, it is hard to keep them engaged enough to finish your written content.

You need to keep it easy to read and give them eye candy to break up the written content.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is also an essential part of SEO. Search engines look at the signals from social media platforms and take this into account when ranking your content.

When creating new content for your site, promoting that content through every marketing channel possible makes sense. This allows sending people to your content and allowing them to share your content with like-minded friends.

When creating new quality content for your site, you can take advantage of free social media marketing by posting a link to your social channels.

Email marketing

When creating content that answers questions your target audience is looking for when researching your services or products before they purchase. This is a great time to capture their email address with a call to action and start to build an active and targeted email list.

Build an engaged email list

With emails, you can keep in contact with and move down the sales pipeline over time by letting them know about new products and letting them know about your new blog post. By offering valuable information to them, you are building trust.

Online Advertising

An SEO company doesn’t have to specialise in online advertising. But it can have its benefits. Google AdWords allows you to bid keywords, and your ad is placed at the top of the search results. This can be a great option to run alongside your SEO campaign.

Benefits of Google ads.

Once set up, they are instant and can drive traffic to your landing pages. Google AdWords allows you to set a daily budget, and you can also pause your ads when you need them. Like SEO, the traffic that lands on your web page is targeted and looking for what you offer.

Low cost and profitable Keywords

When your SEO company carries out your keyword research, they may come across some great keywords with high monthly searches and a low CPC (Cost Per Click). Whenever I research a client, I always make notes of these keywords to take advantage of them if our client would like to.

Negatives of CPC advertising

The main negative of CPC advertising is that, unlike SEO, the traffic stops once you stop paying. With SEO, you are investing in building authority with your content that will last and bring in targeted traffic for years to come.

Now get started investing in your Business SEO and online presence.

Now you have a good understanding of what a good SEO Company is. You are well equipped to jump in and start investing in your online presence.

Don’t forget to contact us for a free consultation and advice. We will be happy to carry out a free, no-obligation site and content audit and a basic SEO strategy. If you decide we are the right fit for your SEO partner, we will dive deep into your business, competition and keyword research and build you an ongoing SEO strategy to reach your business goals.

Conclusion:

A Professional SEO Company Should be able to prove they deliver results. Meet with you and ask the questions to get to know your business and go away and come back with a breath site audit and research to show you what they think is possible and to be able to advise you on the budget and time scale needed. They should then offer an idea of a strategy to beat your competition.