Many businesses need to use SEO agencies to get seen online. These days, it is almost a necessity.
But how can you do it effectively and avoid using companies that ultimately let you down?
That’s the topic of this post. We look at how to ensure you partner with someone who’s reliable and useful, and can help your business expand.
1. Review Their Contract Terms
A good place to start is by reviewing their contract terms. You want to make sure that you have all this figured out before you go ahead with them.
The best agencies will do everything they can to reduce the need to sign a contract with you, offering packages or productized services you can cancel at any time. However, some will want to lock you in, especially if they are offering a lot of value upfront.
The trick here is to look at what they provide and how their pricing structure works. Checking the contract terms before signing is essential, but you also need to be cautious, just in case you need to exit early for some reason.
2. Ensure They Prioritize Real Writing
You also want to check that the SEO agency prioritizes real writing. While using AI-generated content is tempting for a lot of firms, it isn’t as good as getting human-generated content, manually written from scratch.
Learning how to check for plagiarism from the start of your relationship is, therefore, essential. You need tools you can use to check that the work is legitimate and not just churned out by an AI system.
You also want to ensure that you avoid “thin” content that doesn’t really offer readers any value. Anything you produce should have a clear purpose and serve the needs of your audience (even if it is only in a small way).
Generally speaking, SEO agencies are pretty good at this these days. While some used ChatGPT initially in 2022 when the system was released, the vast majority are returning to manual operations, since AIs don’t have the contextual knowledge they require.
3. Ensure They Offer Good Technical SEO
You should also check whether the SEO agency prioritizes technical SEO. This element is becoming increasingly important as competition for online real estate escalates.
Technical SEO is all about creating websites that are easy for Google and other search engines to find. SEOs have to go into the website’s backend and fiddle about with it, which sometimes requires a knowledge of web hosting and coding.
Technical SEO became much more important when Google announced its Page Speed criteria. Now, many businesses need professionals who can help them achieve fast-loading websites with minimal pop-ups and other features that Google doesn’t like.
Technical SEO also helps you avoid other website aspects that might damage your page rankings, including duplicate content and broken links. Removing these improves your authority in Google’s eyes and makes you stand out from the competition.
4. Check Their Link-Building Is Legitimate
Another area to focus on is the agency’s link-building operations. You want to ensure they are legit to avoid problems with Google later on.
The best link-building agencies place contextual links on relevant sites, embedded in articles that existing audiences want to read. These sites don’t need to have massive followings, but they do need to be in your niche.
Unfortunately, a lot of link-building companies take shortcuts, and eventually, Google finds out and penalizes you. This experience isn’t always pleasant and can leave you wondering what you should do next.
The best strategy is to perform due diligence and make sure that the company you’re dealing with has a high reputation for solid links. The more you can boost link-building, the better.
5. Confirm Their Reporting Practices
Before you use an SEO agency, you also want to confirm their reporting practices. Checking these is essential to ensure they have accountability.
In the past, a lot of link-building agencies would simply claim that they were doing their job and expect their clients to trust them. However, abuse was rife, and many links just didn’t make sense for the target client.
Now, though, that’s all changed. The best SEO firms make a point of sharing articles and links with their clients, providing them with all the context they need to check link quality.
Ideally, you want the SEO agency to provide you with versions of the following metrics:
- Keyword ranking
- Organic traffic
- Backlink growth
These three combined are usually more than enough. However, extras don’t hurt and provide you with even more context, you can use to test the service.
6. Check They Know Your Niche
It’s also a good idea to check that they know your niche. You want to make sure that they understand what SEO means in the context of your industry, whether you’re looking for an SEO company for your wedding business or an SEO agency that specialises in SaaS.
Many generic SEO firms know the technical aspects of ranking higher on Google, but they don’t really understand how to push the needle for your firm specifically.
That’s why it can make sense to SEO firms that operate in your vertical. They often have more knowledge about how it works in your industry and what’s most likely to help you rise in the rankings.
What’s more, they often stay up to date with the latest developments in your niche. This means that they can spot opportunities more quickly and provide you with the heads-up you need to thrive.
7. Check Their Track Record
Finally, check the SEO agency’s track record and see whether they meet your criteria. Some firms do a great job repeatedly over time for everyone they work with, while others cherry-pick who to use for testimonials.
If you can get reviews on review sites, that’s great. However, always ask yourself whether these are paid. Some sites aren’t always trustworthy.
If you can talk directly to customers in their niche, that’s even better. They can provide you with a blow-by-blow account of their experience with the firm and what to expect if you decide to work with them. Don’t trust vague claims and always ask for verifiable data as evidence.
